Monday, July 16, 2012

July 16, 2012 - Favortism

Being the child of a coach can be rough. I remember hearing people say that I was only starting in baseball because my dad was the coach. I have often heard people claim favoritism when coaches’ kids start in front of their kids.

There are benefits to being a coach’s kid. The player should get a better understanding of the game. The player can talk with the coach on a regular basis to see what the coach wants or what the coach sees in him or her. Yet favoritism on playing time should not be one of the benefits.

I do often see this improper benefit in the case of travel sports. Often the travel team is put together to provide an arena for a coach’s kid to get to play. And far too often there are kids that are on the same team, working just as harder or maybe even harder, and they are relegated to being bench players or to play out of position so the coach’s kid can shine…

In a similar fashion there are some that teach or think that as children of God we should get favoritism. Although I agree that we have God’s favor on our lives, I don’t see promises that we, as believers, are immune to the heartaches and discomforts of the game of life. In fact I see that we tend to face all the same struggles of illness, pain, suffering hardship, etc. And God doesn’t always choose to fix the problem. He often just asks us to trust and rest in Him. He wants us during these times,  “being the Coach’s child,” to “get a better understanding of the game” and  to take advantage of “getting to talk with the Coach on a regular basis to see what the Coach wants  or what the Coach sees.”

We have the promise that God will be a refuge or a hiding place. We see the promise of comfort in the midst of troubles. (We see the promise that there will be struggles.)

I believe one of the greatest witnesses we have is a life that is resting in this hope in spite of what the world/circumstances bring.  We, as believers, are children of God. We do have His favor.

Read Psalm 46 this week!

No comments: