I’ve never been a big sports fan… I do follow the Scripps National Spelling Bee, which I feel should count as a sport—it has aired on ESPN, after all—but other than that, I’ve always found it more appealing to play sports than to watch them. Being rather un-athletic, even playing sports has been on a limited basis. But I’m married to a sports fan, and am slowly gaining some interest in watching sports. Not to brag or anything, but this year, in fact, I actually watched the Super Bowl (not just the commercials), from beginning to end, without so much as a magazine or knitting project in hand…. I know, I know—I’m really coming along!
Recently, while watching a rebroadcast of a basketball game, the crawler at the bottom of the screen displayed the final score of the very game we were watching. How has our world come to this? We take pains to avoid learning the outcome of a game we’re planning to watch, but sometimes it’s impossible!
The other day I asked my husband if it is, in fact, better not to know the outcome. “It depends” he answered. I prompted him for more. He explained that if your team is way behind, it might help to know that the score ends up being close, or if the team that is lagging behind goes on to win. Then you know that it will be an exciting game to watch, when otherwise you might have switched it off, considering it not worthwhile.
Imagine how it would be for the players. Would they want to know the outcome while still on the field? Think about it for a minute. Picture yourself suited up for your best sport (or spelling bee, if you prefer). You’ve practiced and practiced, you’ve prepped for this moment by following your best training routine, and now you’re ready to take your place, to battle it out, and try your hardest to come out on top. Would you want to know the outcome before you ever step into the arena? My opinion: you would benefit from knowing, if you were going to win. On the other hand, it seems like a crippling disadvantage, this foreknowledge, for the one fated to lose. You might think it would make you fight harder, this peek into the future, but I’m talking about a set-in-stone, immutable outcome. I think that would dishearten even the staunchest competitors.
For the winners, though? Different story. Think about it: all those moments when the other team has the upper hand; when you’ve somehow missed an easy shot; when you get parked on the bench for the next round. But I’ve already won, you think. It’s a done deal. What a shot in the arm that would be!
In our lives as followers of Jesus, there are times when life feels like a losing battle. Times when the enemy seems to have the upper hand. Times we just want to concede, retreat to the locker room, shower up and head home in defeat. But the Bible is full of the very best kind of “spoilers” for the spiritual battle that is raging in and around us day in and day out. If you believe the Bible, you will be assured that, though the battle is raging, though we may look like we’re so far behind there’s no hope, we are actually on the winning team. It isn’t hopeless. Jesus has already won the battle for us, and we are victors with Him. Take a look at the following verses. Let them sink in. I pray they will encourage you to keep pressing on through the darkest days.
Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18, NASB
My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.
John 10:27-29, NASB
But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
Ephesians 2:4-7, NASB (emphasis added)
You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.
1 John 4:4, NASB
For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete…
Colossians 2:9-10, NASB
For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.
Hebrews 10:14, NIV