Wednesday, April 27, 2011

The Overtime Edition

I'm sure glad life isn't like hockey. Last night I was on an emotional roller coaster as my beloved Vancouver Canucks ended up in a sudden death (or sudden life for the optimists out there) game with last year's Stanley Cup Champions, the Chicago Blackhawks. To add even more suspense to an already heart stopping game... it ended up in overtime. Both teams' entire season rested on "next goal wins". Thankfully, there was "the big play" where the hero of the game intercepted a pass and shot it top corner over the goalie to win it for the Canucks. My heart remains unbroken (for now), but they have to win three more series in order to capture the Cup.

Alex Burrows celebrates his winning goal in overtime Tuesday at Rogers Arena.
Photograph by:
Mark Van Manen, The Province

There are 30 teams in the NHL... and for every team that doesn't win, there is the label "failure" awaiting. Sure, some of them did better than they did the previous year...and that's an encouraging sign... but for many others, the early season expectations ended up being disappointments. Out of all those teams, only one will end up with the label "winner". I'm sure glad God doesn't work that way!

In God's system, all who take the gift of grace end up being winners. We humans are not in competition with each other but, rather, our adversary is simply trying to keep us from hearing about "the big play". We just celebrated the greatest overtime winning shot that was heard around the world! Christ's death on the cross put the game of life into overtime... and the adversary thought he had the game won but, hallelujah, Christ arose, defeating the power of sin and death forever. It was sudden life for all of us!

So, regardless of which NHL team you cheer for (if any)... remember, that winning in life is possible for everyone when we put our faith in the "the big play" of the resurrection!

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