For the first time in 6 months, I'm caught up at work. I don't have any reports due, I don't owe anyone an e-mail or any data. So I sat back and began to think about something I saw last night.
If a Houston team gets into a championship we may watch some, but we don't usually watch sports on TV. Last night Cindy flipped the channel to catch the 10 :00 news and the NCAA final was still on. It was still close at that point but Memphis began to pull away. With just a couple minutes left they were up by nine points. It looked like they had the game in the bag. But then Kansas pulled an amazing come back and tied the score in the last seconds, throwing the game into overtime, where they eventually won. They never gave up; they never quit, they never took their eyes off the prize.
I was reminded of another athletic performance two years ago:
Why did Lindsey lose? (The sound is low on this video for some reason. You'll have to turn it up to hear it)
Philippians 3:13-14 (New King James Version)13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
She took her eyes off the prize. Pride reared it's head and she just couldn't resist showing off how good she was...and in the process lost the victory while displaying her foolishness for the whole world to see.
How did Kansas win? The coach changed his strategy in those last few minutes. Memphis was a notoriously poor free throw shooting team. So he had his players begin to foul them before they could try to shoot. Memphis missed free throw after free throw while Kansas slowly made up the ground. He attacked them at their weakest point. Just like Satan attacks us.
We must remain ever vigilant in our walk with God. It is so tempting to take our eyes off the prize; to say "It won't hurt if I miss church this once." The next thing you know, you've dropped out all together. "This one drink", "This one Playboy", this one whatever, all lead to disaster as our eyes stray from the prize and we go down in a heap just yards from the finish line.
