Thanking God After Winning an Award

Remove all ads!

I was watching the Grammy's last night, and once again, I saw the curious dispay of many of the winners thanking God during the acceptance speech. It's all well and good to be religious, but why thank God? I don't think you won because you were a better Christian than the other contestants. The other area where you see this a lot is in sporting events - thanking God for winning the game. I don't think the Colts won the Super Bowl because Tony Dungy (their coach) is a devout Christian. Furthermore, I don't think God is a fan of the Colts in particular, or football in general. To me, it seems almost demeaning to your religion to suggest such a thing. That God could be concerned with something so trivial as the result of a sporting event or music contest.

It is true that most athletes and musicians are born with a natural ability to do what they do - some would argue it is a God-given ability. However, to attain the level they have reached, opportunity and personal drive and conviction must also be involved. Genetics alone cannot account for everything. So how appropriate is it to thank God after winning some type of award?

 

Well he doesn't exist, so I guess it's a bit pointless. I'd thank my mum and dad for teaching me morals and hard work, my sister for teaching me compassion and caring, my brother for being a penis end and all my mates for keeping me level. Then thank anyone who helped me to achieve in my professional life. I'd not thank some fictitious deity with a beard and sandals. May as well thank Micky Mouse for all his help in your achievement, you'd be just as well.

 

If a person believes that God gave them the talent, drive, natural ability, or whatever else they used to get where they are, then they should feel perfectly comfortable in thanking him/her for it. As a bonus it gives them a great way to irritate the atheists.

 

Amen, brother.

 

I guess it's the same as grace before meals. Thank you, God, for this food that I had to work for myself.

On a grander scale, if God had some hand in the outcome of a sports result then one could argue he must have some outcome in all results of competition... like wars. Everything happens as he wants it to and so free will is a contrived notion that doesn't actually exist at all.

 

If God has a hand in sports results, I might make friends with him.. might stop me from losing all the money I lose down the bookies! You think if I pray tonight before I go to sleep he might give me tips on tomorrows racing at Chepstow?

 

Maybe I'm reading this wrong. I never took them thanking God as them believing that God "gave" them the victory or the award and that their opponent wasn't in God's favor.

 

I personally always thought that it is pretty tacky for them to thank God in that manner. It basically says to me that the winner thinks that God likes him/her better than the opposition and that just seems wrong to me. I really don't think that God would show any bias and try to manipulate a sporting event or an awards show.

About the only place that I can think of where thanking God would be appropriate in sports would be to thank God if someone wasn't hurt as badly as they could have been.

 

No, Barmy, I don't think God gives out sports tips.

I think that they or at least some of them are thanking God for the talents and courage and endurance and moral support they have been given and excellent genes. which enabled them to achieve whatever it was they achieved.

We are each born with certain potential that is a gift to us but what we do with it is our decision.

 

Well then you have to ask why did God favor/make/assist them in winning and not the other athlete? If God is responsiable we must assume there's a reason for his actions and the most logical conclusion is that one athlete is more 'holy' than the other.

 

Any individual who feels that God was instrumental in their success should thank Him. Besides which, it's an excellent way to draw attention to God for those who believe that they should be drawing attention to God every chance they get.

It can seem silly on the surface, such as when a victorious boxer in a post-fight interview thanks God for his victory[for giving him the strength to bludgeon his opponent into submission]. However, I don't think that anyone who thanks God for a victory of some kind would seriously contend that God likes them or their team better or cared about the outcome of the event. It is thanks for the blessings which God has bestowed unto them.

 

This is US

 

What about the gangsta rapper who's just won an award for his song that glorifies greed and lust thanking God for the award? Gotta love that kinda crap.

 

And for not bestowing same blessings upon his opponent. No matter how you look at it, if God is to be thanked for a victory it means he's playing favorites. Why is he playing favorites?

 

I personally think its tacky, but I just see it as cultural differences. The US is a very religious country, and it does say "In God We Trust" on its currency. I am sure that American tourists would be surprised in Ireland, as we always have the reputation as a very strict Catholic country. In Belfast many churches are in danger of closing down, and one protestant church is now a Hindu meeting place!

 

I wonder what they do when they don't win... do they blame God?

 

they probably realize their faith was not strong enough

 

Now that's a very good point! I have seen a great many athletes thank God for a good performance, but never show ingratitude towards God after an unfavorable performance.

Also, I understand that if you don't believe in God you would think that doing this was silly. I was going on the assumption that any person who would thank God in such a way believes in the existence of God. My point was I thought it was not proper to do so, even if you are quite devout.

 

Aldeth, I don't think God can be blamed for anything if one believes Him to be good. As I see it, it's not silly when athletes thank God for winning but don't blame Him for losing if we look into what they are praying for. If they are praying to God for humility to avoid misjudging the enemy, if they pray for humility to see own faults and weaknesses, if they pray for bad emotions not to cloud their judgement, such as for God to restrain their pride and arrogance, then if they lose, it doesn't mean that God didn't give them what they asked, what they prayed for. Rigging the scores isn't what they are asking for, after all, is it?

I would see nothing wrong in turning to God and saying, "here I am, one little athlete out of many, please, God, remember me in the competition." People have dreams, people have hobbies, people have jobs, they want to be good at. Since it's not wrong to ask God's blessing in our endeavours, why not in sport?

Another thing is that I suppose there always comes some measure of willingness to accept God's will whatever it be, when one prays. Maybe not. But it wouldn't be good to treat God as a wish giver instead of what He is. He is the Lord of the universe and not we are, and we don't have the power to bind God. Just because we pray, it doesn't mean that God has to do it (although some say that sometimes God has no other choice ). Therefore, the athlete's prayer could be understood as, "God, please, if you see me fit, if that is your will, please allow me to win this competition." In that, the athlete is probably praying for preservation from sudden accidents affecting his ability to compete. Unfair advantages, atmospherical complications, illnesses. Maybe the clouding of judgement by pride or arrogance that I mentioned. He might even be praying for God to give him a steady hand. But I doubt he's praying for God to do all the competing instead of him and allow him to claim the victory. The benefits.

As I see it (not like I'm any authority), there is always something to thank God for or something to pray for protection from. I've prayed to God for preservation from my pride and arrogance even when playing a multiplayer game so that I wouldn't accuse my enemies of cheating just because they won and I don't know how they do that, or even if it looked like cheating but I have no certainty, so that I wouldn't blame them for my own mistakes, so that I wouldn't insult them (you know what it looks like... "Oh my, what a lame tactic. You win, but it's lame," etc). Even if I didn't pray for better scores. If I had to win for some reason... let's say win a race to save my wife's life (if I had any) or needed the award money to build a school for children in Africa, then I would probably pray for a good score, even for winning. Perhaps God sometimes sees fit to intervene in competitions, to affect the score, but since He is love (in Christianity, we believe God is love), He wouldn't deprive anyone unjustly of his deserved victory. God doesn't want to hurt any of us. This said, He may have reasons to have one team or other win, but I just don't know them and I just don't know. Besides, there's nothing wrong in communicating to God your desire to win (not like He doesn't know already, but still), your hopes for the competition, other such things. There's nothing wrong committing yourself to God's memory.

It's different when there are some bad emotions at play. Don't know... wanting someone to lose (guess there might be legitimate reasons but not in a normal situation), wanting to win just because you're you and you think you deserve it. This kind of thing, but I wouldn't like to delve there. Maybe blaming God for the last failure and expecting Him to make up for it... But I don't know everything and I'm not an authority here. Just trying to ponder it.