The Golden Globes

Pharaoh said to Joseph, "I had a dream, and no one can interpret it. But I have heard it said of you that when you hear a dream you can interpret it.”
"I cannot do it," Joseph replied to Pharaoh, "but God will give Pharaoh the answer he desires." - Genesis 41: 15-16




Today’s Reading: Genesis 41-42; Matthew 12: 1-23

This has been a movie weekend for me. I did end up seeing Book of Eli. I thought it was really dope and will definitely see it again. I also saw The Hurt Locker and Jennifer’s Body courtesy of my roommate’s netflix. The former deserves all of the accolades it has received. It is an incredible film. The later is one of the worst wastes of two hours of my life that I have ever spent.

After watching the movies we watched some of the Golden Globes and then I started my reading and came across the scripture above.

Have you ever seen an awards show and been confused when an actor or athlete talked about how all of the credit goes to God for them getting the award or winning that championship?

I know that I have been. I used to think it was so dumb. I didn’t get it at all. Here are some logical questions in response:

So what about the losers, God wasn’t with them?

What makes you so special?

Does God really care about your little game or movie?

Through the course of this year the Bible will actually touch on all three of those questions but none of them really apply here. And even so, they wouldn’t get to the bottom of what is meant when someone thanks God in this scenario.

Above, Joseph is asked by Pharaoh to decipher two dreams. This scripture is important as an example of how many Christians view their relationship with God.

Usually when we see a person achieve an award or doing some fabulous or remarkable thing that makes the world take notice we heap all kinds of praise upon them. What we don’t see is the years and years of days filled with hours of hard work dedicated to their craft. We don’t see the miraculous “breaks” that happened where these people met the right person or were some how present at the right place at the right time. We don’t see all of the hardships that they had to overcome. We don’t see how insurmountable the obstacles were or how perilous the journey was.

All we see is them at that podium, on top of the world, talking about some God.

But that person standing on that podium did see all of those things. They walked the path and every day dedicated themselves to fighting the good fight that led them to where they are.

For those people who stand up on the podium and thank God, it has nothing to do with the other contestants. They are thanking God for being the only other being there with them each and every step of the way. They are thanking God for giving them the energy to go on when they were weak, the extra measure of faith when they wanted to quit, for opening doors where there only seemed to be walls, for arranging those chance meetings, and for helping them to stay strong, and do the work that was necessary for them to be prepared to take advantage of those big breaks when they came.

Some may call these people lucky. They just so happened to have things fall into place randomly when others didn’t.

But for the person who stands at the podium with the award and thanks God, their faith allows them to see God’s hand in these chance events. They see their lives as the result of some hard work fueled by God mixed in with a series of miracles magically conducted by God.

For them, it is all about God. God gets all of the glory.

So next time you see someone thank God for an award or for getting them where they have come in life think twice before dismissing this notion. After all, they are the ones standing on that podium.

Perhaps there is something to what they are saying…

Here is some bonus reading on this topic.