Sunday, October 2, 2016

Thunderstruck- More than an AC/DC song.

Memories are Powerful

(Thunderstruck played)  Hearing the beginning of this song takes me back to my Junior year in 1993.  I was an outside linebacker on the football team and there was a play we practiced all week called “Thunder”.  It was a simple and exciting play.  When called, I ran in, blitzing full bore, and annihilated the quarterback if he rolled out away from me.  We practiced.  I practiced.   Everyone was excited and wanted to be my position that week. We listened to this song every day of the week and before the game.  Sometimes we listened two or three times at once.  The time came. Thunder was called.  Pin your ears back and go.  He rolled out.  I charged and just as I dove, he rolls in a different direction.  I missed him!  It was like the music stopped.   We never ran the play again or played that song again.  

Hearing that song over the years has reminded me of a few things.  For a few years, hearing that song reminded me of failure- hard work that lead to failure.  Preparation, excitement, and good intentions that lead to failure.  As time has gone on, however, the bad memory has become a good memory.  That song also reminds me of a time where I worked and prepared and we were united as a team.  The process was right.  The outcome was just wrong. If I had it to do over, I could do better.  

Can anyone relate?  Have you ever tried, prepared, and when you try hard, and you prepare and you pray, and you sing, and you read His word, and you give of your things, and you give of your time, and you love others, and you make a difference, but when the chance comes for you to overcome that habit, you dive with all your might, and the unexpected happens, and you blow it.  

At communion time we are asked to remember.   We are also asked to examine ourselves.  We confess our failures, but we remember His resurrection that gives us life.  

13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. (‭Colossians‬ ‭2‬:‭13-15‬ NIV)

As you use this time to remember his body and his blood sacrificed for us and confess your sins, remember He died so you can live. Sure. You have blown it.  Don't stop playing.  Don’t give up on the play.   Get back in the game.  Do hard things. Do great things. If you aren't failing, you aren't trying hard enough.  God made us alive in Christ.  He died so you can live.  When you mess up, I died so you can live.  When you fail, He cancelled the charge.  When life doesn’t go the way you planned, He disarmed the powers and authorities. He died so we can live.  And live to the fullest.   

Pray.  Father thank you for forgiving us.  Strengthen us with your power.  Give us a double dose of your spirit.  Help us grasp how wide and long high and deep is your love for us.