As football fans and the culture at large gear up for the biggest sports event of the year as the Los Angeles Rams and Cincinnati Bengals face off in the Super Bowl this Sunday, I find myself in the unfortunate position of not really caring who wins. 

My Dallas Cowboys lost in heartbreaking—and rage-inducing—fashion a few weeks ago, but I’m still looking forward to the game and everything that surrounds it. That said, sports tend to be more fun when you have someone to root for.

With that in mind, I’ve enjoyed getting to know a bit more about the faith of several athletes who will be playing this weekend. 

Cooper Kupp

Cooper Kupp, for example, has become one of the most valuable wide receivers in the league and has consistently been the focal point of the Rams offense all season. He’s also among the most vocal and open Christians in the sport. 

Whether it’s reflecting on the lessons he learned while recovering from a torn ACL a few seasons ago or when he’s asked about his growing stardom in the league, Kupp consistently points people back to God as the reason for his success and the secret to staying grounded amidst his rise in prominence. 

For example, when asked earlier this season if he felt like the NFL fully appreciated his abilities, he simply paraphrased Proverbs 16:9, telling the reporter “Today, the verse that was on my mind was, ‘The heart of man chooses his path but the Lord establishes his steps. It just gave me so much freedom to go out there and play free, give everything I had [and] know the results rested in him.” 

When discussing the violence inherent to the sport, he notes that “it’s the nature of the game. In the same way, it’s also sporadic and oftentimes out of your control. I couldn’t imagine stepping onto a football field and not having a full body-mind-spirit belief that I am exactly where I am supposed to be, and doing exactly what I am supposed to be doing. My faith in God and His plan for me allows me to play freely without doubt or fear.”

Evan McPherson

However, Kupp is far from the only participant to have made the news recently as a result of his faith. The Cincinnati Bengals are playing for the championship in large part because rookie kicker Evan McPherson ended the last two weeks with game-winning field goals. After his kick that sent the Bengals to the AFC Championship game, he attended the press conference wearing a black shirt with “God is good” printed across the top. 

He also regularly quotes Scripture on social media and responded to being named the AFC Special Teams Player of the Month for December by posting on Instagram: “Glory to God! 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18.” Paul’s instruction in that passage is to “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you,” which seems to sum up McPherson’s approach to the game quite well. 

Sony Michel

And Rams running back Sony Michel would agree with him. He told reporters during a previous trip to the Super Bowl—ironically when he was playing against the Rams—that “without Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, there is none of this. We get all this glory, but the glory is not for us. It’s for Him. We do this for Him. That’s kind of my purpose. So really, none of this matters to me.”

Akeem Davis-Gaither

Bengals linebacker Akeem Davis-Gaither hasn’t been a Christian for as long as the others listed above, but he speaks of his faith with a wisdom and perspective that would surely resonate with the others in this article. 

After being baptized last summer, Davis-Gaither posted that “after 23 years I am so proud to have given my life to Christ and Received the gift of new life! God has done wonderful things in my life, picked me up from my lows and humbled me at my highs. Every step of my life, God has blessed me in so many ways. I’m blessed that I’m able to share his love and let my life be a testimony of his unwavering love for us all.”

The impact of Christians in Super Bowl LVI

Regardless of whom you choose to cheer for this Sunday night—or even if you choose to ignore the game altogether—having Christians publicly stand for their faith while the world is watching should be an encouragement to all of us. 

It should also be a reminder to pray for those willing to take that step because doing so puts a target on their back that Satan would love nothing more than to exploit. None of these men are perfect, and they will surely make decisions from time to time that our Lord would not approve of. After all, they’re still just as fallen and human as the rest of us. 

So please take some time today to pray for each of these players by name. 

Pray that God would continue to use their courage and their witness in ways that expand the kingdom. 

Pray that God would protect them from temptation and help them to remain faithful to his will. 

And pray that God will use their example to spark the desire to be used in similar ways in your own life as well. 

We may never have the same reach or audience as professional football players on the sport’s biggest stage, but that’s not an excuse to take the opportunities that the Lord does give us any less seriously than if we did. 

What opportunities will God bring your way today? 

Will you be ready when he does?

Denison Forum

The recent volcanic eruption in the South Pacific island kingdom of Tonga was hundreds of times more powerful than the Hiroshima atomic bomb, according to NASA scientists.

As Morgan Lee reports in Christianity Today, the blast generated waves that reached estimated heights of fifty feet. Coastline villages and resorts were swept away. Rushing water buried roads under boulders and debris.

