With no success, a few Sundays ago, Dave and I tried to find a television station to watch the K.C. Chiefs play against the Chargers. We were in Las Vegas, visiting family, when our son-in-law offered to help. After all, it was his television, so he would know better than us how to operate it. He found the game late in the first quarter, and we settled in to watch. The Chiefs were not playing well, and by the third quarter, we wondered if they could rally. Dave noticed that Kenneth Walker III, the star running back the Chiefs acquired this year, was not playing. Was he hurt? When the Chiefs finally did make a good play, the announcer said, “That looks more like the team of last year.” We all know that the Chiefs did not play well last year, so what was he talking about? Something was not right.
It was then that Dave looked at his phone where the score showed that we were winning. Apparently, we were watching a rerun of the Chiefs vs. Chargers game from last year, and here we were, nearing the fourth quarter before we figured it out. We felt like idiots. I commented that we had wasted a lot of time being frustrated, but the truth is, sometimes reruns can be productive.
Sometimes they can serve a purpose, especially in the spiritual world. This past week, a posting on social media reminded me of just that.
“When I look back on my life, I can see Jesus in places I didn’t recognize him…
In the door that closed
In the friendship that ended
In the season that humbled me
In the prayer that wasn’t answered the way I wanted
In the strength I somehow had when I thought I had none left”
Reruns can remind us that Christ is always with us, but if we are not alert, the Gospel easily can become merely a rerun instead of a fresh, powerful message, one that still is new and life-changing. When we remember what God has done for us, we cannot forget what He has brought us through. We understand what it feels like to have no explanation… except God.
In hindsight, we will recognize that He gives us peace before the answers come, strength before the situation changes, and faith for every step we cannot fully see yet. The message of salvation should never become a boring rerun. It certainly wasn’t boring for Peter who wrote in 1 Peter 5:8 – “Be alert and of sober mind.”
Scripture makes it clear that we are to be alert and aware of what is going on around us…kind of like what Dave and I were not doing when we watched that football game.