The Big Game

It's a crisp autumn evening under the Friday night lights.  You're dressed in your favorite team sweater & sitting comfortably in your portable bleacher seat.  The concession stand and restroom stops have already been made.  You are prepared to sit through this game with no interruptions for tonight your hometown high school football team will battle, head-on, against your decades old rival.  The stadium is packed and the sounds of camaraderie from your friends and heckling from your foes fills the night air.  Three minutes until kick-off.  The sounds of the players in their huddle, the referees commencing and the cheerleaders cheering gets your blood is pumping; adrenaline flowing.  This is it.  This is the game of the year.  One minute until kick-off.  The pride you have for your team makes your heart swell.  As the clock starts and the whistles blow you find yourself in a perfect place in this world.  Happy.  Content.  You would say anything and do most anything to defend your team against anyone right in this moment.  After all this is your team.  The game starts with cheers and praise from both sides of the stadium.  The opponent receives the ball and the game starts to go bad for your team at the very beginning.  Every tackle and every bad call feels like a personal  offense against you.  The tension builds against your rival as you watch them carry out planned schemes against your team.  A slight feeling of hatred slips into your very being.  Anger rages through your body at the next bad call and you find yourself amongst the crowd screaming in defense of your team.   The desire for victory is so coveted that you will do anything in your power to achieve it.  Even if it is just to cheer from the stands. 

Isn't this a lot like our spiritual life?  God loves us so much that we make His heart swell with pride.  We are His team.  He looks down at us and is happy.  Everyday we start a new game and he cheers for us.  Most days we don't hear Him.  Maybe we've become so overpowered by the opponent that we've lost our focus on the one who's rooting for us. The very opponent that makes God lower his brow.  Every time temptation is thrown our way it is a personal offense against God our Father and it makes him angry.

The good thing for us is that He would do anything to help us achieve victory and he is capable of doing more than just sit on the sideline.  He left the stadium and joined us on the field.  He put himself in the midst of the battle and died.  However, his death was not a defeat.  No, this was our victory.  We have already won the game.  All we have to do is realize that He is on our side and is still rooting for us.