Ok so yesterday when I had some free time, I spend it playing a game Touch Hockey on my cell. And as i was playing it, I found myself thinking about how life is like the game.
As children of God, we have a race we’re running for, the crown of righteousness to win and that’s the one we are working towards each day of our life. But even as we try to score and win the race, the enemy too is trying hard to one-up us. So I played the games using different tactics and found different results that uncannily happens in life too.
2 Tim 4:7-8 – I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful.
And now the prize awaits me—the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on the day of his return. And the prize is not just for me but for all who eagerly look forward to his appearing.
Game 1:
Here my main tactic was trying to score, I was fast, my reflexes were on edge and I kept trying to score using all the speed and tricks I knew. I figured if I beat the opposition with a good score, I’d definitely win. Of course, it was a good match but in the end I lost because well the opposition was as motivated as me. The faster and stronger I played, the faster and stronger the opposition played and very many times the puck slid past me as all I could do was watch helplessly. This is how life is sometimes, we think we can by our own merits and strength score owner the enemy but of course the enemy has tricks of his own. And just as we believe we’re on the way to an easy win, he slides past you and can win.
I mean when he scored 3 goals on me, I felt defeated and then lost easily. Doesn’t this happen all too often? Just when we think we’re winning and a couple of bad turns and we mentally start giving up the fight.
Game 2:
So here I thought I’d keep my eye on the puck, I mean if I knew where it was at each point, I could definitely stop the opposition from scoring while scoring for myself too, right? Wrong. So I made a couple of good scores and some great saves and just when I thought “Whoa, man, this is mine to win” – I stopped paying attention to the puck and found myself looking at the opposition to see what moves he was making. And before I knew it, I lost the game.
Where did I go wrong? Probably letting myself be distracted by the sleek moves he made and forgot to defend myself from the opposition. In life all too often, in the daily struggles of life we tend to take our eye off the prize i.e. the eternal life and look at how the enemy is working against us. We tend to focus so much on how he’s trying to make us fall that we don’t realize that he manages to score one against us.
Like the day you decide to diet is the day your friend bakes an amazing cake and comes over with some some. So you find yourself thinking “I must not take it, I must not take it” till finally your mind begins to say “You know, one small piece won’t make such a difference”. Then of course, you have it and then finally you realize “Oh man, I was dieting!”. Now if I’d kept my mind on the goal of losing weight instead of not taking the cake, I might have stopped myself. So obviously, looking at the target itself was not enough because I could easily get distracted by the enemy this way.
Game 3:
So finally I decided that the only way I’d win this was with the help of my Lord. And what does God teach us, not just to work towards scoring but also be wary and watchful of the opposition ways and defending ourselves completely. So I stayed put at the net this time, I took shots and got out of my zone when absolutely necessary. I kept my eye on the puck even as I stayed grounded at the net. And the opposition still managed to edge his way past me a couple of times. When he scored, I just said “I’m gonna win this through my Lord Jesus Christ” and kept myself motivated. And guess what, I won.
And that’s how it is in life. Yes, we do have our talents to score against the enemy, we do have our talents to watch out for the opposition but in the end we will win only when we fight and defend with the greatest One on our side. So let’s live our life holding our banners high for our heavenly Father and He will surely stand by our side as we wage war against the enemy every day of our lives.
1 Cor. 15:57 – But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
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