Yet only three people died and, despite the ash that covers large parts of the islands, life is returning to normal.

Fe’ilaokitau Kaho Tevi, the former general secretary of the Pacific Conference of Churches, is grateful: “We feel that we have been the subject of the prayers of the worldwide Christian community.” Tongan Christians also point to King Tupou I (1797–1893), who dedicated the islands to God. The only remaining monarchy in the Pacific is overwhelmingly Christian today; Protestants make up 64.9 percent of the population, while the rest are evenly divided between Catholics and Mormons.

These believers approach Christian solidarity in a unique way: “The nuclear family in the context of the West does not define nor exist in the Pasifika Island family structure,” as a pastor of Tongan congregations in Seattle explains. “Similarly, Jesus viewed others as his brothers and sisters, particularly those who followed God’s way, as told in Matthew 12. We all belong to God’s family. We all belong to the body, as the apostle Paul would describe in 1 Corinthians 12.”

A unified response to unprecedented challenges

This week I’ve been focusing on the transformational fact that Christians are “children of God” whose worth is found in our Father’s unshakable love and who can experience every day the forgiveness, freedom, and joy of his unconditional grace.

Today, let’s consider another aspect of our theme: if we are all children of one Father, we are all members of one family. Every believer across twenty centuries of Christian faith is our sister or brother.

More than at any time in my lifetime, you and I need this empowering encouragement today, for this simple reason: the unprecedented challenges we face require the unified response of God’s people.

In The Coming Tsunami, I explain why and how Christians are castigated today as outdated, intolerant, oppressive, and even dangerous. Biblical morality is branded as homophobic and bigoted. Followers of Jesus are increasingly facing antagonism and oppression on a level we have never experienced in America. Our founders believed that our Constitution was “made only for a moral and religious people” and would not recognize our culture.

But the good news is, we do not have to face our battles alone.

“People need embodied community”

Every image of the church in the New Testament is collective—we are members of one body (1 Corinthians 12:12–27) and branches of one vine (John 15:1–2). The apostle John was given a vision of our future in heaven: “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb” (Revelation 7:9).

I can find no solos in the book of Revelation.

As Covenant College theologian Kelly M. Kapic observes, “It takes the entire church to be the one body of Christ.” Our existentialist, isolated culture desperately needs this “body,” as Anglican priest and New York Times columnist Tish Harrison Warren notes: “People need physical touch and interaction. We need to connect with other human beings through our bodies, through the ordinary vulnerability of looking into their eyes, hearing their voice, sharing their space, their smells, their presence. . . . People need embodied community.”

As a result, she claims, “A chief thing that the church has to offer the world now is to remind us all how to be human creatures, with all the embodiment and physical limits that implies. We need to embrace that countercultural call.”

“Thank you for the fiery sermon”

One consequence of the pandemic has been a significant decline in church attendance even as restrictions have eased. Going to church online is apparently becoming more permanent for many who could attend in person. This trend reflects the growing consumerism of American Christianity in my lifetime as many go to church for what they can “get out of it” more than what they can give in worship to God and service to others.

But the time to prepare for a tsunami is before it strikes. The time to engage personally and passionately with fellow believers is before we need what only the body of Christ can provide.

It’s been said that every Christian needs a Paul (a mentor), a Barnabas (an encourager), and a Timothy (someone to mentor). Who are yours? Who would name you as one of theirs?

A pastor went to visit a church member who had stopped coming to worship. The man expected the pastor to scold him for his laxity and to urge him to return. Instead, the pastor stepped into the den and took a seat before the fire roaring in the fireplace. The puzzled church member took a seat next to him.

The two watched the fire in silence. Then the pastor stood up, took the fireplace tongs, picked up a blazing ember, set it to the side of the fire, and then sat back down. The two watched as it sputtered, smoked, and eventually went out and grew cold. Then the pastor retrieved the tongs, picked up the dead coal, and placed it back into the fire. Instantly, it leapt back to flaming life.

As the pastor stood up to leave, the church member said, “Thank you for the fiery sermon. I will be back in worship this Sunday.”

How close to God’s fire are you today?

Denison Forum

Kyle Mullen was a football star at his New Jersey high school and for Yale (where he was a second-team All-Ivy League selection) and Monmouth University. He was also an honor society student described by a former coach as a “great athlete but a better person.” The coach added that Mullen was “probably one of the best kids I ever had. Great, great kid on the field but even better off the field.”

