Phelps, A-Rod, Brady, and Booth: Why Godwardness Matters and Nothing Else Does

By now Michael Phelps’ pot use and A-Rod’s steroid use have been news-plastered everywhere and commented on ad nauseam. Please allow me to risk your “enough already” by adding a few thoughts of my own.

Why is it that these men who have everything are willing to risk it all for something they want? Why do they demonstrate a reckless craving for more?

I recently read about another who craves more: Tom Brady. As a New England Patriots’ fan, I read this with sadness but without surprise (for I’ve followed my favorite quarterback’s exploits on and off the field for a few years now: three Super Bowl rings, MVP trophies, super-model girlfriends, baby out of wedlock, etc.). Mr. Brady offered the following in a 60 Minutes interview:

“Why do I have three Super Bowl rings and still think there’s something greater out there for me? I mean, maybe a lot of people would say, ‘Hey man, this is what is.’ I reached my goal, my dream, my life. I think, ‘___, it’s got to be more than this.’ I mean this isn’t, this can’t be, what it’s all cracked up to be.”

More on Mr. Brady in a moment.

John Wilkes Booth killed President Lincoln. His too is a story of a man who couldn’t stop craving. Few in his day possessed more, but apparently he did not feel he had enough. As a famous actor, he had wealth, women, fame, pleasure, popularity, looks, everything. But he was not content.

While claiming that he shot the president to help God exact justice for what he perceived to be Lincoln’s evils, what he did in the few days between his crime and his capture reveals his true motive. James Swanson, in Manhunt, a riveting account of the twelve day search for the assassin, reports that Booth devoured every newspaper account of his murder of Lincoln that he could find. And here’s why: he had a hungry craving for any hint of national approval (yes, you read that right) that he might receive for his actions. Clearly he killed the president because he felt that many Americans would love him for it! All the popularity he already had was not enough; he wanted more.

So what are we to make of Mr. Phelps and A-Rod and Brady and Booth?

Certainly we are not to conclude self-righteously that these guys have been unusually bad people. To be honest I’ve craved everything these guys have pursued, and apart from divine restraint (what the Bible calls grace) I would have acted out every craving I’ve ever had. No, there is no room for hypocritical condemnation here (at least not from where I sit).

So what are we to think?

I don’t know any of these men personally so I would not pretend to know their hearts or what may be going on within them, but I’d offer a few tentative thoughts.

First, such human unhappiness and futility—apparently felt by each of these guys, but actually admitted by Tom Brady—call to mind the thinking of Blaise Pascal. In The Pensees, included in the anthology, The Mind on Fire, Pascal argues that it is our human ability to think and to aspire for something better that distinguishes us from beasts. But it is also this capacity that can create a human misery worse than any beast ever knows.

Animals--as best we can tell--don’t know misery or meaninglessness because they can’t think as humans can. Because they cannot conceive of a better world or life than the one they have, they cannot be unhappy or discontented with what they do have. But since we humans can always conceive of something better than what we have, we have to fight off unhappiness (misery) because we don’t have it.

Pascal recognizes that the human ability to think and to conceive of a world and a joy and a meaning better than the one we have is what makes man grand. But it is also what makes man miserable. This is what he calls “the misery of man without God”.

Tom Brady is able to think of a better, more fulfilling life than the one he has, even with all he has. And so, despite all his great accomplishments and privilege, his life rings hollow, his heart remains empty; ultimate happiness eludes him. And apparently to some degree, based on their reckless pursuit of more, Mr. Phelps, Mr. Rodriguez and Mr. Booth have all felt the same way.

And might I suggest that they always will so long as they leave a personal, reverent, joy-filled relationship with God--through Jesus Christ--out of the picture? Few have said it as well as C.S. Lewis:

“The books or the music [or sports or fame or sex or drugs or…] in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through them was longing. These things--the beauty, the memory of our own past--are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself, they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshippers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited..." (The Weight of Glory, brackets added)

“If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” (Mere Christianity)

Folks, we were made for a better world, one ruled by the best of all Beings, God Himself. Pascal adds; “If man was not made for God, why is it that he is only happy in God?”

Good question. And in the question we find life’s answer. We are made for God. God alone is the Ultimate happiness. Knowing and loving God is the very meaning of life. Until we see this and look for another and better life with Him, our misery will continue.

By the way, the word I deleted from Tom Brady’s quote above was: “God”. I did so out of respect for God and the Name He tells us to honor. I mention it now because of the irony and the invitation that I see in Mr. Brady’s choice of words. The name he profaned is the name of the very One this man needs.

Could it be that in our human tendency to use God’s name (even if profanely), and could it be in God’s patience in letting it happen, we might be hearing a whisper of an invitation God has put within us all?

Perhaps God is saying to each of us:

“I have put My Name in your heart so that you use it even when you don’t believe in Me or love Me. I’ve done this to let you know that I exist, and to remind you that down deep you really know it; you just haven’t admitted it yet or done much about it. The One Whose name you abuse and profane is really here. Why not call on Me and I will answer? Seek for Me and you will find Me. Come to Me, and you will know the joy for which you crave.”

God invites even through our profanities.

If you’re a Christian looking for even deeper joy, keep the Godward gaze. This is where the spiritual disciplines we've been discussing come in.

If you’re not a believer and in your quiet honest moments you wonder what it’s all about, I urge you: look above the sun to your Creator. This is where the Bible’s call to repentance and faith come in. Turn from all your empty pursuits and turn to the One Who is life itself.

Friend, God is the song your heart has been wanting to sing.