Day of Praise

Tu, 09/10/13, "Day of Praise"

"[Paul said,] 'So take heart, men, for I have faith in God that it will be exactly as I have been told.'" - Acts 27:25

Ninety-two is more than eleven, at least it was the last time I looked. It's even more than twenty-two. In football terms, that means that seventy players are standing on the sidelines for most of the game, specifically, seventy players on my son's high school freshmen football team.

I admire the coach. Coach Davis does an amazing job trying both to get all the boys into the game and also to win the game. I truly admire the coach.

I even more admire the seventy boys who don't get much playing time, no matter how hard the coach tries.

Those seventy boys are good young men like the other twenty-two. I know them. Those seventy boys have also had grueling workouts last winter, spring, and all summer. Those seventy boys also have to study hard and make good grades to stay on the team.

But those seventy boys are not going to hear their name much on the public address system. It's called laboring in obscurity, working hard day after day to get a chance that might come.

And it might not.

It builds character.

It requires heart.

It requires faith.

That God has a purpose and a plan for your life that has to do with both being proud of yourself and also wanting God to be proud of you most of all.

This is the kind of heart that the vast majority of people in the world must have. People who, when it's all said and done, are not going to feel good about their work and its outcome unless each one can be proud of their own work and know that God is proud too. Actually, more than seventy out of ninety-two need such heart.

It's like ninety-two out of ninety-two.

And six billion out of six billion.

If you feel like you're laboring in obscurity, take heart.

You're not alone.

"[Paul said,] 'So take heart, men, for I have faith in God that it will be exactly as I have been told.'" - Acts 27:25

Praise God!


Pastor Chris
"The gospel is the story of Jesus [what God's only Son has done for us that we can't do for ourselves], spoken as a promise." - Robert Jenson