If you are a golfer, you know the feeling of everything being right, expecting to hit a drive perfectly down the fairway, getting up to the tee box, and hitting the worst opposite hit of your life. I had a similar experience in wrestling.
Our team had one the league championship four years in a row, I was a Sophomore with the opportunity to wrestle varsity against Carrollton. I had been working very hard with the team. Weigh-ins took place. I sized up my opponent and immediately had visions of a big and fast win in front of the whole school, my friends, and my family. I get out on the mat and take off confidently, pushing aggressively into my opponent. He tosses me through the air and puts me on my back. There I was, in front of the whole school, all of my friends and family fighting hard off my back. I get pinned. I was crushed. Feelings of being a failure, extreme embarrassment, frustration, and shock all consumed me. I would not talk to anyone. Then, I had to take my best friend home after the match. He did not wrestle. He was trying to cheer me up. It had been snowing, and he took a snowball and hit me in the face. “What are you doing?” “Get over it!” He said. It was painful! Hey, I can move on…reliving my past that happened 30 ish years ago!
Have you ever had a similar experience spiritually? Maybe even lately? You feel like you are growing spiritually. You are reading the word, attending bible studies, having great prayer time, making sacrifices to grow spiritually, and maybe giving a lot. If you are in school or at work, you may be going outside of your comfort zone and witnessing to others, speaking up when people are doing the wrong thing. Then the opportunity comes for the right thing or something good to happen, and you get thrown on your back. You lose your temper, you spend too much, you speak harshly, and you lose control. Or maybe something wrong happens. An unfavorable job situation, a lost relationship, or an unexpected diagnosis. It is easy to get discouraged, embarrassed, shocked, and frustrated. Feelings of failure. We may want to withdraw.
Well, here is your snowball to the face. It’s not about your comfort. Get over it. It’s about your character. It is about who you become. We, as your brothers and sisters in Christ, love you. We are here for you. Jesus died for you because he loves you. As we prepare for communion, I want to share a few of my favorite scriptures I have memorized for when life situations throw me on my back unexpectedly:
James 1: 2-4 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,[a] whenever you face trials of many kinds because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking
Romans 5: 3-5 Not only so, but we[a] also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.
Phil 4: 12-13 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.
John 15:4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
Let’s pray. Father, it feels amazing to have our debt paid off. Thank you for dying for us. We do not deserve the love you show us. We are sorry, we confess, lead us to serve you. In Jesus name.
