We are the champions…

How about that Super Bowl?

Actually we only watched the last few minutes because we had made a spontaneous trip to grandchild-world on Sunday. So basically, it was the BEST Super Bowl ever!!

Since I had to ask Russ on the way home what teams were in it, I was obviously kind of detached from the outcome.  As I observed the two teams in the closing minutes and the ensuing celebration, it was without any emotional investment of a favorite team.

I like the young player that gave God the glory for how he played the game, and I always marvel at the display of a front page paper, hats, t-shirts and all manner of licensed merchandise that appears the instant the game ends. Even my email was immediately flooded with offers from different stores to purchase these items commemorating the Seahawks as national champions.

I used to wonder how on earth they knew in advance who was going to win. I know. Imagine Russ’s pain over the years at some of my other sports questions.

Of course there were boxes of this stuff on BOTH sides of the field. No matter who won, every marketing person was ready to meet our need to have a hat, t-shirt and can koozie for the new champs. Sent right to our door for a small handling fee. One set gets opened, and one set gets….I don’t know….transported to a landfill?

And so we have a winning team and a losing team. And that is the way of sports. But not the way of God.

Don’t apply this thinking to your life. Don’t look around and try to figure if you are on the winning side or losing side just because of the way the game is going. There were winners on the losers bench and losers at the victory celebration.

It isn’t the score board; it’s the life lived out surrendered to Christ. It’s evidenced in the way we handle success and defeat. It’s the way we walk before our God. Faithfully, steadily, obediently.

The only winning team is His team. The only Champion died on a cross for you and for me and rose again in victory. And in His Kingdom, there is no half time show or bad commercials. Sounds like a win – win to me.

God bless you as you celebrate Him each and every day with your renewed life <3