Today's Devotional
October 9 , 2007
Subject: Down But Never Out
2 Corinthians 9:8 - "And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:"
What an epic Monday Night Football game on last evening. It definitely inspired me in my understanding of what it means to trust in an everlasting God. Here's what happened:
The Dallas Cowboys, undefeated, traveled to Buffalo, New York to play the hapless Bills. They've had a less than stellar season. Needless to say, they were huge underdogs. However, for most of the game, this was to be their coming out party. Tony Romo, the quarterback for the Cowboys started the game with two interceptions on his first two passes. In fact, by halftime, 14 of the 17 points that the Bills had were scored by the defense on two interceptions returned for touchdowns. If that weren't enough after the Cowboys opened the second half with a long drive resulting in a field goal, the Buffalo Bills returned the kickoff 103 yards for another touchdown. The Cowboys were not having a great night. Finally in the 4th quarter it appeared as though their luck was changing. The Cowboys intercepted a pass from the Bills and ran it down to about the 16 yard line. Two plays later, at the goal line, Romo threw his 5th interception of the game. Can it get worse? With less than two minutes remaining and with all of the mishaps, the Cowboys were still only down by 8 and this was surely to be their final drive of the night. They would need a touchdown and a 2 point conversion to tie the game and send it into overtime. With 20 seconds left the 'Boys scored. Now the try for 2. It's a pass to the corner and it's incomplete. Surely the game was over. Not yet. The Cowboys kicked off and recovered the ball on the Bills side of the field with 18 seconds left. One pass play to the 25 and it looks like they could win, but no, after instant replay review, the pass was ruled incomplete. Now with 13 seconds left, the Cowboys run two plays and with 1 second left on the clock they try a 52 yard field goal, the longest this kicker had ever kicked. It's up and it's good, but no the Bills coach called time out so we must re-kick. The re-kick is also good and with no time on the clock, the Cowboys win the game 25 to 24.
That was a long way to tell you that often in life, we may be down and the odds may be against us coming out with a victory, but it's simply a matter of hope. We may have messed up by "turning the ball over" time after time, but the game isn't over. We may have "played poor defense" and the world may have scored against us, but the game isn't over.
In the game last night, the commentator kept mentioning, "how many chances are the Cowboys going to get," because it seemed like for every mistake, there was always another chance. That's what we call grace; and with grace we can always be down, but we're never ever out, because victory is ours in Jesus Christ.
Carlen
