Perhaps you know the story: Adrian Peterson, who suffered from an injury that was to alter his career (tearing his ACL), returned the next year and had such a good season that he was named the NFL’s most valuable player. Players who tear their ACL usually don’t bounce back very well or very quickly, let alone win MVP awards. But Peterson is now on track to break Emmit Smith’s all-time rushing record. This is remarkable, and Peterson’s recognition is extremely well-deserved.
Anytime a star athlete overcomes adversity and succeeds, the sports world basks in the celebratory glory along with the triumphant player. We, as sports fans, love to see our favorite teams/players do well, especially after they’ve been down-and-out. We all love a comeback. I remember when Anfernee “Penny” Hardaway (NBA point guard in the ’90s) suffered from multiple injuries and all of the horror that surrounded them. Penny never played the same after his injuries. Currently, Hardaway is actually more known for his Nike shoes than his basketball career. Which is another way of saying that Peterson’s story is very much the exception, not the rule.
In si.com’s most recent “10 Things I Think I Think” by Peter King, Adrian let us into his world, opening up about the injury, recovery and MVP award. Number 2 on Peterson’s list in the article is the following:
I think the one thing I’ll always remember from the field last year happened in Detroit, early in the season. One of the linebackers came up to me—I don’t want to say who it was—and he said, “Adrian, what are you taking? What juice you using? I gotta get me some of that.” I said, “I’m juicing on the blood of Jesus. Faith is what got me to to this point.” So the Lions came to Minnesota later in the season. That same linebacker came to me and said: “I appreciate you saying that. You opened my eyes.” That was pretty cool.
Peterson, who is a professing Christian, does what most Christian athletes do–they give recognition or thanks to God for their accomplishments. We’ve heard it so many times, we’re almost expecting it/conditioned to hearing it: “First of all…“, the Christian athlete says, “I just want to thank God/give glory to God for this victory.” This is what they do, and it’s all too familiar. While there’s certainly something to be said for publicly acknowledging your faith on a platform like theirs, comments like Peterson’s–and other Christian athletes of the day–can be quite misleading and even problematic.
They are problematic because they imply that being hopped up on Jesus juice somehow results in triumph–a modern day example of the theology of glory, and a mentality that has always found serious purchase in the sports world (and beyond!). Since success is so easily quantifiable, measured by wins and losses and other accolades, glory stories always get the most recognition. But let’s be honest, the majority of us are not professional athletes, let alone NFL MVP’s. In fact, the chance of having an MVP experience, in everyday contexts/circumstances, is out of the picture for the majority of society. For your average Christian, Peterson’s words are not only misleading, but discouraging and potentially depressing.
Picture a vulnerable young Christian, who attends youth group every week and hears testimony after glamorous testimony from their peers/leaders/favorite athletes, meant to encourage them. Those stories may be well-intentioned, and they may very well reveal something of the glory of God, but what happens when the young Christian’s own experience is anything but glamorous? Perhaps their wounds aren’t healing, their insecurities haven’t abated, their “struggles” have started to consume them, etc. When our lives don’t follow the same trajectory as those of the celebrity faithful, the shame and guilt often cause us either to hide or deceive ourselves. Whether you’re a pimple-faced youth group kid or a star running back in the NFL, you will experience failure and suffering, and if your faith is directly correlated to not experiencing those things, you will run into trouble, to say the least.
In the sports world (and elsewhere), stories in which an athlete experiences grace/comfort in the midst of failure/failing are a rarity. The magical Jesus juice variety sells a lot more magazines. But the wonderful paradox of the cross is that God’s grace meets us in failure and suffering. For the Christian, grace isn’t a “supplement to our human willpower and strength” (Gerhard Forde) or accomplishments or accolades, it’s for the “weary and heavy-laden.” Thank God, ’cause the majority of us would be out of luck otherwise.
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3 responses to “Adrian Peterson’s Theology of Glory (and Why It’s Unhelpful)”
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Great post…..the timing on this is pretty interesting….
Last night ESPN ran a 60 min special -“The Will to Win” on RGIII’s comeback from ACL surgery this past offseason (he’s just been cleared for week one).
I found it almost unwatchable for EXACTLY the reasons you mention here (ironically Adrian Peterson came back from the same injury last season).
I kept thinking while watching it, “sheez, this is such an soaring trajectory, a theology of glory”…..and then this was the post at the top on Mockingbird this morning!
Particularly troubling was watching RGIII’s mom say “God is going to bring such a great victory in this”……repeatedly. Actually RGIII himself is thankfully more understated, but he’s a Jesus juice guy like AP.
It will be interesting to see how RGIII’s “glorious path” back from ACL surgery will play out.
AP beat the odds heavily last year, and it was amazing.
However, I just have a sneaky suspicion that RGIII’s story will play out differently, and that his mom will be augmenting her definition of victory (which would be a good thing).
I remember we had a men’s retreat at a large “seeker” search we were attending, and they had a Dallas Cowboy come and speak at it. He told us he had been a fighter pilot, married a super-model beauty, and he shared some of his football stories. It was all full of name-dropping and such, and there wasn’t any gospel besides the “God has blessed me” message. If he had ever had any problems, even a cold or a cough, it was all carefully hidden. I had not followed the cowboys for several years at that point, and I had little interest, but as I was in the middle of some severe marriage problems at the time and struggling in business and general personal failure, it was just utterly defeating and condemning. The Bible is actually right that God chooses the weak things, the foolish things, because the strong things are man-centered success stories that condemn and crush. Now I have two boys in sports, and one of them is very successful at it. I am trying to learn how to teach him all of this.
Maybe only people who have utterly failed in at least 3 spectacular ways should be allowed to preach – but that would be a law wouldn’t it?
Great article!
I think your post kind of misses the point. The point is to give God the accolades instead of glorifying in self. Does it bother you that God blessed Job? Or Solomon? If AP were to get reinjured and then become an atheist your thesis would hold more water. I think that AP would say that whether he rushes for 2500 or 25 yards, he’s giving God the glory. As far as RG3 goes, I didn’t see the special, but saying that God is going to bring a great victory, I suppose I would need to hear more of what she means by that. God has already given us the victory. She may be speaking in pure human terms she may mean just the simple fact of coming back from the injury. Don’t get me wrong, I’m no proponent of “prosperity gospel” theology, but that is not to say that God does not want us to prosper whether you are a celebrity or a confused teenager.