I love winning. It feels great. Whether celebrating with teammates or savoring victory in a solo sport, the emotional high and self confidence boost from winning is uniquely satisfying. Satisfying to see all the hard work put in during practice paying off and to know it was worth the effort.
I’ve won both big events and small ones and I’ve even been a State Champion more than once. I’m not saying that to brag, but to point out that I understand and like winning.
But I’ve honestly lost more than I’ve won though.
We all want to win, but you can’t win every game or race. Winning practically demands perfection and there is no perfect athlete. Even a pitcher who throws a “perfect game” can’t do it every time. No one bats 1000!
This is so obvious that we even have stats and terms for our mistakes. In baseball we track errors. Basketball has turnovers, football has sacks, interceptions and fumbles, and soccer has the “Own Goal” – they even happen in the World Cup!
We all make mistakes, not just in sports, but in life. I know I have made many mistakes in life, and I know you have too. In fact the Bible says we all fall short of perfection in Romans 3:23. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Did you know that the word sin is a sports term? In archery (that’s shooting a bow and arrow) it means to miss the mark, to miss the bullseye you are aiming for, to not be perfect, and the Bible says we all miss at being perfect.
Some life mistakes aren’t really mistakes – sometimes we do the wrong thing on purpose, because we are being selfish or some other wrong motive. I’ve done that and I bet you have too, and I feel really bad about it.
But do you know what the next verse says? Romans 3:24 says “and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” – those are some fancy words that mean Jesus paid the price for our sins. He took our punishment.
“Wait, why does there have to be punishment?”, you ask. Well imagine that when you came to get your photo taken by us that you knocked over one of the cameras or lights and broke it. Even if it was on accident, it would still cost to fix it or get a new one, right? I could forgive your mistake, but then I would still need to pay for a new camera. Somebody has to pay to make it right.
Well, Jesus paid the price for your sins (mistakes and imperfections). All He asks is that you turn away from sinning (the fancy word for that is repentance, and He knows you still won’t do it perfectly), and accept His payment by believing that He died for your sins and came back to life 3 days later.
Wow, that really takes a load off of my heart. Forgiveness feels even better than winning a championship.
If you have questions or just want to talk about this, please contact me, I’d love to hear from you.
Rob Karman
Owner – Pinnacle Pics