Many men of faith struggle with the silence of God. That absence forces the faithful to look for the signs and wonders that act as His guideposts as they seek to fulfill His desires. Many wind up filling that void with their own noise and bluster, mistaking the echo of their voice for God's own. Is this Dabo's sin? Is this why he is being punished? Is he even being punished at all?
The college football season is still young but at least one thing is already clear: Clemson is a bad football team. Their quarterback seems to be regressing, their receivers are middling, and their allegedly championship-level defense is reeling. In the face of this, coach Dabo Swinney allowed the sin of pride to affect him. He got in front of the press with the arrogance of man, shouting towards the heavens about how valuable he is to Clemson and college football, despite getting dogwalked by another of God's strongest soldiers, Georgia Tech football. He almost seemed to be daring the university to get rid of him. He was angry and cocksure, and in being so, he decided that he was the one to smite his own enemies.
But let a sinner cast the first stone, and he himself shall be the one smited. Dabo allowed himself his moment of bluster after the Georgia Tech loss because he was certain of his team's impending victory against Syracuse, yet another of God's strongest soldiers. But Fran Brown had other ideas and carried a slingshot aimed right at the eye of Goliath. And so for Clemson, that victory did not come and Dabo's pride did fall after a miserable 34-21 defeat, which even included a surprise onside kick after the opening drive TD by the Orangemen. All that was left after was humility and a bottle of Coke.
Why has God abandoned Dabo after so much success together? Has he not been properly prayerful? Does he need to atone for his ways? Much like Job, was God so certain of Dabo's faith that He bet the Devil He could totally mess with Dabs and he'd never curse the name of the Lord? Or, like Jacob, was it time for Dabo to wrestle with the angel and be born again?
Maybe it's that God is a believer in progress. Dabo has rejected the new ways of football, where million-dollar NIL deals and transfer-portal madness is the norm, and has stood by on his sinking ship of tradition, screaming that God will provide. Meanwhile, God regards the impressive $20 million Texas Tech roster with deep admiration. For if men are willing to give $20 million of their own money to Texas Tech, are they not believers in miracles? If nearly 20 athletes willingly transfer to Indiana for football, are they not walking by faith more than by sight? In Dabo's coarse repudiation of evolution (surprise, surprise), he has missed that his God is also a God of change. Change may be good or it may be bad but it is inevitable, and to follow God is to follow where those changes take you. But Dabo is a traditionalist: the last Megachurch pastor who hasn't been bought out by a corporation or private equity or made some sort of strange deal with the Saudis that we're not supposed to talk about. Could it be possible that his old time religion has no place here anymore?
Only time can truly answer that, but stubbornness and pride will not usher Dabo back into the lap of God. It may finally be time for him to accept that he will have to rebuild a new church with new rules after this season completely unravels him, as things will likely only get worse from here on. That is of course unless Clemson's bad football has merely been the first sign of Tuesday's coming Rapture, in which case Dabo Swinney will simply shed the weight of his bad football team and ascend to the right hand of the Lord just as he planned.
