CQ Bible Study | God's Game Plan

The moral of the story is snugly wrapped within that one line. It’s the point at which Joe realized that there’s more to life than football and fame. It’s then that he understands that at the end of the day, it’s not about how many touchdowns he scores, or if he’ll be inducted into the Football Hall of Fame.

God’s Game Plan

By Alexis Goring

Will the film have a happy ending?

With much anticipation, this question runs through my mind each time I start viewing a new DVD or made-for-TV film. I love happy endings! So the exact moment I notice tell-tale signs of an unhappy ending (either dreadful music, a twisted plotline, or certain facial expressions made by the main characters), I take action with one of two options.

Option A is immediate. I’ll stop the DVD, return it to its rental box and fuss that I wasted my money. Option B is the road less traveled. I’ll watch the entire film with a pillow to my face until I know I can deal with its dismal denouement.

Recently, I watched a family-friendly film entitled, The Game Plan. I found the storyline to be not only well written but equipped with a beautiful moral. I’d like to share a few notes about the film to illustrate my point.

The Game Plan centers around a main character named Joe—America’s ultimate football star. Joe is a quarterback for a prominent team; and his knowledge of the team’s playbook is as phenomenal as his award-winning performance. He uses his intricate knowledge of the playbook to crush his team’s competitors.

When he’s not leading his team to victory on the football field, Joe goes to town with his male buddies. He plays hard and parties harder. Free of the day-to-day responsibilities of being married and having a family, Joe hasn’t a care in the world. Everything in his life seems perfect, until one day he gets the surprise of his life. A young girl name Peyton arrives on his doorstep claiming to be his daughter.

Peyton’s arrival challenges Joe to think outside of the box. You see, before Peyton came, football was Joe’s everything. He lived, breathed, and slept a fast-paced, self-glorifying lifestyle. But the newfound adventures, joys, and precious moments of parenting gradually reshaped his heart.

There’s an endearing scene in the film when Peyton asks her daddy, “What is the best thing that ever happened to you?” At first, Joe is too focused on himself and his athletic victories to answer this question from his heart of hearts. The film progresses, and Peyton doesn’t ask the question again until Joe reminds her of it during a pivotal moment in the film. It’s the day of the football championships, and he’s preparing to make a crucial play for what would either be the team’s most celebrated victory or their most dreaded defeat. Just before emerging from the tunnel onto the football field, Joe takes Peyton aside and answers her heartfelt question. “Peyton,” he says, “win or lose, you are the best thing that ever happened to me.”

The Game Plan made me think about real-life situations. There’s a real-life film that’s been airing since the beginning of time. We know it as Life. This film is saturated with an on-going conflict between the supernatural forces of good and evil and the casualties of sin. I see sin as a sickening disease, a cause of discord, and the base root of all our problems on earth.

But here’s the part where I put the pillow to my face. Sin was originally intended to permanently annihilate all of humanity.

Why? Because when Adam and Eve transgressed God’s law, they deserved death. The Bible clearly states that “the wages of sin is death.” However,it continues to say, “but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 6:23, NIV).

Now here’s the part where I remove the pillow from my face.

God has a game plan.

He knows the end from the beginning (see Revelation 21:6). He foresaw that Adam and Eve would transgress His divine law. So knowing that humanity would be a slave to sin, He created the plan of salvation. Thanks to this game plan, we can have the victory.

OK, that’s great! you may agree, but then think, How do I know that my story will end “happily ever after”?

I can tell you the truth as found in the book of Revelation. Jesus is coming again! He’ll stop sin forever and take His faithful ones home to live with Him in heaven. Words of that reality and a reason to hope are found in Revelation 21 (NIV). Regarding the New Jerusalem, our future home, it is written:

Verse 1: Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.

Verse 2: I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.

Verse 3: And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men [humankind], and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.

Verse 4: He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

Verse 5: He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

This is a reality better than any Oscar-award winning fictional or true-to-life film. We have this hope when we set our hearts on eternity. Human history not only will have a happy ending, but a beautiful ending unrivaled by any screen play Hollywood could ever produce. Listen to the words in Revelation 21:22–24, describing our new home:

I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it.

Family-friendly films often have whimsical, happy-ever-after endings that inspire hope. But salvation history will have a denouement of endless hope equipped with the promise of immortality to the mortal, of health to the ailing, of peace to the disturbed, and of undying true love that can only come from the Creator of humankind—God.

At the end of this true story called Life, we will see eternity.