Lessons from the Pats

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it (John 1:5, NIV).

So on Christmas Eve afternoon, we had the Patriots Jets game on at the shop. It wasn’t much of a game. The Patriots trounced the Jets 41-3. An epic spanking that left us Pats fans cheering “ho, ho, ho!” Near the end of the 4th quarter one of the commentators stated the obvious (they do that a lot don’t they), “This game has been over for a long time.” How true that was. And now–mercifully for the Jets–it would not only be over, but would end.

When it comes to living the Christian life, we need to remember that while the game has not yet ended for us, because of Jesus, it has been over for a long time. We still have to work, fight, and counter the enemy; and there are times when that does not look all that pretty. But once Jesus entered this world and did what He came to do, the devil lost–and lost so bad he made the Jets look good!

So don’t fret over bad plays, tough calls, mistakes, mishaps, or missteps. Jesus won. The game has been over for a long, long, long time. There is no way to lose. There is nothing we can do to upset that outcome. Jesus saw to that. In fact, Jesus even uses our mistakes, mishaps, and missteps to work for good instead of bad. Just confess, repent, accept His grace and keep on running. We aren’t running to win. We’re running to finish the race.