Sports teams have their ups and downs. For many who are fans of the English football and Chelsea it has been a long time since the last up; 1955 as far as I can tell. There were many years where hope ran high, but success always remained in hiding. This year things seem like they are going to be different! New owner with investment monies, players, and a team attitude all give the enduring fans a sense that this could be the year of real change. Yesterday’s distant dream is today’s hope and maybe even tomorrow’s success.
Many have an illusive sense of winning inside. They find themselves striving to achieve. Men are competitive by their nature with winning a natural part of how we approach life. Women often like to present a more genteel attitude, yet when one looks at the attitude and approach it is easy to see how winning is an integral part of their lives as well – it is just achieved differently. The link between the potential to win and “hope” is always present. It is as tenuous as the last time one believed that they had won, and as necessary as salt to one’s survival. Yet for many of us life has thrown so many bad balls at us that hope often seems to be a distant dream. We are caught going through the motions, searching for light in the wrong places, wondering in the quiet of the night if things will ever get better.
They will. We have won; it is just “when” the celebration begins! God has conquered Evil, our place in eternity is reserved, and everything is waiting. John saw it clearly with a “Great White Throne and the One Enthroned. Nothing could stand before or against the Presence, nothing in Heaven, nothing on earth.” (Revelation 20.11)
Our challenge is now to respond as winners. We have the opportunity to let compassion, mercy, and love play out in everything because these are the winning principles! Hope is here; we have an opportunity to be a part of it.
