Anyone that knows me knows that I'm a huge Philadelphia Flyers fan. I've watched every single game since 1995. Seriously. Sometimes DVR'd or slightly after the fact, but I've seen them all. I'm loving this season especially, because the Flyers have been dubbed the "Comeback Kids". Of their last 57 games, they've taken the lead in the first 10 minutes only four times. Four. They've gone down by 2 goals or more in 20-something of those games. Yet they won most of them.
In game 1 of their current playoff series against the Pittsburgh Penguins, they went down 0-3 before coming back to win 4-3 in overtime. In game 2, they went down 0-2, then 1-3, then 3-4, then 4-5, then went on to win the game 8-5. In today's game 3, they went down 0-1 before going on to win 8-4.
This is the same team (with many of the same players) that was down to the Boston Bruins by 3 games to none in the 2010 playoffs, but came back to win the series after also being down 3-0 in game 7...one of only four teams, in all professional sports, to ever have come back from being down 3 games to none and win a series.
Here's my point: there is no quit in these guys. It doesn't matter how early they go down, or by how many points; they never quit. Never.
I started thinking about how this relates to our faith. I got to spend some time talking with some awesome guys at a men's retreat this weekend, and had a chance to share with them about some pretty awful challenges our family has faced over the last couple of years. Yet no matter what life throws at us, God is good, and faithful. He is the only one who knows the end of the story (each of our stories).
The Bible never promises that being a Christian means we won't face challenges or trials in life. On the contrary, it promises that, as Christians, we are more likely to experience various storms in life. What it does tell us is that we are to persevere through those challenges...that God can work through them to refine us and grow us in faith.
So as I watch this Flyers team, I find a lot to be inspired about. Like the Flyers, no matter what knocks us down we need to get back up. No matter what we face, we can never quit. Instead of lamenting our circumstances or challenges, we should instead see them as an opportunity to be stretched and grown in our faith and our relationship with God, our Creator. We need to be the faith version of the Comeback Kids.
