Pray for Jayhawks

Can you use reverse psychology on God?

I think not, but the notion came up recently with the KU national championship. Quite normally, people will pray for their sports team to win and I was asked if I did that during the Final Four.

Did I pray for the Jayhawks to win? "No," I responded, "I don't want to draw God's attention to how morally bankrupt the school is. He may decide the just thing to do is to spite them instead." That's right, I'm going to lay low and hope God blesses us by mistake!

Don't get me wrong, I'm a die hard Jayhawk sports fan. But I grew up around Lawrence and I know people who have lived there and gone to school at KU. And certain aspects of KU and life in Lawrence can be about as godless as it can get. There are good people in Lawrence, but kind of like Lot was a good person who lived in Sodom.

But does God know this already? Sure he does. And is the hedonism and godlessness of college towns and university classrooms well known to him? Of course it is. God knows the hearts of men. So if KU is blessed by a basketball championship and an Orange Bowl victory within three months of each other, then God has allowed that in full view of the individual and collective sins of Kansas University. And that sounds a lot like Grace.

In fact every time we enjoy the blessings of God we experience his Grace. We are all sinners with a record of corruption and sin. But God chooses to give us good gifts anyway, including that gift two thousand years ago on a cross.