Mario Balotelli has been been the talking point of the premier league for some time. He left the premier league to play in Italy for a brief time, only to return to replace another controversial striker but also one of the greatest strikers that the premiership has ever seen: Loui Suarez.

Now, this is my first blog so I am going to keep it short. One thing that sticks in my mind about Mario, is his response to all the media attention and controversy was to wear a shirt (he only revealed when scoring, which wasn’t often) saying “Why Always Me?”

Why Always Me? Is a phrase we have ALL used, and really means “why does bad stuff always seem to happen to me?” Granted Balotelli was wearing it as an ironic gesture for his critics to eat their words as he slotted the ball in the back of the net (or not!!).

As people who know me will know that wherever I go the probability of me doing something stupid, or something bad happening to me is extremely high. For example driving to ASDA and WALKING home with shopping, then wanting to go out in the car with my wife later on, only to find “THE CAR HAD BEEN STOLEN” (or in this case left at Asda).. That moment of panic to the realisation that I had just left it at Asda led me to the question “Why always me”.

There is something profound about that question. Like the universe is fighting against you, and you don’t know when it’s going to strike, but when it does it seems to be for long periods of time causing you to say it: “Why always me?”.

As a Christian (this is where people will check out I guess) I believe the world was created perfectly by God in the beginning and by the 3rd chapter in the bible things span horribly out of control as something called “sin” entered the world through the rebellious acts of man. And we have been sinning and rebelling against Gods perfect plan for the world ever since. And therefore things haven’t got better.

Romans 8:22 says; “For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.”

Whether you are a Christian, or Atheist, Jew, muslim, or non of the above we can ALL agree that something isn’t right with world. Just turn on the news and look at all the horrific stuff happening all over the world to all different types of people.
But it’s not just people, creation itself, according to this verse, isn’t as it was supposed to be when God first created the world.

I suppose the answer to the question to “Why always me?” Is: it’s not just you! “All creation is groaning”. You’re not the only one experiencing the symptoms of Genesis 3. It’s all part of this bigger picture of creation rebelling against its creator and desperately trying to make sense of why everything seems to be going wrong. And getting it wrong over, and over again… Even if we think we are a good person or even religious person you can’t shake the fact that bad things happen to you at various points of life and cause you to question “Why?”

A few verses earlier and Paul (the writer of the letter to the Romans) says:

20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope
21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

Yes, there was a response from a Holy and Just God to the treason of Sin. It was to subject the world to “futility” But the verse says “IN HOPE
“..that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.”

In short: Man is responsible for the Evil in the world and God has provided a way for there to be hope in all this madness: His name is Jesus. God in the flesh actually coming down to Earth and experiencing tremendous suffering and pain. A type of pain that I seriously doubt many of us in the western world with ever experience. The Pain of crucifixion.

So many questions will arise from this blog, especially from the skeptics amongst us: “how can a loving God…” questions are my favourite. How can a loving God what?? Send his only son to provide hope to a dark suffering world?? Actually come to earth and experience suffering and pain, to know what it’s like to be rejected by his own family and friends? To love you regardless of your past mistakes?

The invitation is there for all to accept. To live a life with hope through Jesus. Don’t get me wrong, not all of our questions will be answered in this life, but we have a loving God who provides us with hope for the future.