In high school I played basketball. Of course I would, being six-foot-four. But, in spite of my height, I just wasn’t that good. Oh, I was better than most of the guys on the team, but I was definitely not starter material. You might say I was the best of the scrubs, so I got more time on the court than a lot of guys, but nothing like the very best players we had.
There was one school, though, whose basketball team was so bad that our coach played all the second- and third-stringers the whole game just to make it interesting. I got to start in those games, and every bench-warming body got a chance to play. We all knew the outcome before we walked onto the court. It was a foregone conclusion that we would be winning that one.
That’s exactly what it’s like to be a Christian. We already know how this story ends, and we’re on the winning team. That’s why Paul said, “But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.” However, to win we still have to “show up”. If my high school team had decided to not play since we already knew the result, we would have ended up forfeiting the game, and the other team would have won by default. So even though we “overwhelmingly conquer,” that’s only true if we’re actually in the game to begin with.
That’s something to think about.
Westside Church of Christ 