This
month precedes another high holy season when we celebrate the victorious
resurrection of our Lord and
savior. I’m not referencing Lent, but rather the NCAA tournament when
millions of fans try to predict with random accuracy which men’s college
basketball team will advance and be crowned champion from a crowded field of
contenders.
An incredible amount of risk is required to forecast which
underdog will upset a top seed. One would have to be crazy to think a team like
Duke can be upset in the first round by an unranked WhointheHellAreTheyAnyway
University that was doing well just to be invited to the big dance. Yet, it
happens (and it hurts).
Top seeded teams are targets for perennial
giant-killers. Only devoted alums of the
underdogs or fervent haters of the favored can complete their bracket with a
straight face and make the right calls with aplomb.
Such it is with faith. Who invests all their personal stock
in the redeemer of the world being born of a virgin and rising from the dead
over 2,000 years ago? For the message of
the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved
it is the power of God (I
Corinthians 1:18). There is nothing rational about the gospel, but its
power is all that keeps some among us going strong.
Objective observations fly in the face of historical
speculation in the same way top-ranked teams defy those with little hope of
advancing in the tournament to fight for a win. Even those claiming to believe
waver in the face of adversity. … you
must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the
sea, blown and tossed by the wind (James 1:6b).
The ante was increased for this year’s tournament as Warren
Buffett, one of the richest men in the world, offered a billion-dollar prize to
anyone who completed a perfect bracket in advance. Upset after upset resulted
in no perfect brackets remaining after only a couple rounds of play. Only a lunatic, computer, or Godself could
have foretold the winners with perfect accuracy. However, perfectly sane
contestants were making detailed plans for spending their expected windfall.
In the same manner, theological pre-commitments prevent many
from getting this faith thing right. Either we become arrogant in our
individual position and those of the institutions to which we belong or we sink
into despair when things do not go our way.
Why,
Lord, do you reject me
and hide your face from me?
From my youth I have suffered and been close
to death;
I have borne your terrors and am in despair
(Psalm 88:14-15).
God never promised every day would be Sunday. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and
the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous (Matthew
5:45). Even believers are subject to the effects of the human condition. Yet,
we have victory in Him. Evidence of it is not readily seen. However, the power
of the Holy Spirit working within and around us confirms that we are not just
mad.
Now
faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
For by it the elders obtained a good report
(Hebrews 11:1-2).
Faith is what separates with winners from the losers. Mercer
believed they could beat Duke, but faith in themselves only got them to the
next round where they were defeated.
