If you pay any attention at all to sports, you know that a team can do wonders, and finally get so good that
the whole country is looking at them as the perfect team that can not be beaten. And what happens? They get beat.
Case in point…Oklahoma, who trounced every team they met during the 2003 season…embarrassed most
of them, and by the time they played Kansas State, all the sportscasters were saying, no matter what happens in this game,
Oklahoma is headed for a major bowl and will stay in that number one spot. And so Kansas State chewed them up and spit them
out, 35 to 7.
And that’s not an isolated case…I’ve told you about Boston College in 1946, that was in
the same glorious season as Oklahoma…so good that when their last game was coming up and was going to be a patsy, they
went ahead and reserved space at the famous Cocoanut Grove restaurant in Boston for their victory party. And in that final
game, their lowly opponent trounced them so badly that they cancelled their victory party. And on the very night that they
were to be there, the Cocoanut Grove restaurant went up in flames, burning to death hundreds of patrons. Boston College’s
loss of a ball game saved the lives of probably every man on that team!
But that’s not my point…their loss turned out to be the best thing that could have happened to
them. No, my point is that we mustn’t get so puffed up at what people think of us…we must be concerned about what
Christ thinks of us. First Corinthians 10: 12 says “Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall.”
Let our life reflect humility. That doesn’t mean to be shy, fearful, overly-reserved, timid soul…rather,
it means for us to be thankful to God for whatever talent others see in us, and act accordingly. We are not our own; we belong
to the God who made us. In my day, we said, “Don’t count your chickens before they hatch.” And that means
for us not to clear a place on the mantle until they hand us the trophy.
37BT Bill Thornton December 7, 2003
