First off, let me say a few words about the championship games this past weekend. I want to express my congratulations to the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers for their victories to get to the Super Bowl. The 49ers keep striving to get their next world championship; they have been in the championship game four out of the last five years. There have been two Super Bowl appearances, but no Lombardi trophy since the 1994 season. San Francisco gave an epic comeback in the NFC championship game just to get another shot at hoisting the trophy (there’s a helpful blog just waiting to be written here about how it’s not how you start, but how you finish, however that’s not where I’m going today).
Moreover, I give a lot of credit to Kansas City. Not many teams have the opportunity to win
back-to-back world championships in the NFL, but the Chiefs have a chance to do
so. Frankly, I just marvel that we live
in a world where Bill Belichick doesn’t coach the New England Patriots, the
once-mighty Denver Broncos have had multiple consecutive losing seasons, the
Kansas City Chiefs have quickly made their bid to be NFL’s next dynasty, and
the Detroit Lions were 30 minutes away from making it to their first ever Super
Bowl, until a furious comeback. Such is the
wacky world of the NFL.
The cities of Detroit and Baltimore are still morose, no
doubt. But I also know there is a lot of
pain and heartache right now, and not just because of a lost football game. People are suffering intensely, and they’ll
talk to you about it, if you bend an ear to them. In my own life for example, back in
September, I saw my health evaporate seemingly overnight. I found myself in a hospital needing an IV,
and a blood transfusion. It reinforced
to me the notion that whenever you and I wake up to face a new day it is a
tremendous gift. Similarly, health is a
huge gift not to be taken for granted.
Furthermore, the Christian has incredible gifts to be
grateful for, and this is true no matter what crisis we may be facing. Look at just the first few verses of Psalm
103 with me. Psalm 103:2 says to “forget
not all of His benefits”; and it goes on to speak of God’s great gift of forgiveness
from iniquities (verse 3; and all God’s people said “amen”); verse 5 states
that the Lord “satisfies your mouth with good things."
Psalm 103:4 makes me want to sing a song of worship to God;
it speaks of how the Lord “redeems your life from destruction.” Pastor Rick Ferguson has been in Heaven since
2002, when an automobile accident unexpectedly ended his life at age 46. But I am still impacted by him to this
day. Since he was saved as a boy, Rick
often said that God saved him, not just from who he was, but from who he would
have become. I echo the same thing for
myself. My life would have been one of
hopelessness, futility, and destruction had I not been redeemed by the glorious
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.
God bless,
Kevin
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