Missed

The Minnesota Vikings and the Seattle Seahawks played a NFL Wildcard game yesterday. The weather was…interesting. Sunny skies with sub-zero temperatures. The game was more interesting. The over/under for total score was 20. With just a few seconds left on the clock, Minnesota had a chance to push the score over and also win the game with a 27 yard field goal. The kicker missed the game-winning field goal, Seattle ran out the clock, gamblers who picked under were ecstatic.

Have you ever done something that brought on a disaster? Well, to some people it was a disaster. To others it secured victory. Some booed you and others cheered.

At the time I thought, "This was the only 27 yard field goal the kicker has ever missed in his NFL career." With a recent rule change, extra points are now longer than that. I looked up his stats and for field goals 29 yards and shorter, he has missed one. It was Sunday's potential game winner.

It would be easy and natural to focus on the negatives. Missed short field goal. Laces out! End of season.

Or we could focus on the positives. Three field goals and nine points in the game. All of Minnesota's points. For the season, he was 34 of 39 and for his four-year career he is 121 of 142. That's an 85% success rate. But it isn't all the made field goals or the 21 missed in his career or the 5 misses this season that are the focus. It's the one miss Sunday.

You probably don't like it when people focus on your negatives. I don't. But people do it. We even do it to ourselves. And often the result is an attitude that we can't do anything good. We feel like losers because we lost once.

The Bible says you are created in God's image. God knew you before you were born and has a plan for your life. God has plans for you to thrive. Your sins don't have to disrupt all this because Jesus died for your sins and God offers you salvation from the destructive result of sin.

Sure, you can live your life with little or no hope, with little or no purpose. Or you can live as God intended with great hope and purpose. Even in the wake of failure.