When I was in elementary and junior high school, I played on the church softball team. I absolutely loved the game and was a pretty decent pitcher. Nearly every year we had the same coach and basically the same roster of players–we were the best of friends. Even our practices were loads of fun because we got to spend time with the people we most enjoyed.
I looked forward to the games because we usually won and, more importantly, I always got a corn dog, french fries, and Mountain Dew from the ballpark concession stand. The most exciting day of the season was less about the sport and more about the shirt; it had little to do with victory and more to do with vinyl. You see, each year we got a new team t-shirt, and that was the best day of all. Sometimes it was a solid color and other times it had that shaded look. But the shirts always contained the vinyl numbers we had chosen for ourselves, as well as a nickname on the back–often chosen for us. There was nothing quite like the smell of that vinyl, fresh off the press, to kick-start a new season of competition.
Now, I have to be honest–while I was a decent softball player, I was also prone to competition anxiety. Hours before game time I would begin to worry about my performance on the field. As a pitcher, I didn’t have the luxury of standing in the outfield, just praying nothing would come my way. Every pitch carried with it the potential for advancement of the opposing team. And every pitch involved one particular person–ME! So, it’s no surprise that I often dreaded games more than I anticipated them. Practice was great–because there were no wins and losses. But games were another story because my reputation was on the line.
I would never have admitted it at the time, but I LOVED a “forfeit” game. We still got a “win” on the books, but I didn’t have to throw a single pitch. That’s because a victory through “forfeit” meant that the opposing team didn’t even show up to play. We waited at our assigned field until it was 15 or 20 minutes past game time and then we were dismissed. This enabled me to arrive at the the concession stand before they had time to run out of corn dogs–a much bigger victory in my book than merely beating another softball team [my love of food might be why my assigned nickname one year was “Kool-Aid”–a fairly accurate description of my body shape at the time].
I suppose winning by “forfeit” is OK for a third-grader, but I’ve recently noticed this same mentality creeping into my adult life as well. For the believer, all of life is spiritual and everything is ultimately about the glory of God. One of the ways God is most glorified is when we, as His children, are victorious over our opposition, namely Satan. God has given us the appropriate weapons and power through His Spirit to defeat the enemy at every turn.
So, this past week I was not feeling very victorious. Lately, it seems like the same obstacles keep popping up again and again, and I am unable to press all the way through to victory. So, I found myself asking God to just remove the obstacles. He is all-powerful so I asked Him to keep the opposition from even showing up for this daily game–this hardball competition that is anything but friendly. Now, that sounds completely reasonable to me. If God will just erase the efforts of the enemy to distract, discourage, and defeat me, then I can sail right on to victory and get another “win” on the books. God, however, didn’t seem to agree with my reasoning.
I heard as clearly as if He had been sitting in the chair next to me–“There is no victory without opposition”– there is no winning by “forfeit” in God’s kingdom. In fact, the very concept of victory presupposes the existence of opposition. How can we expect to triumph over the one we have never engaged in battle? I was asking God to take away the very source of my growth and ultimately, His glory.
Oh friend, let’s stop asking God to give us a win by “forfeit” and decide to press through the opposition until we gain a real “win” for the books. “Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.” We may not be able to escape the opposition on our way to victory, but we do have the benefit of knowing the final score!