Devotion 406 - W

The little girl sits next to me.  We are awake a full four hours past her bedtime, but this night is special.  I don’t know if it’s the wild excitement of a late bedtime or my wild excitement about the World Series, but we all sit, her daddy, me and her singing “Go Cubs Go.”  She knows it by heart.  And I love her for it.

A little after midnight, my oldest texted. We needed only one letter, “W”; our beloved boys in blue had done it.  They had won the World Series.

In a day and an age where this country has lacked things and people and events to celebrate, we had something big and epic and wonderful to root for.

My oldest and my youngest got it.  They knew this was big.  My two middlers; however,  I believe I could audibly hear their eyes roll when I talked baseball.  I started to recap once again the historic nature of these events.  The longest drought in sports history had now been eclipsed.  I recalled with great fondness summers spent watching the Cubs; my brother setting up TV trays in front of WGN so we could score the games.

This event seemed to bring my world together and for a few minutes everything seemed perfect.  I quickly realized even the baseball cynics in my family would be growing up in a new era.  The lovable losers I have known for my fifty years had been replaced by World Series champions.  I had trouble reconciling it in my own mind.  Fifty years of next year was no more. 

I flew my ‘W’ and began to adjust to blue and red pride.  The school, the office, the grocery store.  Suddenly there were no strangers anywhere just jubilant cub fans.  The win became an instant conversation starter and the crazy good of victory seemed to sew us all together.

Winning is powerful.

Within hours I sit across from a dear friend whose spouse has fallen out of love and my friend seems to drown in their loss.

I watch as my daddy walks slower than usual across the room.  He is fighting the battle with a neurological decease but there are days when the illness is stronger and it wins...

I fight the never ending sting of discouragement when my skills seem so small and my plate so full.  And the word that creeps into my mind in the still of the morning is simple and succinct,  loser.

It creeps into a corner of the mind when I feel I am simply not enough, not smart enough or strong enough or wise enough or good enough.

It creeps in when I see disappointment on a cherished face or feel the responsibility for a failed project.

Oh I know Beloved I know who whispers the word.  I know who authors the lies.  I know with a shake of my finger the snake that torments, but the devil has a way of building traps that truth has to take its time opening.

He gets us weak and takes us low and a certain amnesia sets and tries to convince us that the battle is ours.  When in reality the war we face has already been won.

Do we get that?

Can we see?  Do we feel the magnitude of that victory?

Our struggles, our weakness, our failures, and our discouragement do not make us losers, they make us need and want and seek God.

Alone, we can do nothing, but with Him, watch out world we are flying the 'W'.

It is extraordinary really.

I write and want and hope for the perfect life.  But it is in the sadness, the suffering, the most frightening moments of my life, that I have seen and held and understood the most sacred parts of Him.

I don’t like to struggle.  I get angry and hurt and wonder where He is yet I know I look a lot harder when life is hard.

The world applauds the ones who hold the answers so we attempt to be just that, the everything to everyone.  But it is in the transparency of weakness, that the world sees the Father.

When our hands are open and surrendered the world can see the Jesus in us.

People need this team dear one.  They need to know we are on their side and so is He.  They need to see something that is different, not fierce but full of love.  They need to know we are not in a losing battle but we are on the other side of victory waiting for the day we get to celebrate.  He is the Victor, let’s start living in victory.

He has made it clear to you, mortal man, what is good and what the LORD is requiring from you— to act with justice, to treasure the LORD's gracious love, and to walk humbly in the company of your God. Micah 6:8