Knocked Down, But Not Knocked Out

I am sure most of you watched theBig Game yesterday evening. It is the most watched single sporting event in the world. I watched it, and I was in the Colts corner. I am not totally sure why. I don’t have anything against the Bears or their coach. I guess you just have to be for someone. But then, I did feel Tony Dungee just deserved some success after what he went through losing his son and all. The sympathy factor.

My heart sunk in the first 14 seconds of the game when Chicago ran the kickoff all the way back for a TD, the first ever in a Super Bowl (whoops! The Big Game). Then three of Mannings first four passes touched defenders instead of receivers. It didn’t look good at that point.

But I am reminded of Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 4:8-9 “We are pressed on every side by troubles, but not crushed and broken. We are perplexed because we don't know why things happen as they do, but we don't give up and quit. 9 We are hunted down, but God never abandons us. We get knocked down, but we get up again and keep going. (TLB)

Tony Dungee (cool Tony) and the Colts didn’t give up. They pressed on to lead by the half and never fall behind again. They could have just given up thinking, “this is our destiny.”

Don’t give up today whatever you may be facing. Don’t give up, get up. Another translation of that Scripture says, “I may be knocked down, but I’m not knocked out.”

I was again pleased at the presentation of the Lombardi tropy that the Colts owner and Coach Dungee gave praise to God for His blessings. Then Coach Dungee took it a step further. There were all kinds of other issues in this game. But Dungee refused to get sidetracked. As important as the other issues may have been (and he acknowledged the importance of the first black coaches in history in the super bowl) but declared the most important thing was that “two Christian coaches showed it can be done the right way.”

Prayer: Lord Jesus, give me what it takes to get up not give up. To overcome my disappointments and poor starts to win the victory. AMEN.

Blessings!
Pastor Roger