But you woke up one day feeling on top of the world and by day's end that world was totally shattered?
I am a die hard Panthers fan. I have loved and followed them since the early 2000s when my then-boyfriend and now-husband watched every game with fierce intensity.
The success of my team this year has been celebrated, criticized, marginalized, praised. Most sports commentators and pundits believed the Panthers would come out on top in the big game Sunday night.
Cam is a force to be reckoned with, NFL MVP. Our defense and their record speak for itself.
As a city, Charlotte was celebrating a victory before Sunday was even here. Not out of arrogance, but out of sheer belief that no one was better than our Panthers.
But then Sunday night came and something was off. Be it the officiating, turnovers, dropped passes, etc.
I was so sick to my stomach over the loss that I couldn't bring myself to watch the after-game ceremonies.
I woke up this morning to footage of a devastated Cam walking out of a press conference and a crying Josh Norman.
And oh my...I know how these fellas feel.
See, this is where football can teach you about life. And that anything...even something as trivial as the loss of a game can point you back to Jesus.
Because I've been there. I've been sailing through life, happy, free, obedient to God and then in the short span of one day, my life got rocked, rolled, and broken into pieces.
And all of the sudden you're sitting in the rabble and smoke-rising mess and thinking How did I get here?
I'm doing my job, Lord. I'm playing my best, my joyful best. I'm succeeding at the plans You've given me to accomplish. Lord, why did things not go my way?
Friend, I am in no way equating the trials and losses of your life to a lost football game, but I am saying there's a lesson to be learned.
When we don't win the game. When life crumbles around us in totally unexpected ways:
We have to make peace with it.
This is where you are now. The shattered today is where you stand, not the perfect yesterday.
And that...man, that stinks. But it's where you are.
So the question is: Where do you go from here? Do you rehash, reexamine, replay all that could have happened differently? Maybe. Maybe for just a minute.
But then you move on. Because the only way through a shattered, unexpected mess is through.
To get through it, you've got to walk through it.
"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," declares the LORD. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts."
Isaiah 55:8-9
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.
Isaiah 43:2
I try to live my life in a way that sees Jesus in everything. I look for Him in everything. So last night as I was cleaning up our Super Bowl party, my prayer was this:
What did I learn? God, help me to see what I learned.
And here it is. Just as art imitates life, so does football. The crushing blow to Panther fandom serves as a poignant reminder of crushing, more real, more devastating blows to our lives.
And those millionaire football players will shake off the loss, take some time to heal, and look at the game through a different lens.
We've got to do this, too. Regroup, heal, and learn to see life differently. And as hard as our hurts and losses are, they are ours. We can't deny them.
So let's use the loss. Let's let it redefine us as we walk through it, let it mold us into something stronger, larger, and bolder.
Because I want to walk in His higher ways, travel His higher paths. And higher definitely doesn't mean easier. Most of the time higher means harder.
And that's okay. My Panthers will come out of this loss even better.
And we will come out of our losses better, too. My prayer is that we use our losses in such a way we will be thankful for them.
Oh Father, help us see our losses as gain.
No comments:
Post a Comment