One Bad Play
If you were a Cubs fan and you had this guy's e-mail address, what would you say to him?
Next time you cheer for your favorite team while sitting in the front row of the stands, you can show your true support by not interfering with them when they’re trying to win – for example, reaching out and deflecting a fly ball that the left fielder would have caught. Oops. That’s what happened last night in a baseball game that the Chicago Cubs should have won (they were ahead 3-0 in the eighth of nine innings) but lost 8-3 to the Marlins.
And it was this botched "fan error" that started the eight run rally for the Marlins. Significant enough that the fan is no longer anonymous because his picture made the front page of today’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Makes you wonder how big his picture is in the Chicago Tribune.
If you were a Cubs fan and you had this guy’s e-mail address, what would you say to him?
"Way to go, you little creep. We lost because of you." That’s probably what a lot of people in Chicago are thinking right now, and if they are, they’re absolutely wrong. One play – either good or bad – does not an entire game make.
It may come at a pivotal moment or be amazing enough to lead off the sports clips on ESPN that night, fine, but one play doesn’t determine the outcome of a game made up of hundreds or even thousands of decisions, actions, and consequences strung together collectively. The winning basketball shot at the buzzer was preceded by many other shots made or missed and all of them contributed to the final score. The final second soccer goal that wins the game means that the player who kicked it will be mobbed in triumphal joy by teammates only because of the emotions of the moment, but perhaps the goalie will be recognized as the MVP because he or she prevented the other team from scoring on multiple tries.
Are you with me here? Then keep that thought and apply it to getting right with God for now and eternity. One decision, no matter how pivotal or timely, does not make the only difference in a person’s relationship with God right now and the person’s eternal status of heaven or hell.
People don’t go to hell because of one poor decision to, for example, commit suicide or get drunk and twist their car around a street pole. People go to hell because they push Jesus – the only Savior from sin – out of their lives.
And people don’t go to heaven because on their deathbed they decide to finally shape up and repent of their life of sinfulness. People go to heaven because God has worked in their lives, usually over a period of time and in a normal way, and created the faith with which they repent in their midnight hour.
People go to heaven not because of a single, enormous act of faith or love on their part. People go to heaven because of the collective, miraculous, and loving works of Jesus Christ applied to their lives by faith.
That means Jesus did more than hit a home run by dying on the cross, rising from the dead, and ascending to his position of power and authority in the universe. Jesus accumulated every statistic perfectly. And now he lets believers play the game knowing that we can’t lose.
Because the game is already won.
PRAYER: Lord Jesus, Champion of faith, hope, and love, be my hero today as I play the game with the best of my ability. Save me when I prove to be too weak, guide me when I can’t come up with the right decision, and step in for me when I back down from doing our Father’s will. When I’m tempted to blame my failures on others remind me that you are forgiving enough to accept my sinful mistakes, your dying grace is enough to remove all my guilt, and your resurrected power fills me with the ability to do better next time. And then cheer me on, Jesus. Cheer me on! Amen.