What you do after you get beat is more important?

              The 2015 Super Bowl game was great. It was the kind of ending I like in any sport. Both teams had the opportunity to win in the closing seconds of the contest. It could go either way depending on breaks and play. I may not like who wins ultimately but it is exciting.

 

              Seattle has the ball behind 4 points to the Patriots with time ticking away. A pass down the sidelines from QB Wilson to Kearse with the rookie Butler defending. Both jump for the ball. Butler tips it and Kearse falls with the ball bouncing finally into his arms for a catch. An amazing thing to watch and a disappointing thing to see for Butler as 9 times out of 10 that ball would have been incomplete. Not this time, Butler got beat on his coverage. He just lost out. So here is Seattle first and goal down by 4 with the clock ticking down. Coach calls for a slant passing play. The first year rookie who just a year ago was playing Shorter and Stillman and West Georgia and Florida Tech as a corner for the NCAA Division II West Alabama Tigers is covering after just being beat by Kearse in the Super Bowl. What does he do but step into the line of flight intercepting the pass and falling on the 1½ yard line. The Patriots now have the ball with a 4 point lead and 18 or so seconds left. The rest is history!

Peter King of the Monday Morning Quarterback writes of Butler. “Butler got the nickname “Scrap” for being a feisty player in minicamp, not backing down. The coaches liked him because when they’d quiz players about assignments, they could tell he’d been studying tape and knew how to anticipate what was coming.” That’s the thing. What to do when you just got beat, when you’re not supposed to be a part of that team, when you have only 190 snaps in 18 games this season? Malcolm Butler was an undrafted free agent in the rookie minicamp for New England. By all football logic he was not supposed to be on that team, or was he?

The apostle Paul was not supposed to be on the Jesus team either. He persecuted the Jesus followers to death and imprisonment. Following his real life encounter with Jesus Paul embarked on a more difficult task of preaching the Gospel to the Gentiles. He prepared for 14 years like Butler studying tape and anticipating what might happen on the field and like Butler Paul got beat.

 In 2 Corinthians 11:24-25 Paul writes, “²⁴ Five times I received 39 lashes from Jews. ²⁵ Three times I was beaten with rods by the Romans. Once I was stoned by my enemies. Three times I was shipwrecked. I have spent a night and a day in the open sea. (HCSB)

When we get beat what we do later is critical. Do we just stop, lick our wounds and dwell on how bad it was or how we failed or…well you know. It’s been said the too many times people quit just before the breakthrough. The Super Bowl would have a different winner if Butler had quit after being beat by Kearse. You and I might not be believers if Paul had quit after being beat. Both these men knew why they did what they did and after being beat got up and continued. Can that be said of me and you?

 

For a Jesus follower the consequences are eternal.

 

Go ahead, get up, start again, it’s worth it!

 

We WIN!        

In HIS Service and yours,

Bro G