Have you ever watched a sport where an athlete thanked God for letting him/her win? It seems that every year, we see athletes achieve fame in the media for expressing their religious display of kneeling to pray after successful plays in the game of football and other sports. But they are not alone; I’m sure anyone reading this has seen news articles of athletes thanking God for their successes.

These articles, if believed, indicate that God sometimes “places his thumb on the scale” in athletic activities. Does he do that? Do people really believe that happens? Why is it that no media ever challenges the assertion? Are we too polite to state the incredulity of such statements? Are people so accepting of any religious proclamation that we fail to see where passively acknowledging such statements is leading us?

Consider if you had a child playing baseball in Little League and that you were an umpire. You declare many strikes as balls, and you manage not to see when they sometimes fail to touch bases while running, yet you rigorously monitor the other team’s play. Your child’s team wins, knowing that you showed favoritism to them. Was the game fair? Did the other team have a chance? We know they did not. Although not listed as a team member, you were acting in their best interest, making you the tenth member of what is considered a nine-person team. How is that different from athletes who thank God for helping them win?

Yes, I’m serious. If they REALLY believe that God (or Jesus) helped them win, then they know that what they did was an example of poor sportsmanship, allowing a friendly presence to oversee the game such that they were guaranteed to win. Guaranteed. If they truly believe that they won with heavenly influence, then shouldn’t they declare the game void and yield the game to the other team? To do otherwise would be proof of their acceptance that winning was more important than fair play, and that their view of their supreme being is one with no moral obligation to fairness but solely devoted to being praised and honored by the team’s prayers. Is such a view acceptable, even to them? Yet that is the message being sent.

The other option would be that these athletes know that God is not the reason for their success. Instead, their success in the sport is due to their skill, their practice, and their commitment to excel in the sport. Should that be true, then their proclamations about a heavenly influence are nothing more than desires for publicity by displaying faux humility, publicity that is readily provided by the media. Is this what we want to see in athletes? I hope not.

Okay, those prior paragraphs may indicate I’m picking on athletes, but that isn’t my intent. They are just practicing what many/most of us have been taught since childhood: 1) work/study hard; 2) pray for assistance to assure success; 3) give credit to God, showing that you, personally, have God’s blessing. Do you want to pass the math test? Then, study and pray. Do you want to be selected for the football team? Then practice hard and pray for God’s help. Do you want to go to a good college? Then do research and pray for guidance. Need a job? Hone your skills, update a resume, and pray for God’s direction. Do you see the pattern? It’s three-fold: do the real work toward the objective, pray as a backup, then take credit that God is in your pocket. It is the real work, however, that achieves the goal, not the backup. Yet, in teaching the three-step process, we are instilling a belief in our children that it’s okay to ask a supreme being to display favoritism in our actions, even though it’s inappropriate to ask real people to show such favoritism.

That three-step approach of only praying for heavenly interference on what people are already doing doesn’t apply only to the smaller aspects of life; we pray for the “God backup” in everything we do. Whether to end war, feed the hungry, protect people from harm, or eliminate torture and slavery, prayers to God are always a backup to real activity. This strategy relies not on God but on our efforts toward the goal. When the goal is achieved, we say it was God’s will; when it fails, we say nothing. Does anyone ever pray for what people cannot do, such as growing a new arm after an amputation? Or for a woman becoming pregnant with no assistance? No? We know why, don’t we? We know because it can’t be done. We know that no prayer, even if done by tens of thousands of people, will get the arm replaced or cause the woman to become pregnant alone.

What I have been describing is our ongoing pattern of using God to our own ends, and our prayers are such that they cannot be measured, allowing us to always declare some degree of victory. Further, by giving God the credit, we raise the importance (and the rightness) of our actions. On that, with God’s blessing, what we are doing is destined to dominate. This approach of ours, however, deprives us of the reality of life. There are no miracles, no heavenly involvement in the details of human life. Our fantasy of miracles is just that—our fantasy. If we are going to be successful in this one life, we need to grow up and take ownership of our one life, its successes and its failures. If something is to be done, it is up to us to do it. Life is a gift, a joy, something we experience only once. Let us all make the most of it. God may have a place in your life, but it is you who must do the work. Take credit for what you do. God would want that. So would we all.