A few weeks ago while I was in Los Angeles, I had the opportunity to watch some women’s basketball. My friend Raelen (there was recently a nice article about her in the Star Bulletin http://starbulletin.com/2004/02/29/sports/story14.html) plays for Loyola Marymount University so I went to watch her in action. Now if any of you watch sports, you know that it is rare that any one team or individual wins wire-to-wire. That’s part of the fun of watching or playing sports. Watching one team take a lead only to give it up again and so on. Usually, the outcome is not determined in the first ten minutes and with any luck it goes right down to the wire so it stays exciting (Game 6 of the 1986 World Series between the Mets and Red Sox comes to mind…sorry Buckner). This is how it was when I went to watch Rae play. By the time I got there (half an hour late due to the wonderful traffic in LA), LMU was up by 6 points or so. Then during the second half, they lost the lead and trailed 5 points or so. This went on for most of the second half and the game remained exciting until the final three minutes when LMU finally pulled away and won a double digit victory.

Of course not everything goes exactly as we planned. Things go wrong, people let us down, there was an accident here or there. Life sometimes gets tough. What is the “exciting” factor in sports becomes a depressing, discouraging let down in life. Why? Aren’t we following God? Aren’t we doing what he wants? Aren’t we in his will? Why are things still going wrong? Why is so-and-so’s life going so much better than mine? These are tough questions and I believe they are very valid. While it is true that Jesus came “to give life in all its fullness” we must remember that there the first part of the verse also says that “the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy” (John 10:10).

In the book of Matthew it says that “Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side” (14:22). Later, as they were going ahead of Jesus they got into trouble because “a strong wind had risen, and they were fighting heavy waves” (14:24). So you see, even here, as the disciples were doing exactly what Jesus commanded them to do, they still encountered heavy waves. To further confirm this point, Peter, at the command of Jesus starts walking on water. He succeeds for a little while “but when he looked around at the high waves, he was terrified and began to sink” (14:30). Jesus then saved him and when they got back to the boat the winds and waves stopped.

If we take this example of Peter, we can see that while he remained focused on Jesus and did what Jesus commanded, he succeeded. The minute he took his eyes off of Jesus and started focusing on the circumstance he started sinking. That’s how it is in our lives. The devil would like nothing more than to trip you up and make you take your eyes off of Jesus. While it is true that Jesus did come to give us an abundant life, we must have the faith to hold on to it and not look at the circumstances no matter what they may be. We are encouraged to “hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised)” (Hebrews 10:23). It is not easy to go through life unwavering, but God promises us a great reward if we do. Just as Rae and her team believed they could win and didn’t give up even though they were at one point trailing, we must have that same kind of faith. Even when the chips are down, God still says that we win. Think about that. As exciting as our lives (and sports) are, the only anti-climactic part is the end. We already know how that part turns out. The Bible says that “overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us” (Romans 8:37).