Mullen, age twenty-four, died last Friday during Navy SEAL “Hell Week” training. The commander of Naval Special Warfare Command said, “We are extending every form of support we can to the Mullen family.”

That same day, five-year-old Rayan Oram died after being extricated from a Moroccan well. He fell one hundred feet into the well the previous Tuesday; the rescue attempt captured global attention. Moroccan King Mohammed VI called his parents after he died; French President Emmanuel Macron added on a Facebook post, “Tonight, I want to tell the family of little Rayan and the Moroccan people that we share their pain.”

Leaders are right to extend every possible support to these families. Society’s attention will soon shift from these two tragedies, but their parents and families will be marked by them forever. This is how it is with families and how it should be.

As Queen Elizabeth II noted in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, “Grief is the price we pay for love.”

A story I will not forget

Yesterday, we began a week-long focus on the transformational implications of the biblical declaration that Christians are the “children of God.” I wrote that “this changes everything. Knowing that we are now and forever the beloved children of the God of the universe gives us status and significance the world can neither bestow on us nor take from us. It fills the deep hunger of our souls for meaning and worth.”

Here’s the story behind this metaphor’s recent impact on my life.

Last week, Dr. Mark Turman and I were honored to speak to a group of ministers in the Houston area about my new book, The Coming Tsunami, and the larger topic of cultural apologetics. At one point, several of the men described ways they are engaging their culture with redemptive truth. One of them told a story I will not forget.

I would guess that this man is in his fifties or sixties. He is a minister and a professional building inspector who shares Christ wherever he can with whomever he can. He told us that his starting point is usually to tell people that he was adopted by his parents.

He makes this point: “They knew nothing about me when they chose me. Unlike biological children who inherited their genetics from their parents, my parents did not know my parents or anything about my story. They chose me as I was, where I was.” He notes that such unconditional love obviously changed his life, then explains how God’s unconditional love has been even more transformative for him.

He had tears in his eyes when he finished his story. I had tears in mine as I heard it.

Why being adopted by God is so empowering

Upon reflection, I realized that there is another way to tell his story. Unlike his adoptive parents, his heavenly Father knew everything about him. He knew everything about his parents, his genetics, and his background. He knew everything about what he had done before coming to Christ and who he was when he became a Christian. He knew everything that this man would do for the rest of his life, including every sin he would commit.

And yet, the God of the universe chose him and adopted him as his child.

Paul described this miraculous reality: “You did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’” (Romans 8:15). There was no Jewish process of adoption: if a man died, his brother immediately became the head of his family and the father of his children. In Roman context and thus for Paul’s readers, however, the concept of adoption took on a powerful meaning.

Patria potestas (“the power of the father”) extended to a father’s children from their birth to his death. He could disown them, sell them as slaves, and even have them killed if he saw fit. However, if he adopted a child, that child could never be disowned, sold, or executed. They would be a permanent part of the family.

When the Spirit inspired Paul to use adoption in describing our status with our heavenly Father, he meant us to understand that nothing can cause God to disown us. To the contrary, as Paul declared later in Romans 8, “Neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (vv. 38–39).

The biblical answer to the “human condition”

In a culture that measures us by our appearance, possessions, performance, and popularity, it is terrifying to be known as we truly are. In Why Am I Afraid to Tell You Who I Am?, psychologist John Powell writes of “the imprisoning fears and self-doubt which cripple most of us and keep us from forward movement on the road to maturity, happiness, and true love.”

He adds: “None of us wants to be a fraud or to live a lie; none of us wants to be a sham, a phony. But the fears that we experience and the risks that honest self-communication would involve seem so intense to us that seeking refuge in our roles, masks, and games becomes an almost natural reflex action.

“After a while, it may even be quite difficult for us to distinguish between what we really are, at any given moment in our development as persons, and what we pose as being. It is such a universally human problem that we might justifiably call it ‘the human condition.’”

Here’s the biblical answer to this “condition”: the God who is love (1 John 4:8) loves you more deeply, passionately, and unconditionally than an earthly father can love his children. He grieves your struggles and suffering even more than parents grieving the death of a child. He stands ready to guide your path with omniscient wisdom no human father can match. He will empower your obedience with omnipotence the strongest father cannot begin to offer.

What hidden pain, shame, or grief do you need to entrust to his loving grace today?

What temptation, challenge, or decision do you need to entrust to his omnipotent providence?

Denison Forum