A Trophy That Will Last

 

If you watched the Super Bowl last night, you saw a game played with heart and pride. Too bad that one team had to lose. You could tell that each one was playing their heart out to win. The quarterback for Green Bay hoisted the Lombardi trophy high above his head with confetti  flowing down and around the players and reporters. The setting was perfect for claiming a trophy.

When the Green Bay players return home victorious, they will have a prize to show. It just seems appropriate to come to the city and team where the trophy got its name. But the excitement, jubilation, celebration and accolades will eventually die down. Over time we know that trophies collect dust, lose their luster, languish with forgotten memories, and become a silent sentinel to the passage of time. Fortunately, for the  Christian, we can claim our trophy that will be an eternal possession.

The apostle Peter talks about “an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you….”(1 Peter 1:4). Peter wants to encourage his readers to remember the ground of their living hope and the goal of that hope. Think of how trophies can perish, be spoiled, or just fade away. They can accidentally be tossed out, an arm or a leg can be broken off a trophy statue, and they can be put back on a shelf just to fade away.

The preparation, the  hype, the game and the final score all make for an amazing week leading up to the Super Bowl. This expectation has a Christian counterpart. Our hope is a living hope that will culminate in earnest expectation. Many were “hoping” that Green Bay would win. There were no guarantees. That hope turned into reality.

We know that our earnest expectation and hope is, however, guaranteed as a Christian! God has in store for us a trophy, the crown of life. Through perseverance we can overcome for the prize. One player was asked by a reporter how a team could have so much adversity and injury over the season end up winning it all. His answer was short and to the point…perseverance.

Perseverance for the eternal things of God…this defines our Christian journey together. We are here to support one another. We are here to help each other stay focused on the prize and the trophy. We are here to help remind one another how lasting and permanent that trophy is. Perseverance…a word fitly spoken for a time such as this. I want to challenge all of our thinking in the church at Highland View with this question:

Can I stay the course and persevere until the end of my life in order to claim the ultimate trophy and prize?

In Christian love, Curtis