Give God a Chance
9/22/12
How many times in our life have we rushed to conclusions about an event that is occurring in our life or how have we made a decision about life after a major event has finished overwhelming us at another point in our life? We humans love to accomplish this type of task on an hourly basis and then give no recourse when we are proven wrong in our decision or judgment. If we only could sit around and wait upon God like we are supposed to and to listen for His voice for guidance and direction, the answers may not always be the way we would choose but they would always be the correct ones that protect us for our future.
It is football season once again and this time of year always strikes a chord within my heart since unless I am not feeling well I get an opportunity to travel to a local High School game and watch athletes play the game that they love so well. When I was growing up most of my upper high school years was spent in Texas and everyone who is familiar with Texas understands that football is king and to some of the people there a religion. Diehard fans watch every play on the edge of their seats and cheer and cry with the kids on the field after the game. Concessions are sold and clothing is bought and one cannot forget the other aspects of the game including the band, cheer squads and even the mascots. All of this wrapped up into a three hour presentation once a week becomes a centerpiece for those of us who have kids representing a local school.
Then there are people like myself who go to the games in which I have no ties with nor do I know anyone else in the stands. I revert back to the love of the game I once played and watch in envy as the boys and girls go crazy in support for their team. For many years now I have watched these kids both in winning and in losing cheer for what they believe in and in no certain way no matter what the score is at the end of the game still are proud of their team. However, there comes a time that we humans become disconcerted with our team and begin to doubt their abilities and then decided to up and leave the game before the final whistle has blown. This action eventually leads to us not even going to the games any longer and then not even recognizing the team is playing that particular sport. Our faith and belief are now gone.
I have had this message in my list of things to do for almost a year now and as I was scrolling through the list God said that it was time to finish this one. I do not understand why He gives me titles for a message and then all of a sudden “Wham O” it is time but for some reason He knows all and I am an obedient servant and I try to do my best for Him. So, for whom ever this message is for….God knows your needs and He wants you to understand that He loves you and that He is there for you!!
Modern technology is a wonderful thing and I love to sit in amazement and think about how the internet has changed the lives of so many all over the world. I graduated high school in 1986 from a small southeast Texas town called Nederland. Being a short, white boy living in Texas I had no chance of becoming a football star or even regular player but that did not keep me from trying my best to keep up with the big boys, which meant that I had to do things harder and better than what my body could actually produce and now I am feeling the price as I continue to stiffen up. The internet has not left out the sports aspect of things either in fact there is a website now that I can watch almost any sport live as it occurs and not even have to leave my desk. This also applies to high school sports as well and of course there is always the local radio stations as well who broadcast these games as well.
One of Nederland’s big rivals is a town just up the road called Vidor. Vidor is a very famous town being defined by its segregation rules and hatred of any minority group that dared to enter its city limits. This belief has eased a bunch over the years but I can only imagine that some roots are still planted within the confines of that society. I was listening to the Nederland vs. Vidor game on the internet one night last year and I was doing my best to keep the faith with the Nederland team. It was very obvious that Nederland was struggling with their game and that Vidor was executing their plays more efficiently. I listened to the entire first half of the game while at the same time mentally seeing the boys play on the field and since it was the same football field that Vidor played on when I was in school, I came to the conclusion that I had a pretty good idea of what the field conditions were at the time.
At half time I got up from my desk chair and went upstairs to the kitchen and grabbed me something to eat and drink. Quietly I was thinking that I should not waste my time with this game and that if I hurried I could find another game on the internet to listen to. Bonnie came into the kitchen and asked how the game was going and I kind of grunted a bit which told her everything that she wanted to know and then she responded that there are two halves to the game and not to give up just yet. I ignored her of course and continued to fill my mouth with food and then took the trek down the stairs to my office and plopped back into the desk chair. I placed the food on the desk along with the cup into its rightful spot in front of me.
I turned the sound back up and began to listen to the announcers give the rundown of the first half stats of both teams. It was quite clear that Nederland had dominated the field of play but in almost every drive mistakes had cost them a score or had forced them to settle for another type of lesser score. I shook my head and opened up another window on my computer to look for another game. As I was sitting there a few more game options appeared and I looked at them with close intent and then made up my mind to change the channel if Nederland did not change their game plan soon after the beginning of the second half.
