Doink!

Did you watch the Bears-Eagles playoff game last night? Oh, there were lots of disappointed Bears fans after THAT game. It all came down to the last play of the game. All the Bears kicker had to do was to make a field goal and the Bears would have won. Doink! That was the sound of the football hitting the upright. He missed.

All the blame for the loss can't be placed on the young kicker though. There were dropped passes, fumbles, penalties and bad calls by the referees. It just looked like this poor guy lost the game for his team. Maybe that's the way he feels this morning but he shouldn't and I don't think he does. Why?

The television cameras were so focused in on the "loser field goal kicker" that they zoomed in on him as he walked towards the middle of the field and knelt down to pray with other members of the Bears and Eagles teams. He'll be alright. He will win games for his team in the future.

In the following video you will see several things. After the missed kick the kicker, Cody Parkey, lowers his head in disappointment. You will then see a teammate lift him up in support. You will see Parkey point towards heaven. Then you will see him put his helmet on as he walks towards the center of the field to pray. It doesn't show him praying but he did.

Cody Parkey Missed Fieldgoal

As I watched that whole ending sequence - the try, the fail, the forgiveness of his teammates and the prayer - I thought, "the missed field goal is not the real story here." The best story is this:

We ALL fail in life. We all fall short in our attempts to live a perfect, sinless life. But just like the Bears kickers, we miss the mark. How sad it would be if we had no hope after all of OUR failures. Doink! How tragic.

Thank God for Jesus! He sent His Son to die for OUR sins. Because we all sin we have no hope of living the perfect life required to get into heaven. But Jesus lived that perfect life for us. He died on a cross for OUR sins, substituting Himself for us, giving US His righteousness.

We humans will ALWAYS fall short. But through faith in Christ, and through HIS sacrifice, making field goals to win games won't matter. None of this life will seem to matter anymore. That's because the next life, the one after this, is what TRULY matters. Our eternal life in heaven, the new earth.

"16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." - 2 Corinthians 5:16-21

Jesus Messiah - Chris Tomlin