Nothing was going right. We were just off. And when I say off… I mean… the wheels-had-come-off off! Every element of our game was bad. It was mid-season and I was coaching a high school girls volleyball team, and we were a good team… a very good team… but we sure didn’t look it that night.
To make matters worse, we were playing our rival… in their crowded gym, and they were lighting us up. And the crowd was letting us know it too. I had tried everything. I had called a time out… I had coached vigorously from the bench… I had been encouraging… I made substitutions — nothing worked. I called my final time out when we were losing the set by 10 points.
“Ladies,” I said, “I don’t know what is going to happen the rest of this game tonight, but we had better figure this out quickly or we are going home with our first loss of the year.” After the words were out of my mouth I realized I had committed the coach’s cardinal sin… I used the word “lose”.
I will NEVER forget what happened next. My super-star middle hitter… who would be named First Team All Ohio that year said, “Guys, WE ARE NOT LOSING THIS GAME!” “HANDS IN THE MIDDLE! TEAM ON THREE, ONE, TWO, THREE, TEAM!” And then she high-fived me so hard that my hand was still stinging 5 minutes later. The intensity in her face and voice… oh my! It was a little scary. All the other girls just looked at me with these big, shocked eyes, and I just said, “Hey, listen to her.”
What happened next was extraordinary. This girl just picked up the entire team and put them on her back. I have never seen anyone play like she did. She was hitting the ball so hard that the other team literally couldn’t even move and react to it before it slammed off the floor. More than one opponent began to actually flinch as she attacked each spike. BA-BOOM! And we began to claw our way back… 6 points back… 3 points back… 1 point back… and about 15 minutes after my last timeout… we won the set. We absolutely pummeled them in the next set beating them by 11 points. And I was in awe of a player who REFUSED to lose — and who refused to allow her teammates to lose. What a comeback!
That story reminds me of a time in Jesus’ life. The setting was the Garden of Gethsemane and the time was the night before his crucifixion. Jesus prayed, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.” Luke 22:42-44 NIV
The resolve of the Savior to do the Father’s will. Jesus went to the cross willingly… no force in earth or hell could have forced him to die. He chose it. The punishment… the beating… the nails… the bearing of sin — Jesus put Humanity on his lacerated back and refused to let sin and death win. He died so that we could live.
I hope you are in awe of the love of the Savior. The love that compelled Jesus to the cross. Because when he uttered the words, “It is finished!” — the debit of your sin was paid. Sin was defeated… death was swallowed up in victory.
And three days later? What a comeback!
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