Yesterday marked the opening day for the National Football League regular season. After my sons arrived home from school in the afternoon, we watched the San Diego Chargers lose a game in overtime to the division rival Kansas City Chiefs. It was more than just a tough loss to a division foe on the road, but far worse than that was our best receiver went down in the first half with a torn ACL. Having endured that injury myself, I know it will be a long and painful road back for Keenan Allen.
Health is a precarious thing, especially for gridiron players. There have been at least five or six season-ending injuries for Charger's starting players on offense by the end of the first game! Players work offseason and training camp to be fit to play in the NFL, and to see it all over in an instant was hard to watch. Number 13 was firing on all cylinders in the game and was unstoppable. Move after move, catch after catch, he rose from the turf triumphant, celebrating each first down. After a spectacular grab he placed his hand to his ear, having silenced the crowd. He was letting the Kansas City players hear all about it too, charged up over a fast 21-3 advantage. But suddenly, shockingly, there he was curled up on the ground. No one had tackled him. He simply was running and untouched fell to the ground as if a sniper took out his right knee. For Keenan Allen, one of the best in the business, his game and 2016 season came to a end with six receptions.
My heart went out to the man as I watched him sob uncontrollably as he was carted off the field. He couldn't hide his disappointment, and he was man enough not to attempt to hide his broken heart behind a stoic facade and a "thumbs up" as the game resumed. I couldn't help notice the difference between the confident strut after catching a pass and the broken man hauled off the field, his jersey soaked with tears. It was a contrast as stark as night and day. I have seen the same thing in MMA fighters who all talk a big game before the fight. Listening to all the trash talking makes it sound like neither combatant could possibly lose. But within a matter of seconds, minutes, or a round or two, one of them is bloodied, tapping out, or unconscious on the canvas. Champions fall. Dreams are dashed. Plans change abruptly without warning. A knee ligament which has been strong for decades suddenly fails. What then? How will we respond when it happens to us?
All strength and success of men comes to an end, yet God's divine strength and resources are without limit. We will fail others, and our health may fail us, but in all things we are more than conquerors through faith in Jesus Christ. Life if more than games, health, and winning. Those who humbly place their faith in Christ have new life and love nothing can ever separate us from. God reminded His people in Isaiah 40:28-31: "Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. 29 He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength. 30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, 31 but those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint." Keeping your chin up is sometimes impossible, but the LORD is the lifter of our heads. In looking to God we find ourselves miraculously sustained and can rejoice even when these bodies fail. When our bodies let us down, God lifts us up.
Health is a precarious thing, especially for gridiron players. There have been at least five or six season-ending injuries for Charger's starting players on offense by the end of the first game! Players work offseason and training camp to be fit to play in the NFL, and to see it all over in an instant was hard to watch. Number 13 was firing on all cylinders in the game and was unstoppable. Move after move, catch after catch, he rose from the turf triumphant, celebrating each first down. After a spectacular grab he placed his hand to his ear, having silenced the crowd. He was letting the Kansas City players hear all about it too, charged up over a fast 21-3 advantage. But suddenly, shockingly, there he was curled up on the ground. No one had tackled him. He simply was running and untouched fell to the ground as if a sniper took out his right knee. For Keenan Allen, one of the best in the business, his game and 2016 season came to a end with six receptions.
My heart went out to the man as I watched him sob uncontrollably as he was carted off the field. He couldn't hide his disappointment, and he was man enough not to attempt to hide his broken heart behind a stoic facade and a "thumbs up" as the game resumed. I couldn't help notice the difference between the confident strut after catching a pass and the broken man hauled off the field, his jersey soaked with tears. It was a contrast as stark as night and day. I have seen the same thing in MMA fighters who all talk a big game before the fight. Listening to all the trash talking makes it sound like neither combatant could possibly lose. But within a matter of seconds, minutes, or a round or two, one of them is bloodied, tapping out, or unconscious on the canvas. Champions fall. Dreams are dashed. Plans change abruptly without warning. A knee ligament which has been strong for decades suddenly fails. What then? How will we respond when it happens to us?
All strength and success of men comes to an end, yet God's divine strength and resources are without limit. We will fail others, and our health may fail us, but in all things we are more than conquerors through faith in Jesus Christ. Life if more than games, health, and winning. Those who humbly place their faith in Christ have new life and love nothing can ever separate us from. God reminded His people in Isaiah 40:28-31: "Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. 29 He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength. 30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, 31 but those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint." Keeping your chin up is sometimes impossible, but the LORD is the lifter of our heads. In looking to God we find ourselves miraculously sustained and can rejoice even when these bodies fail. When our bodies let us down, God lifts us up.
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