Day of Praise

Fri, 11/24/17, "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

There's a huge, huge, huge, huge and did I say huge high school football game here in our community tonight. The city of Hoover and the city of Alabaster (Thompson HS) high schools play in the semifinals of the state playoffs with the winner advancing on to the state finals.

It got me to thinking again as I have in the past on the matter of how many boys will actually play in the game compared to how many have put in years and years worth of work in order to be a part of the team.

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 football team.

I admire the coach. Coach Niblett, who is a marvelous Christian man, does an amazing job trying both to get many of 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.

But it builds character.

It requires heart.

It requires faith.

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!