Shot to the Face

As I was saying, I love to watch Chapel Hill Christian School basketball.  I was watching the purple play the orange the other night.  It was a fun game.  There were really good players on both teams.

One of our sixth grade girls named Maddie obviously loves to play.  Whenever she is on the floor, she has the biggest grin on her face.  It didn’t seem to matter what was happening in the game; she was enjoying it.  She could be scrapping for the ball on the floor, shooting a layup or taking a hard foul; it was all the same:  smiling!:)

Along about the third period Katie, one of our fifth graders, was in for the orange.  She was fighting under the board for a rebound; yep, she was fighting pretty hard.  Then it happened – a “shot to the face.”  Not on purpose mind you, but it was a hard shot nonetheless.  Down on the floor she went, and I thought, “Nope…don’t think poor Katie will come back from that one.”  I’m pretty sure stuff was running out of her eyes and nose.  What stuff?  You know the stuff; it’s the stuff that comes out when you take a “shot to the face.”

But then she began to move and got knee high off the floor.  Shortly she was waist high.  And wonder of wonders she stood to full height!  Right after that Katie was given a technical foul shot.  You know the kind.  It’s when they clear the floor, and you get to shoot one by yourself.  Guess what?!  Katie’s face looked like Maddie’s face :)!

Of course this got me to thinkin’ about Rocky Balboa, who said: “It’s not about how hard you can hit; it’s about how hard you can get hit and keep movin’ forward!”

Jesus’ brother, James, said it even better in the Bible: “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds (take life’s “shots to the face”), because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.  Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” 

Let’s look at it backwards.   If we want to be “complete” in our friendship to God, we have to keep trying and not give up.  It’s just like getting up after a “shot to the face” or movin’ forward after getting hit.  In this life we will take many “shots to the face.”  If we remember that these tests will make our friendship to the Lord more complete if we go through them, we can have joy in the midst of the trial!  Or, like Katie, we can stand at the free throw line and grin.

Can we pray about that?  Dear Lord, we all go through hard things.  Some of us are going through something difficult right now.  Will You, even today, begin to show us how this particular trial is drawing us closer to You?  And as our friendship to You becomes more complete, could You give us Your joy in the midst of the struggle?  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Proud of you,

Pastor Wilson