“I’m in a quandary,” I told my son Mike.
He laughed at my discomfort, still trying to hand me the videotape. “Well,” he said, “you asked for it. You asked me to record this.”
The conversation took place years ago, back in the era when the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics were the two great titans of the NBA, always battling each other for the top spot in the league. Each team, of course, had countless radical fans and, yes, I had a bit of emotion invested as I followed my beloved Lakers through their ups and downs.
On this particular Sunday I knew that I would have to miss an epic and deciding playoff game, because I was a pastor and for some reason the people in our church expected me to show up and preach. In those days, we didn’t have an automatic means to record TV programs; it all had to be done manually. So I gave my son Mike the mandate of getting himself home right after Sunday School and recording the game for me to watch later.
We went out for lunch after church, as we often did, but I pleaded with everyone within earshot not to reveal the outcome of the game—thereby robbing me of all the drama and suspense.
When we arrived home Mike had the video in his hands, and he had carefully emptied his face of all expression. That’s when I openly agonized before him, telling him that I didn’t want to go through the agony of watching the Lakers lose—but I didn’t want him to reveal the outcome, either.
“I don’t know whether to watch it or not,” I confessed in my misery.
With his carefully-cultivated blank expression, Mike pitched the video to me.
“Go ahead and watch it,” he said. “I think you’ll like it.”
I did watch the game, but immediately began to feel some irritation toward Mike. Why on earth had he encouraged me to watch my beloved Lakers play their worst game of the year? Surely this wasn’t his idea of practical joke (something we were apt to do as a family). But no, he wouldn’t joke around about something this important…would he?
As the game clock counted down, everything came up roses for the Celtics and terrible for the guys in purple and gold. I could hardly believe my eyes as L.A. fell 17 points behind. Seventeen! How could they ever get out of a hole like that playing a team as talented as the mighty Celtics?
As the camera panned the arena showing Boston fans celebrating and high-fiving, I wanted to turn off the TV and get on with my life. Several players on the Celtic bench began waving white towels and the message was all too clear: It was time for L.A. to surrender. My spirit hit rock bottom and I asked myself over and over again, Why do I put myself through this? As sick as I felt however, I kept saying to myself that Mike—my son who loves me—had assured me that I would actually like the outcome. That gave me the assurance to sit back, relax a little, and just get into the game. If Mike had been right, there would be something to enjoy—and I could expect a miraculous turnaround that might begin at any moment.
And of course it did.
Unaccountably, the Lakers came back from the dead and began to play up to their old potential. Their shots began to fall even as Boston began to fall apart. My team soared as their adversaries went south. The victory was as satisfying as you might imagine, and I went to bed that night a happy man, my confidence restored in both the Lakers and my son, who had given me the prophecy: “I think you’ll like it.”
It wasn’t until the next day that I began to see a biblical parallel. What I had experienced on that Sunday matched a pattern displayed over and over again in life and in the pages of Scripture. God’s people, kingdom men and women, consistently find themselves in desperate situations seemingly void of solutions or escapes. At the same time, however, the Scriptures spill over with assurances from a God who not only understands our circumstances in complete detail, but has also designed a plan of victory for us.
It’s almost as though He says to us, “You may not like what you are experiencing right now, but when it has all unfolded and you see the results…I think you’re going to like it.”
Just listen to His assurances!
No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of what others have had to face. All you need to remember is that God will never let you down; he’ll never let you be pushed past your limit; he’ll always be there to help you come through it. (1 Corinthians 10:13, msg)
It’s a comfort to remember that the God who predicts our victory and promises our victory is also the one who pours all of His mighty power into orchestrating our victory.
When you and I find ourselves in a tight situation and the way before us looks hopeless or impossible, just remember that God has already watched the whole game and knows the outcome. Who wins? In Christ, we do.
Thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 15:57)
Death has been swallowed up in victory (1 Corinthians 15:54)
In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. (Romans 8:37-38)
What’s true in a personal sense is also true of our world. No matter how dark and depressing news events become, no matter how far our culture falls into moral decay and hateful, anti-Christian laws and attitudes…a turnaround is coming. The game will change in an immediate, dramatic way, and that change will last forever.
Jesus is coming back again and will set things right.
I’ve seen the tape and know how this comes out.
I think you will like it.