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This past Sunday, one of the greatest sporting events in the world occurred. Of course, I am talking about the Super Bowl. This year's Super Bowl brought the Pittsburgh Steelers together with the Green Bay Packers - each winning 6 and 3 Super Bowls, respectively. I love the Super Bowl. No matter who is playing, I always root for one of the teams, even if I'm not particularly a fan of either of them. This time, I was rooting for the Packers, and thankfully they beat the Steelers 31-25!
One thing I always notice in football games, is that sometimes when a player does something good - scores a touchdown, makes an important tackle, gets a stop on 3rd down, etc. - that player will point and/or look up towards the sky. Like this:

More often than not, the reason they are doing this is to give credit to God. While the crowd is busy cheering for the great play, it's their way of subtly acknowledging that God has helped them score that TD, or make that stop. I like it when players do this. It makes me smile every time. They might be in the middle of the most important game of their life, and they still take the time to give credit to God. (Of course there are some players who just do it to make a spectacle, and they don't actually intend to give any credit to God, but we won't get into that now).
The guy in the picture is, of course, Kurt Warner. Kurt, along with many other NFL players, is known to be a firm believer in Jesus Christ. In fact, he and his wife Brenda made a video series with Chip Ingram called "Marriage: Built to Last" to be used by church small groups. Kurt does a lot to demonstate his love for the Lord, from numerous volunteer activities, to adopting children of his own. Kurt is the real deal, and he doesn't try to hide it. It is for that reason, he is mine and Evan's favorite player (he's retired now, though).
But my point is not about Kurt Warner, my point is this: how often to we "give credit to God" when something good happens in our life? How often do we give credit to God no matter what is happening in our life? Most of us like to receive praise for doing something good. We like to be recognized for our good deeds. Some companies even have reward or incentive systems where you are publically recognized for something good that you have done. It's ok to get recognition for what we've done, but we can't forget that the only reason we did anything was because of God. The credit must go to Him and Him alone.
One of my favorite songs by the O.C Supertones is "Jury Duty." It talks about this horrible day that the lead singer had going to jury duty, getting stuck in traffic, forgetting people's birthdays, arguing with his wife, etc. But the chorus is what makes it great. He says this: "Every single moment whether sleeping or awake is your creation. What you made is good. I don't always thank you for the rough days and the hard times in my life, even though I should." (You can watch the music video here)
Now while it might look silly for us to point towards the sky every time we want to give props to God, just remember to give credit where credit is due. The truth is, every breath we take is from God, so we should always remember to thank him not just for the good things that happen, but the not-so-good things too.