Just hours ago, my wife and I watched the Denver Broncos pull off another miraculous comeback win. This is, I believe, six weeks in a row that the Broncos have trailed in the fourth quarter, coming from behind to win. With just over 2 minutes to go, Denver trailed by 10 points against a pretty good Chicago defense, and yet somehow they managed to tie the game, and to win in overtime.
I am not by nature a Broncos fan. In a lot of ways I've been a sort of anti-fan. When Tim Tebow took over as quarterback so many experts and not a few fans said there was no way the team could win with his style of play. I suppose it is a bit of the rebel in me that has me cheering for the team to succeed, if for no other reason than to prove the experts wrong. I have to admit, I like the kid, I like his attitude, I like how he's not ashamed of his faith, and when it's all said and done it's just been fun to watch this team rally around each other and virtually will themselves to win when it just doesn't seem like a win is a possibility.
What has been fascinating about this whole thing is how week after week, the team can barely do anything in the first half. And honestly, there seems to be every reason they shouldn't be able to do anything. Tim Tebow is not your typical pro quarterback. His throwing motion is... not exactly smooth. He's a running quarterback in a throwing league, and... okay, tell you what... you can tune in to sports talk radio to hear all the reasons the team should fail. And every week, they start out doing just that. And then, something clicks. Guys who were dropping balls they should have caught are making incredible catches. Running plays that were going nowhere earlier start seeing success. Next thing you know, the team is moving down the field at will. A lot of the attention is on the quarterback, but what I'm seeing is a whole team rallying together as one unit and pulling off these unbelievable wins.
Obviously, Denver fans are pretty psyched out, but it's a phenomenon that has captured the attention of the whole country. Suddenly the Broncos games are in demand for the networks. People from all over the country, many who are not even football fans, are intrigued by Tebow-Mania and about what has been happening with this football team.
Normally, the anti-fan in me would be pulling against this team now just because so many are jumping on the bandwagon. Don't tell anyone, but instead I'm pretty firmly entrenched in the middle of the wagon, enjoying what I'm seeing.
I kind of wonder if the reason it all resonates so much with me isn't related to some of the paralells to my own life. I've been going through this phase where I've been trying to figure out what I want to do when I grow up... maybe not the place you want to be at 48 years old, eh? You know how you look back at the first half of your life and think, it could have been so much better? The last few years though, I've seen a change in my thinking to where it's not so much about where I've been, but looking forward to where I'm going. I'll try not to overdo the analogy to a football game (though I'll probably fail miserably at that not overdoing it thing)... but I think I always looked at myself as going into life with so much potential, doing great things, all that. Along the way, I bogged down, made my mistakes, lost sight of my faith at times, and often felt like I fumbled the ball away too many times. (See what I was saying about overdoing the analogy?). Turning 30 was difficult for me because I really thought a lot about how little I had accomplished. I didn't mind 40 because it meant the 30's were over, I was glad to get that part of life over and done with. Now here I am with 50 not too far down the road and I find myself embracing it, but for entirely different reasons. My reasons for looking forward to 40 had more to do with not liking the past. I find myself embracing the years to come not for anything to do with the past, but because I've just got a great hope for what those years have to bring.
I think part of that is starting to come to terms with that whole 'what I want to do when I grow up' thing. I think God has been leading me to a lot of different things in that area. John Eldredge's "Wild at Heart" has been an incredible inspiration and fit in hand in hand with some of Dan Miller's career books, all pointing to doing the things you are passionate about. This presented a crisis of sorts because when I stopped and asked what I was passionate about, I couldn't come up with anything. And then there became another phase where it's like so many things came uncovered and it wasn't so much a matter of developing a passion as it was rediscovering old passions. 25 years ago I was just going into ministry in a small church with an older congregation. There was so much I enjoyed about what I was doing back then. I started remembering that even as a kid with a paper route one of the things I loved the most was just visiting with many of the customers who were into the second half of their lives.
Along with that has been this awareness of the redemption I've come to know in my own life. I've done so many stupid things in my life and somewhere along the line just figured my life would always be defined my my wrongs. The last few years I've had some wonderful people come into my life, come to really grasp what grace is about, and have experienced restoration of relationships with family and with God that I don't know I would ever have known. On top of it all I've been blessed with an amazing wife who has been such a major part of helping me discover, or rediscover, so much about life that is grand and wonderful.
I'm just now getting into this second half, and I'm excited about it. I know I'm not alone when it comes to having regrets about the first half. You who are reading it may or may not be like me in that regard. Maybe you came out smoking in the first half, or perhaps you feel like you just stunk up the place. In the end I think maybe that's what I'm here for, to be that one to encourage people, or to encourage the church to encourage people that ultimately, it doesn't matter what the first half was like. We've still got time ahead of us to finish well. For some of us, it may be as ugly as Tim Tebow's throwing motion, but... we've got a pretty darn good coach to help us finish well in spite of our flaws.
Are we ready for an amazing finish?
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