Our youngest son plays basketball and recently his summer season ended with a weekend tournament where they sustained two losses. It was not his team’s best tournament by far. Quite disappointing to say the least. The kids seemed out of sync, lacked effort, appeared tired and uninterested. They were missing shots, not rebounding, defense was absent, and they were not really sharing the ball.
We noticed there were long stretches of time where the coach did not call a time-out. He wasn’t even pacing the sideline. Instead, he was sitting in his chair looking at the team seemingly falling apart. Eventually he would call the time out, gather the team around him and calmly coach. No yelling, no big hand gestures. Without raising his voice, the coach would explain the areas where the boys were making mistakes and point out what they needed to do to improve. Afterwards, he sent the boys back on the court leaving it up to them to decide if they were going to play better or continue doing the things that were causing them to lose.
We imagine God working in a similar way, just like a coach. Sitting close by, observing all that we do. He watches us run back and forth through life attentive to how we will react and respond to certain things. Many times, we feel like we’re losing in certain areas of life and want God to blow His whistle to take us out of the game if only for a moment to coach us back up before sending us back out.
But sometimes, just like our Son’s coach, God won’t be so quick to call a time-out and instead prefers to watch how we handle certain situations, temptations, and challenges in our lives. God wants to observe the type of effort we are giving and see how we defend our faith in certain circumstances. God wants to see if we are working to stay in sync with His purpose for our lives. Let us not assume God is absent just because He does not call a time-out during our moments of need. Let us remember that God is the ultimate Coach and He knows all about winning and overcoming adversity. Our job is to carry on and do the work that God has called us to do with faith that He will pull us out and put us back in the game at the right moments so that we can enjoy everlasting victory.