Why I’m cheering for NFL quarterback Trevor Lawrence this year

The National Football League has begun its 105th season. If you’re looking for a player to follow this year, allow me to nominate Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence.

Not because he makes $55 million a year, which was tied for the highest in the league until the Dallas Cowboys signed Dak Prescott yesterday for $60 million a year. Or because the Jaguars have a good shot at making the playoffs even though they lost to Miami yesterday.

Not even because he is very public about his commitment to Christ, telling a reporter recently, “It’s something I really want to be known about me.” Several other high-profile quarterbacks, including Lamar Jackson, Patrick Mahomes, Brock Purdy, and C. J. Stroud, are also deeply committed to Christ.

Rather, it is because of something his wife, Marissa, said regarding the visibility of their lives:

Knowing that this life and fame is something [God] has trusted us with makes it seem like such an honor. It’s something we fail at a lot, but ultimately all we want is to be able to be a light and glorify God with the things he’s given us, and fame is one of those platforms for us to do that.

I’d say we navigate fame by choosing not to see it as fame but as a platform and opportunity to put God on display.

Mother of Georgia suspect called school before shooting

Several stories in today’s news highlight the significance of sharing God’s word as urgently as we can.

• According to reporting by the Washington Post, the mother of the suspected Apalachee High School gunman called the school on the morning of the shooting and warned a counselor about an “extreme emergency” involving her fourteen-year-old son.
• Authorities are still searching this morning for a gunman in rural Kentucky who shot five people Saturday afternoon on Interstate 75.
• A Jordanian terrorist killed three Israelis yesterday morning at the Allenby crossing between Jordan and Israel.

What happened in Georgia and Kentucky is happening across the country. I have been through the Allenby crossing several times over the years and continue to grieve for my Israeli friends as attacks on their nation continue.

In a world as broken as ours, we might think that people would naturally understand their need for help beyond themselves. But we have been conditioned by our society to think just the opposite.

Science has solved so many of our problems that we think it will solve them all. Medicine has cured so many diseases that we think it will cure them all. We can add clergy abuse scandals, denominational conflicts, and the escalating claim that biblical morality is “dangerous” to society.

If we want people to think biblically and live redemptively, we cannot wait for society to take the lead. Like Trevor and Marissa Lawrence, we will need to see our lives and work as “a platform and opportunity to put God on display.”

This is obviously true given the secularized, post-Christian state of our nation today. But it is also true of all societies, even those whose ethical standards are relatively high.

Why we are in “continuous conflict” with society

The Nobel Prize-winning humanitarian Albert Schweitzer noted in The Philosophy of Civilization that “the system established by society for its prosperous existence” will always transcend the individual, regulate behavior for its own ends, and adjust to the times. Consequently, he warned, “the ethical personality cannot surrender to it, but lives always in continuous conflict with it.”

His observation is especially true for evangelical Christians. In contrast to the state, we believe that society exists to serve individuals made in God’s image. We believe behavior should be regulated ultimately in obedience to God’s word and will. And we believe biblical morality to be absolute, not relative.

Consequently, we will need to be “fishers of men” who go to those who need to come to Christ (Matthew 4:19). Like Jesus, we will meet felt needs to meet spiritual needs. We will earn the right to be heard by those we influence through our personal character and public compassion.

Then we will share the good news of God’s saving grace, “speaking the truth in love” as the Spirit leads us (Ephesians 5:18). This is not, as skeptics claim, an imposition of our subjective beliefs on others. Rather, it is the offer of eternal life shared in the knowledge that “whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death” (James 5:20).

The power of Ronald Reagan’s faith

Using our influence to help our nation turn to God is vital not just for Americans but for America.

Ronald Reagan is in the public eye again with the release of the biographical movie Reagan in theaters. The film focuses especially on our fortieth president’s faith journey, beginning with his mother’s influence and continuing through his historic career.

Mr. Reagan was convinced that such faith is vital to our national character and future. For example, in 1982, he stated in a message to Congress, “Our liberty springs from and depends upon an abiding faith in God.” Two years later, speaking at Eureka College, he quoted from the autobiography of Time magazine editor Whittaker Chambers:

“The crisis of the Western world exists to the degree in which it is indifferent to God.”

How will you meet this crisis today?

Monday news to know:

• Webb telescope detects what looks like a giant question mark in space
• Venezuelan leader who challenged strongman in vote flees to Spain
• Navy commander relieved of duty after photo showed him firing rifle with scope backwards
• Titanic expedition yields lost bronze statue, high-resolution photos and other discoveries
• On this day in 1776: Congress renames the nation “United States of America”

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote for the day:

“Without absolutes revealed from without by God himself, we are left rudderless in a sea of conflicting ideas about matters, justice, and right and wrong, issued from a multitude of self-opinionated thinkers.” —John Owen (1616–83)