Superstition
Well, we are almost to Halloween. It is a holiday filled with superstition. We are also really close to the World Series run as baseball season comes to a close.
That got me looking up sports superstitions. Did you know:
Michael Jordan was known for a specific quirk. While leading the Chicago Bulls to six NBA championships during his career, he wore his University of North Carolina shorts under his uniform in every game. He believed they brought him luck. In order to cover his lucky pair, Jordan began wearing longer shorts, which started a trend in the NBA.
Swedish tennis legend Björn Borg had superstitions that related to one specific event—Wimbledon. Borg would always prepare for the annual tournament by growing a beard and wearing the same shirt. Surprisingly, the Stockholm native’s “lucky beard” has become one of sport’s most popular superstitions and has been adopted by many in the NFL and NHL.
Kevin Rhomberg’s 41-game stint with the 1982 Cleveland Indians was largely forgettable, his quirk left behind a legacy. Rhomberg had the compulsion to touch someone if they touched him. Word of this quickly spread through the majors. Players would touch him and run, sending him into panic. In fact, an umpire once had to stop play between New York and Cleveland, because Yankees players refused to stop touching Rhomberg.
Sometime we do things because they make us feel lucky. Maybe it will make things better, or perhaps we are trying to bank a good deed. When bad things happen, perhaps we just didn’t have enough karma banked away right? Well, that’s not really how it works. We are blessed with a God that is in control. He has the big things and the little things. The Bible shows God’s plan. In it he makes weak people strong, provides widows with a new family, raises up judges, makes bad guys good, and even shows how death itself is under His control. God’s will always win’s even when we don’t understand. God allowed Joseph’s brothers sell him into slavery in order to accomplish a greater good, a good Joseph would not understand until years later (Genesis 50:20). We cannot always determine whether God’s will is involved in the events of our lives, but we do know that all things that take place are under His control. When a person rolls the dice to play a board game, God may sometimes cause the dice to land a certain way, but more often than not in such simple matters, He may allow the dice to land as His laws of nature would determine without any involvement; but even when He is not involved, how the dice land is still under His sovereignty. So, we may not understand. But we do have faith. God says it simply in Romans 8:28
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
You are called according to His purpose.
-Pastor Dan