“I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope.” — Psalm 130:5
Waiting for our next season
Now that we are all officially in the post-Super-Bowl, missing-football-already portion of the year, fans will cling to any football related news they can find. National Signing Day is one of those days us football fans pay particularly close attention to, as it represents the first of many dates that will determine how much hope fans should have in our team’s success for the upcoming season.
As a University of Georgia fan, this day was an exciting one that allowed much of my team’s fan base to recover at least some of the lost momentum after the heartbreak of the national championship game.
However, this got me thinking about the process of the offseason and how we react to it as fans. For whatever reason, sports fans seem incapable of truly ever giving up on their teams. Even if a team hits rock bottom (I’m looking at you Cleveland Browns), people manage to immediately turn their attention toward how this will help them in the upcoming draft, and then how those players will become stars, and then so on and so on until the eventual goal of a championship in all its confetti glory is reached.
I’ve been disappointed and beaten down as an Atlanta sports fan more times than I can count, but I’ve never given up. As the saying goes, “There’s always next year.”
I wonder what would happen if we took this approach with God. When bad things happen and we take the continual blows that life delivers, do we continue to press on toward the final goal? Do we wait in excited expectation for what the Lord is going to do next?
I know that oftentimes in my own life I will slow down my pursuit of the Lord after a proverbial “loss.” I become more hesitant to trust in Him for the next “season.” However, if we really trust that He is working all things together for our good, then the tough times in life should only get us anticipating the rebuild that only He can orchestrate.
Let’s all make an effort to keep our eyes firmly focused on the promising future ahead, unreservedly trusting in a Savior who has held nothing back from us in His sacrifices. Remember that during life struggles, there will always absolutely be a next season.
– Ryan Akin
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