When Giants Win

This last month I was given a copy of the movie "Facing the Giants" to watch. It was an entertaining movie with a wonderful message. It's the story of a beleaguered football coach at a small Christian high school. After a number of losing seasons and with a disgruntled fan base, he makes the decision that winning is not the highest aim. The goal has to be God's glory. He makes a private commitment and then sells the concept to his team. The somewhat predictable story line has this team make a complete turnaround. At the climax of the story, the team wins the championship game because they wanted God to get the glory.

I found myself tearing up at times, especially when the coach drew a line in the sand for himself in regard to his commitment to God. But, in light of everything that I face as a Christian and as a pastor, I had to ask, "Don't the giants win more times than not?"

For every last-second touchdown and miraculous cure, there is the cancer that doesn't get healed, the home that still faces foreclosure, the depression that never lifts. What do you do when the giants beat back your best effort?
A friend - traumatized by a cancer diagnosis - called and said, "I don't know where my faith went. I had scores of people praying for the biopsy. I was sure that it would come back benign. Now, I don't know if I have enough faith to continue."

There are a number of fine Christian aphorisms that can be shared at this point, but since my friend is a pretty astute believer, I just kept my mouth closed. The only thing I could offer was Jesus' words "My Father is working even until now, and I am working, too."

What we may see as a fatal diagnosis, a no-win scenario is still open-ended in God's perspective. The difficulty is that we want the win now! God says that we've already won, but the victory parade comes later.

Jesus told Mary and Martha at the death of their brother and his friend Lazarus, "I am the resurrection and the life." Although the resurrection is an event in space and time, it is mainly a person! Just like with the issue of salvation, God didn't send a system of belief to deal with our issues; He sent His Son!

1 Kings 21-22