Phil O’Donnell

 

On Saturday 29^th December whilst playing one of the last Scottish Premier League (SPL) games of the season Phil O’Donnell collapsed. Tragically the Motherwell captain died of heart failure. Anyone’s death is a tragedy that affects not just intimate friends and family but the wider society, but the death of such a prominent sporting figure has reverberated around the world of football and Scotland. For all of us who know Christ we can offer tangible support through our prayers remembering in particular his family and the Motherwell team.

 

As everyone struggled to come to terms with Phil’s death, games in the SPL over the New Year’s period were rightly postponed. However the announcement this week that subsequent games would go ahead prompted one of the Motherwell players to say “when you face something like this – how can we think of football, what’s the point?” Of course many of us can empathise with this statement, something as tragic as death does seem to make sport – no matter what level it’s played at – trivial by comparison. Yet awfully death occurs everyday, and so perhaps the surprising thing isn’t so much that one person’s death has brought Scottish football to a standstill, but rather that football games get played at all. Events like these bring death to the forefront of our minds, but death is always ‘there’ in our world and in our lives. Any world view that we hold needs to be able to cope with the tragedy of death whilst not stopping us living.

 

Paul the Apostle writes that if there is no life beyond death then we might as well ‘eat and drink for tomorrow we die’. He’s saying that if this world is all there is then we may as well gorge ourselves on the best that life has to offer because all too soon it’ll be over. So if there’s nothing more, don’t cancel the football games but cram as much excitement and thrills into our short lives as possible. However though many do live like this, when death really hits home such as at times like these then the ugliness of this way of living is exposed.

 

Paul goes on to show another way, and writes that one day we will all see that there is life beyond death and ‘then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”’ (1 Corinthians 15:54-55). He argues that Jesus – God’s King, defeated death through dying on a cross and to prove it rose to new and eternal life three days later. In fact he’s so convinced of the truth of this claim that he calls death a ‘sleep’ for those who trust Jesus with their life.

 

So how should believers in Jesus cope with death? Well of course every individual needs to deal with the pain and tragedy of death in their own way, but our tears should always be tempered by the sure hope of life beyond the grave. Finally, we should also remember that Jesus’ has given us the secret to life beyond death – not just so that we can live forever with him a new and perfect world – but so that we can take many there with us.

 

‘Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord because you know that you labour is not in vain’. (1 Corinthians 15:58).

 

Pete