Friday, June 1, 2018
What shall
we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since he did not spare even his own Son but
gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else? Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for
his own? No one—for God himself has
given us right standing with himself. Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was
raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right
hand, pleading for us. Can anything ever
separate us from Christ’s love? Does it
mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted,
or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are
killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”) No, despite all these things, overwhelming
victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. And I am convinced that nothing can ever
separate us from God’s love. Neither
death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our
worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s
love. No power in the sky above or in
the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate
us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:31-39(NLT)
When you ponder life
from the statistical side you have to wonder how anyone can ever imagine considering
our existence a continual victory.
Statistically, it just doesn’t add up!
And yet, here’s Paul telling us despite even being slaughtered like
sheep, the Christian life is an overwhelming victory.
Well…a little
explanation is begged, please!
One of the most
monumental achievements in baseball lore is batting .400. That would be an average of getting four hits
in every 10 tries. The guy who was best
at it statistically was Tip O’Neill (not the politician) in 1887. His average was .485 that year, playing for
the St Louis Browns. The last man to
accomplish this Iron-man record was Ted Williams 77 years ago, hitting .406 as
a member of the Boston Red Sox[2]. But, statistically, even the best .400
sluggers (and there have been 35 of them since 1869 when Major League Baseball began)
were failures at the plate more times than not.
(Do the math – if you get up to the plate 10 times, and get 4 hits – the
other 6 times you didn’t!) One of the
most recognizable names in baseball was Babe Ruth. He held the all-time record for the most home
runs in a season (60), and in a career (714) for decades. But the Bambino (as he was
nicknamed) struck out almost twice as many times as he hit home runs (1330). Statistically he was not always victorious!
Translate that into
real life. If, as life-livers, we strike
out more than hit home runs, we are also hard-pressed to claim victory always. Consider your credit score, total number of
times with a temper flare-up, traffic accidents (or speeding tickets). Add up the number of times you showed up
late, or broke your promise in some other way.
And lest we leave anyone out, have you ever lied, taken something that
didn’t belong to you, or betrayed a friend?
Let’s face it, you’ve
never been victorious always.
And that has more to do with the score-keeping than the reality of how
score is really kept. By keeping the
statistics of human accomplishment (or failure) we see just how fragile and
prone to failure are these earthen vessels.
Yet Paul declares our victory is overwhelming – far greater
than hitting .406 in a season. The
Apostle declares that our victory, our life, our eternity is dependent not on
human ability, but on the love of God…which never fails.
For You Today
A great exercise today would be looking
over your lifetime batting average. Take
note of the hits and home runs…but pay attention to the times you struck out,
received a pass, popped-out, fouled-out, were benched, or even failed to show
up for the game.
Then remember – it was all those
failures (including your supposed successes) for which Christ died, and the
loving grace of God covers. Then thank
Him that His record book in Heaven counts, and yours will remain unpublished.
Go to VIDEO
[1] Title Image: Courtesy of Pixabay.com
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