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I know what
you’re thinking . . .“What in the world does that title mean and what happened
to the good old days when you had such fun titles as “The Invasion of the Worm Lizards” or “Leechroy, Evil Master of Power
Suction?” And I know others of you are thinking “That
was not even close to what I was thinking right then.” Well, what I was thinking was how it
all started when I was telling my wife Kristen about a powerful, miraculous Trifecta
of Answered Prayer. She asked me what “trifecta” meant and
quickly decided it was a word I had made up. (She had good reason to conclude that, as I
do, quite often, make up words. For instance, last week she commented that my toes were
very cold. It dawned on me they were so cold
it was almost like there were in a coma-like state. So I told Kristen that my toes were
comatoes Get it? Like comatose? Ok, stop groaning. It’s not polite to groan
behind someone’s back.)
Well, I wasn’t
sure what to do (since I am passionately ambivalent) but I decided to prove to Kristen
that “trifecta” was a real word. (I’m sure most of you already recognize it
from the Greek literally menaing ‘three fectas.’) So I went to my huge trusty
Webster’s dictionary to look it up. And sure enough, “trifecta” was not in
there! I had to admit defeat to Kristen. Two
days later I was reading the San Diego Union newspaper and you can imagine my excitement
when I read a review by Larry King about a new movie
with three big stars. He commented about this powerful “trifecta.” I showed it
to Kristen and she conceded saying, “You are a genius!” I thought to myself,
“I am a genius…I invented a word on Wednesday and only two days
later Larry King is using it in the newspaper!”
So here is the first
fecta. I was invited to speak and sing at the public high school football stadium where Emmitt Smith (formerly of the Dallas Cowboys) graduated. As we
were preparing to fly to Florida, the weather channel was predicting a tropical depression
and thunderstorms all day for Pensacola and on the evening of the outdoor rally. We got
off the plane to discover a clear, blue sky. There have literally been people from a few
different states and a few different countries as well as you Perihelionites praying for
this event. Well, you prayed all the rain
away!
A
fight broke out behind the stands!
The biggest miracle
(part 2) came that evening at the rally. Over 300 teens showed up including skateboarders, Goth kids, as
well as a lot of the football team. The outdoor setting at the football field made it seem
like a football game . . . or 3 ring circus . . . or as the band was playing more like Woodstock. A fight actually
broke out behind the stands! It was a very chaotic setting and I started asking God for a
miracle to somehow make them attentive when this old guy (me) got up to speak and sing. It
took awhile but little by little they started to focus and by the end it seemed like they
were all tuned in. Not even one of them threw a skateboard at me. God answered our
prayers and touched 33 students who came forward to make public
decisions for Christ, including 7 from the football team!
So the last part of
the trifecta began as I spoke to some one hundred students at the Fellowship of Christian
Athletes (FCA) Friday morning at Escambia High before their third football game that
evening. The “Gators” had lost their first two games by scores that looked more
like basketball numbers, at least the opposing teams’ totals. In the group were many of the new Christians on the
football team, cheerleaders and even Christian coaches who heard me share that the most
important thing in life is NOT whether they win or
lose. Sure, God wants us to pray about everything. (Phil 4:6, 7) However, the eternal
trophies/crowns and results are what we need to focus on more than temporal sporting event
victories or trophies. (Please read I Cor. 9:24-27 – you may actually need to get
your Bible out to do this!) If we spend all our time praying for an “A” on the
test, or a guy or girl to like us, or a guy or girl
to stop liking us,
or a parking space, or a physical illness and we don’t pray for our friends and
family that need to know Jesus as their best friend & highest priority, something is
really messed up in our Christian priorities. Life and death situations like hurricanes
and friends that may be lost for all eternity without Jesus should be much more important
prayer concerns for us as Christians. One of the football players, Morgan, opened the FCA
in prayer and afterward told me that what I shared had been a real encouragement to him.
As Kristen and I sat in those hard wooden stands that Friday
night, I realized it was the first football game we had attended all millennium! The main
reason we went was that the head coach gave us free tickets. The first series of plays saw
our guys getting manhandled like they were one gator in an Australian swamp
full of Steve Irwins (crocodiles, gators – what’s the difference?) I
felt sorry for them, especially since there were 7 new Christians on the team as well as mature Christians
like Morgan and their head coach. So even though I had told those students NOT to focus on
winning, I felt a conviction that I should pray for God to help this team. I said,
“God, this is going to take a miracle. I know there are probably Christians on the
other team and You don’t take sides, but it seems to me like it would be an encouragement to these new Christians & bring You glory if You could help them win this game. Your will be
done.”
Little by little our
Gators started to slither back into the game. [Typist note: I’ve never heard of slithering
Gators, but this is the Perihelion and Larry knows all so I won’t
question his descriptive words.] Morgan caught the first touchdown pass! Our coach
had them in better shape and more disciplined as the other team had a number of
unsportsmanlike conduct penalties, which kept them from blowing it open. At halftime, the
youth minister, Kenny Craig, told me that right from the start in the locker room, the
guys were encouraging each other and were much more unified this week than in the previous
two. He said, “I sure hope I don’t have to pray after the game for a losing
team.” I kept praying even though they were down 23-12 going into the 4th quarter.
“Faith is the substance of things hoped for…the evidence of things not
seen.” (Heb. 11:6) I don’t want to bore you with the exciting, unbelievable,
phenomenal details of the last quarter, but suffice it to say Kenny got to pray for a
winning team . . . final score 27-23!!!!
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