The second half of the game began and it was obvious from Nederland’s first possession that things had not changed much and I once again debated about changing the channel to listen to another game. I decided against this change because of my loyalties but groaned with every failed series that both teams put into play. The third quarter ended with hardly any excitement and with the fourth quarter approaching I made the decision to listen to the game until something happened, for either team. A few minutes into the fourth quarter and Nederland decided to actually do something with the ball on offense and took the lead within a few minutes of the 4th. However, Vidor quickly answered with a touchdown which placed them back into the lead and my hopes for a victory by Nederland went out the window once again; by quickly I mean that the Vidor player ran Nederland’s kickoff back for a touchdown which this was the reason that I had lost hope with the team.
More stalled drives from Nederland proved to be the proverbial nail in the coffin and it was now time for Vidor to close out the game by running the clock down to end the game. Every person who has been to any type of sporting event or has watched a sport on TV has witnessed this type of action unfold before their eyes. It is always painful for the team who is behind in this situation because the players are just begging for one more shot to win the game. At this point I realized that all was lost and my loyalty to my old team went out the window and I clicked on the close button as Vidor took possession of the ball which I believed would be the last series of downs before the game ended.
I hurriedly opened another window and began listening to another ball game which was closer and it seemed like the end result was still in doubt. I finished listening to this game and then looked around for a few minutes to see if another game was still on or if any post game show was on. Most everyone’s games had been over and the stations signed off so I closed out the entire program and went to one of the news agencies and began to look to see what was happening in the world. Not much was happening in the news so I decided to turn off the entire internet and head to bed. At no point during this time did I ever dream about finding out what the final score of the Nederland game had been, I was sure that they had lost and really did not want to confirm my beliefs. So, I made my way away from the computer and went to bed.
The next morning I woke up and performed my normal routine which included the locating of all of the high school football scores from the local area and then I include the ones of my “homeland” of Texas. I located the local scores and really found no surprises and then quickly refreshed my memory of next week’s local schedule to see which game I was interested in attending. While I was thinking about some of the interesting games were coming up and figuring out which ones I wished to attend, I made my way over towards one of the Texas newspapers which I knew would have the previous night’s scores present. I began scrolling down the list of the sores and found some that caught my eye including some of the old district teams of the Beaumont area. Then I came across the Nederland score and was floored. I could not believe the score and I immediately went to the top of the page to make sure that I had the correct date and year for the results.
After verifying that the correct dates were present I scrolled back down and looked at the score once again. Nederland had won the game but I could not believe it until I read the column about the game. After reading what had happened in the last minute of the game I became frustrated with myself and started asking why didn’t I stay with the game and listen to it till the last play. Vidor had committed a turnover and Nederland took the ball down the field and scored the go ahead touchdown which gave them the victory. And I totally missed it because I could not stay around and finish out what I had started.
I pose the same type scene with God to you and then ask you how often do we attribute this type of action towards God? Many times we have jumped the gun where God is concerned and have gone on with our ways without listening to His final words of advice. We humans like to believe that we know what the outcome of events will be by just watching the majority of the unfolding scenario and then make a final assumption of that scene at another place when the scenario ends. I have found myself doing this many times in my life and to be honest I have done this with God just as many times, and if you are honest with yourself you have to admit that you have done it to God s well.
God has His own timing and His own answers for our lives. By our own admission it is difficult for us to stand and wait patiently for His answer because most of us have the attention span of a Nat in this situation, I being one of the greatest offenders. See, God understands us and He knows our patterns and He does His best in trying to make us realize that we are not in control of things that go on around us. We have to give God a chance to complete His timing within our lives and the best way we can do this is to give Him our timeframe. God cannot operate on our time only His divine time allowance can He supply us with the adequate knowledge that we need to function and to make correct decisions. And when we allow God to perform this miracle in our lives, then we have automatically given up control of our lives to Him and all of our physical rights we have abandoned into His authority.
God then can transform our spiritual rights back into our lives and place them in the proper order which is first in our lives and not second or third as we like to place them. When we allow God to complete this we will be able to see the difference from the answers He gives us from those that we want to have. And when we are receptive to His advice and timing, the best for our lives are at hand and we can be assured that our lives are walking in sound communion with the one and only true God. The only way to obtain this lifestyle is for us to repent and to allow God to restore His presence back into our lives. No man or government will ever satisfy our needs like God will, both physically and spiritually. Do not turn god off because you think that He is “slow” to respond. It is at this time that we need to realize that He is actually waiting on us to place our lives back into the proper alignment with Him so that our perfect answer may be revealed to us.
DLB
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