Finishing the Race – Strong! (7)

 

Comeback Stories

 

I love comeback stories, for they give me hope. Growing up in Maryland and following the University of Maryland football team, I’ll always recall listening to the November 10, 1984 game between the Miami Hurricanes and the Terrapins. At halftime the score was Miami 31, Maryland 0. Then quarterback Frank Reich, who had been injured in a previous game, came off the bench to lead his team to 42 points in the second half, winning the game 42 – 40. At the time it was the biggest comeback in NCAA history.

 

Then on January 3, 1993, while Reich was playing for the NFL’s Buffalo Bills, with his team trailing 35 – 3 early in the 3^rd quarter, he once again led his team to a remarkable comeback, winning the game 41 – 38 in overtime. At the time, it was the greatest comeback in NFL history. I can remember turning the television off in the first half, thinking the game was over!

 

Thanks to DVDs, I have watched both games in their entirety, marveling at two amazing comebacks.

 

There are comeback stories throughout history. Ulysses S. Grant was pretty much a failure at everything he did until he saved the Union. Churchill was considered an eccentric failure, out of touch with reality and blackballed from the BBC until he was called to save democracy. Lincoln, though he did have moments of success, had a long list of failures prior to being elected President.

 

Life is a marathon and we are called to finish the race on the course that our Father has set for us. If we should veer off course, it is never too late to return to our destiny and to fulfill it, finishing the race strong. If we ask, “How is this possible?” We need only look to Jesus and the redemption He has purchased for us, we need not understand how these things are possible, in fact we can’t really understand how they are possible, but we can trust in the Nature and Character of our Father and our Lord Jesus, and in that trust and by God’s grace we can finish strong.

 

In Matthew 21:28 – 32 Jesus tells a parable about two sons and their father. One morning the father asked the first son to work in the family vineyard that day and the son said “No.” Then the father asked the second son to also work in the vineyard and he said “Yes.”

 

However, the first son regretted what he had said and went to the vineyard and worked, while the second son, even though he said he would work in the vineyard, never showed up. Jesus asks a question, both of His immediate audience and of us, “Which of the two did the will of his father?”

 

It is how we finish the race that matters. The first son began the day in rebellion, but he changed course to obedience. The second son began the day in obedience, but then went off course into disobedience.

 

Some of us reading this may have led lives of consistent faithfulness to Christ and others, O how I rejoice in your testimony. Thank you for your wonderful fidelity to Jesus and the Gospel! You have been an inspiration to me.

 

But to those of us who have not been faithful in our Father’s vineyard, it is never too late to show up for Jesus, it is never too late to get back on the course of discipleship, it is never too late to make a difference in the lives of others by showing them Jesus and telling the Good News. It is never, ever, too late.

 

In the beginning of the book of the prophet Joel, God speaks of the results of sin and disobedience, in part we read, “What the gnawing locust has left, the swarming locust has eaten; and what the swarming locust has left, the creeping locust has eaten; and what the creeping locust has left, the stripping locust has eaten” (Joel 1:4).

 

Then, in Chapter 2, as God speaks of His redemption and reconciliation, as we see our call to repentance, He says, “Then I will make up to you for the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the creeping locust, the stripping locust, and the gnawing locust” (Joel 2:25). How can this be? How can God make up for our foolishness and waste? It is inconceivable. Yet, God is God and God does what only God can do.

 

O dear friends, we can trust Jesus to do the impossible, we can trust Him to redeem our lives and to lead us into a strong finish – no matter how far we have departed from the original marathon course. There are still people for us to touch in Jesus, still people for us to bless, still people for us to tell about Jesus, still people for us to love, to serve, to care for, to show mercy and grace to.

 

And so we have Hebrews 12:1–2:

 

“Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

 

Wherever we are today, whether on the course or off the course – in Christ we can still finish strong as we trust in Him. If we are off course, isn’t it time to return to Him…today…right now?

 

Isn’t it time for the greatest comeback of your life?