Winning

I have been struggling with this week's post. Not because I don't have anything to say but rather because I can't narrow down what I'd like to say. I have begun and deleted this post at least five times today. I began almost eight hours ago and then left it until now because nothing has captured the heart of what I'm feeling. That said, this probably won't either, but it's going to have to do.

In many ways, the Cowboys game on Monday night serves as an analogy for where I am. Okay, I admit, football-is-to-life analogies are way too cliche (Remember the Titans anyone?) but you'll have to deal with it. See, the Cowboys beat the Eagles not because they made fewer mistakes than the Eagles (they made more). Nor was their victory the result of the Cowboys' superior playing (even though the Cowboys are superior, they didn't necessarily play better than the Eagles!). Rather, the game was won on their refusal to let mistakes get the best of them.

And I think that's where I realize I need to be. Last week, I posted about the messed up marriages of people I know in ministry. Stuff like that can easily get to me. I'm no less angry this week over the pain that these people have caused themselves, their families and the people under their spiritual authority. However, these guys are on my (our) team. And, as in sports, if we're going to win, we can't let the of our teammates wear us down.

I feel like the reason I become so angry when the people who have earned my respect fall into sin is because I recognize that I can so easily be there, too. I recognize that, unless I am consistently checking my life and repenting of the areas where I am beginning to stray slightly off-course, I can become bogged down in the stuff that doesn't matter. See, it's not just the mistakes of our teammates, we can't let the mistakes (sin) that we commit wear us down either.

Following Jesus is about victory, but so many Christians are getting beaten badly. Either through sin that others have committed that they can't get over, or through their own sin (or a combination of both). And what happens is that they get frustrated with the way other Christians are living and it stunts the growth of their own faith; or they become frustrated with their own cycle of poor choices and feel like they can't get out from under it.

But, what is necessary is to turn their lives around. The word the Bible uses for this is repentance. We need to repent of our own poor choices and we need to repent of allowing the poor choices of others get the best of us. As we do that, we'll experience this 'victory' that we're supposed to see.

After the game on Monday night, wide receiver Terrell Owens said, "It's not how you start, it's how you finish." May we all finish well. May we all repent from our mistakes. May we, admit our failures and move forward from them so that we can see victory.



...and may the Cowboys win the Super Bowl.