Faith Matters: When two of our most entangled traditions (faith and football) come together
Football season could not get here soon enough. Ever since NFL Europe went the way of the dodo, summer leaves me antsy for the pigskin.
But I have found something far greater than NFL Europe, and I believe it has an even brighter future: The Netflix documentary series “Last Chance U” has been picked up for a fourth season.
One of my football-starved elders at Harbor Community Church told me about the show. Of course, he encouraged me to wait until the spring or summer when you don’t have football to watch. So I did.
If you haven’t the foggiest idea about the show, “Last Chance U” follows the games, practices and classes — and everything in between — of two junior college football programs.
Unlike Tony Dungy, the head coaches curse and yell as often as they breathe. The assistant coaches tend to balance things out with calmer demeanors and one offensive coordinator is filmed leading bible studies.
Like I tell my kids with fatty spare ribs, you will have to get past some of the fat (language) to get to the meat. But if you can, the show offers a lot of meat to more than just the football-starved fan.
As with many of my favorite TV shows, “Last Chance U” has served in a devotional capacity for me, moving me closer to thinking/feeling/loving like Jesus.
Let me explain.
Both colleges take pains to get the best athletes by recruiting Division I players kicked out of solid football programs. Some for drugs, some for assault, some for grades and some for absolutely terrible attitudes.
Not surprisingly, they don’t come on campus eager to change immediately, or even at all. I will admit, it is easy to look on the surface and judge, “Don’t you guys get it?”
But the cameras take you behind the scenes, shedding light on their family situations, placing the behavior into the context of a larger story. I found myself saddened and shocked by many of these stories.
Stories that were so foreign to my story.
I’ve never assaulted a woman, done or sold drugs, or received bad grades — well, not this bad. But then again, my Dad never killed my Mom, he came to all my games, he provided for us and on and on.
Is it possible to resist the knee jerk, partisan, black/white responses to bad behavior when we see it? Can we carve out a new category, which reflects upon the stories behind the behaviors, compassionately considering the why instead of simply responding to the what?
Can we still claim behaviors are in fact wrong, without excusing them, or even placing the blame on the story, yet still have compassion enough to personally enter into the mess? Can we recognize the unique challenges of each individual’s story that has helped shape — though not caused — such behavior?
Jesus never excuses any of our behavior which misses His mark for us. But he also doesn’t say, “Well, you think your life was hard, mine was much harder and I still did all of the right things and I made it! You should, too!”
How many times have you heard someone say something similar? I know I have.
Instead, he compassionately died in our place taking upon himself the judgment we deserved and giving us the reward He earned.
When confronted with the possibility of cutting a troubled player, one of the coaches recognizes he cannot excuse or tolerate the attitude and behavior. But he also realizes simply cutting the player may continue the never-ending cycle of rejection.
So he opts for a third way.
Such compassionate confrontation and reasoning only occurs as he reflects upon his own journey of life growing up in the rough part of Compton with a drunken father. It takes a man who was mentored instead of judged or enabled. It takes a man who is aware of his own story, to be able to not only see the story of others, but to enter into and challenge them.
Your story may be vastly different than this coach and his players. Mine sure is. But my need, and yours, is every bit as great.
Thankfully someone entered into our world, neither to excuse nor to judge it, but to save it. That kind of story is every bit as powerful, and should be all we need to look beyond the behavior.
Maybe we need to be reminded of this more often than we think.
Contact Pastor Geoff Henderson at geoff@harborcommunitychurch.org or follow him on Twitter @theapostleGH. Faith Matters is a regular feature of Saturday’s Bradenton Herald written by local clergy members.