This
past weekend I was assistant coaching my oldest son’s sixth grade
basketball team in a tournament that was going to end our season. We’d
have a rough season overall, only winning our first game of the year and none
since then. As coaches we’d felt that we had a chance in many of the
games, but there was a hurdle that the team just couldn’t get past, something
we couldn’t figure out ourselves.
So
we go into the round robin part of the tournament, where we were going to play
the other three teams in our side of the bracket. Our first opponent is a
team from our league who had beat us by over 20 points in both games that we’d
played them previously. The boys started out pretty well, but we found
ourselves down at halftime. We made some adjustments, but that didn’t
seem to help in the end and we lost that first game. Then the second game
we played a team that we hadn’t played previously, and although we as
coaches thought we could win, we got ourselves in a hole and we saw that
familiar look on the boy’s faces – defeat. That look was a premonition as
it ended up that we lost to them as well.
So
at the end of the first day we were 0-2, with one more game to play. The
head coach wasn’t gentle with the boys after the first game, saying pretty much
exactly how I felt as well. We both knew that the boys had all the talent
in the world, but they weren’t handling adversity well and we didn’t know if
they had the will to win. It was pretty much laid out that if they
weren’t going to be there to win, then to not come back on Sunday to
play.
Well,
it was Sunday’s game time, and all of the boys were there. It seemed like
they were different people when they showed up. They looked determined to
win this game, and they were going to do what it took to get a victory.
They had their ups and downs throughout the game, with the lead going back and
forth between the two teams. Then a big
change occurred. The boys believed they
could win the game. They weren’t going to let anyone take this victory
from them, and eventually with that determination came something that they
really needed…a victory. They finished the season at something like 2-10,
but the fact that their hard work paid off seemed to give them the feeling that
the season was a success.
I
tell you this story from the weekend because I think this mirrors the spiritual
lives that Christians live. We work hard
at the beginning and get an early victory in our lives, be it turning from a
sin that has been with us for years or many other victories that would can obtain
in Christ. The problem with that early
victory is that often times that gets the enemy's attention and then we
have to deal with adversity. Often times that tests our character, and
those hard times can lead us to feeling defeated and possibly even to giving up
on the one gift that we’ve all been given in our lives that means the
most: salvation. But, God is there coaching us and telling us to
show up and get back out there and finish the game. He doesn’t want us to
quit. He wants us to go out there and keep scraping and clawing our way
to the top, knowing full well that the Holy Spirit will be there with us
throughout our battles. God never promised that our lives would be easy
when we accepted Jesus into our lives. He never said that the enemy
wouldn’t attack, in fact it’s written that the exact opposite would
happen. Our goal, as Christians, should be to keep gaining victories no
matter how hard we have to work. We can’t give up, and being a Christian
and living your life for Him isn’t for wimps.
Just
as this sixth grade team did this weekend, they fought through the adversity
with the determination to reach their goal of getting a victory. Now, we
as Christians are called to do the same. Go out and get victory after
victory for Christ. Go out determined not to let the enemy stop you
from getting to your goals, no matter what is thrown in the way.
