Watching the fallout from the playoff games in the National Football League this past weekend has been quite disturbing to observe. (No, this isn't another column about the Steelers - there's not much more to be said as their play spoke for itself.)
It was during the Green Bay-Chicago game where the Bears' starting quarterback, Jay Cutler, was injured late in the first half when a Packer defender got him in the knee. Anyone watching the game could tell immediately that he was hurt in a pretty significant way. As the Bears, who were not playing well at all, went into the locker room for halftime, Mr. Cutler's demeanor made it obvious to all that something was clearly not right. Long story short, Mr. Cutler came out to 'give it a go' in the third quarter, but the decision was made to bring in his backup to finish the game.
What has been so disturbing is the firestorm of criticism that was launched Mr. Cutler's way during and after the game by his colleague within the National Football League. Evidently, Mr. Cutler did not show the right amount of heart in many people's opinion by not continuing to play even on what was later identified as a torn MCL. Further, Mr. Cutler evidently didn't sufficiently be as involved as he should have been in 'rallying the troops' behind his replacements; rather, it appeared to many that Mr. Cutler was simply disinterested at that point and retreated into a shell on the bench.
Now, the only people who really knew what was going on there was Mr. Cutler, his coaches, and other Bears personnel. While things may have appeared to have been as interpreted by the Twitter and blog crowd, no one offering commentary on the situation really knew what was happening. When told of the criticism from his fellow athletes, it was reported that Mr. Cutler had tears in his eyes.
I was drawn to write about this story because many parallels could be drawn to the life of the Christian community. Like Mr. Cutler, there are many among us who are injured. Like Mr. Cutler, many times when we are injured, we get hammered for our reactions, even though the simple fact is that, like Mr. Cutler, we are simply doing the best we can to deal with a horrific situation.
Traveling to and from Woodworth on Monday and Tuesday, I heard a lot of chatter on ESPN Radio and NFL Radio about this situation, and at one point a host asked one of the talking head guests, "What needs to happen to make this situation better in Chicago for all involved?"
You and I both know the answer because we have been given it through Christ. The answer is grace. We are called to be a gracious people because we have been given grace. Rather than shooting our wounded, let us be people who bend over backward to extend grace. Is there a need for accountability? Of course. Certain situations need to be addressed with corrective behavior, and that is a biblical concept.
The fact still remains that in all of our interactions with one another what we see is not necessarily all there is going on in each other's lives. When you see something or someone that is obviously out of sorts, rather than take shots at them, resolve to find out more, to extend grace - for more often than not, I believe you will find in these situations someone have a difficult time who needs some understanding.
See you Sunday!
Lamar
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