What God Wants

In international soccer circles, the words “hand of God” carry a particular meaning. The phrase refers to Diego Maradona’s goal in a 1986 World Cup quarterfinal, which Argentina won 2–1 over England. Replays of the goal show Maradona punching the ball into the net with his left hand. The goal should not have been allowed.

After the match, Maradona would say of the goal, “a little with the head of Maradona and a little with the hand of God.” The English did not quite see it that way.

Regardless of Maradona’s attempt to be clever, his goal was not the hand of God. It was the hand of Diego Maradona. (In his defense, he did score an absolutely brilliant goal minutes later, completely within the rules.)

In my early days of working as a youth group leader, we had our own misguided view of the hand of God. Well, it was a misguided view of the nature of God, but “God’s hand” did indeed get misrepresented in the process.

We were attempting to instill the spiritual disciplines in our students. To accomplish this, we gave them several things to do. This is not a bad thing. The spiritual disciplines are in fact things to do.

One of the things we stressed was “quiet time.” We wanted the kids to read their Bibles, journal about what they’d learned, and pray regularly. Nothing wrong with that.

Christian service was also highly encouraged. We tracked this by having the kids (or often their parents) fill out forms when they had done something that fit the category of service, perhaps shoveling the neighbor’s walk in the winter, or cleaning the church after a social event. It wasn’t unlike the Boy Scouts’ motto: “Do a good turn daily.” Again, not a bad thing.

In addition we emphasized “soul-winning,” which really meant evangelization—sharing the good news of Jesus with others. However, the phrase soul-winning is found nowhere in the New Testament and appears only once in certain versions of the Old Testament. Our understanding of the Great Commission—go into the world and make disciples of Jesus—was woefully incomplete. Our preferred method of evangelizing taught kids how to share their faith quickly with total strangers. The goal was to get these strangers to pray a prayer that would render them “saved.” For a time (I say this with shame), we actually kept a tally of who had “led the most souls to Christ.”

The apostle Paul had a far different view of conversion, one in which God got the credit, not human beings. I fear not many of the conversions we wrangled out of people were genuine. We merely got someone to repeat a few words.

In the process of trying to get good stuff done, we as leaders conveyed a badly inaccurate picture of God. Our emphasis was on “checking the right boxes.” The “good” kids were the ones who checked the most boxes.

Quiet time: check.

Christian service: check.

Soul winning: check.

The bad kids? The ones who didn’t check any boxes? Well, you know how they’ll end up.

One particular poster that hung on our youth-room wall leaves me with a painful memory. It reminds me of how wildly we missed the purpose of the spiritual disciplines. In the poster, a “divine” cartoon hand extends from the clouds, pointing accusingly earthward. Cowering beneath the down-stretched forefinger is the figure of a startled young man, backpack askew as he looks upward in fear. The caption reads: “Have you done your quiet time today?”

That is not the hand of God. That is our human effort to guilt some kids into “doing” the spiritual life.

In reality, the spiritual life should be as natural as breathing. We are inherently spiritual creatures with physical bodies. To be non-spiritual is inhuman. God invites us as spiritual beings to enjoy continuous relationship with Him. This is not because of anything we do but because of what Jesus Christ did for us. It is our faith in Christ that brings us into relationship with God Himself. He gives us His Holy Spirit to guide our spirit.

The spiritual disciplines train us to strengthen this spiritual life as we live in our bodies. The disciplines help us bring into focus our connection with God. It’s not a particular thing we have to do each day or else we’ve failed God. We get to do life with God!

We can give our kids (and ourselves) a system with which they can practice the spiritual disciplines. But until we grasp the relationship aspect in all of this, it’s like swimming upstream near the mouth of the Amazon. It’s just a matter of time before we lose the struggle.

We don’t serve a God who points an ominous finger at us, intimidating us into a particular behavior that pleases Him. We serve the God who runs to meet us, overjoyed to see us. He loves the good kids who check the boxes, and the bad kids who can’t be bothered. He loves those of us (like me) who have zealously been both of those kids. (Long story there.)

You see, when it comes right down to it, we’re all bad kids. There’s only One human being who is truly good—Jesus.

What does God want? He wants us. When we understand that, the spiritual disciplines become a joy. —Tim Gustafson

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentina_v_England_(1986_FIFA_World_Cup)

Maradona’s quote: “un poco con la cabeza de Maradona y otro poco con la mano de Dios&rdquo” (“a little with the head of Maradona and a little with the hand of God”) ….

Bonesteel, Mark (26 July 2017). “Diego Maradona admits video replay would have erased his ‘Hand of God’ goal – The Washington Post”. The Washington Post. Retrieved 22 June 2018.