New Blog by Rocky - Lift Your Head

“Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.”  Psalms 43:5 (ESV)

I watched a college football game last week and saw something that really touched me.  A young kicker had just missed a critical extra point.  He walked slowly to the sideline with his head down in shame after the attempt.  A teammate came to him and the first thing he did was to push the chin of his teammate up and no doubt say something like, “Hey buddy lift your head.  You’ll get another chance, and you will make it.”  Guess what?  The kicker did both things.  Because of his teammate’s encouragement he lifted his head up, and later kicked the game winning field goal.  Man did that remind me that we sometime need advice from someone to lift our head up, for we often think that we have a condition that will have no end to it.  Are you there now?  I am.

As far as those college athletes go, we look at them as giants, being well-muscled athletes, and think that they are as mature mentally as they are physically.  But we forget that most of these athletes are seventeen to twenty-one years old, and there is little likelihood that they have the maturity to grasp how temporary their career will be, even at best.  But there are hidden benefits that have nothing to do with football that they can discover if they will look for it.  It has more to do with life than football.  At that age I was planning to play pro football until about age one hundred, thus testifying that my frontal lobe had a lot of growing to do.  Reality set in at the beginning of my entry into the NFL.  Two football related shoulder surgeries created a sudden and disappointing ending.  All that I had worked for and dreamed of was within an easy grasp until it was not.  The truth is, at that time, I needed someone to lift my chin and tell me that life is not over, for I thought I was a failure, much like that kicker thought of himself.  With the help of my dear wife, I was able to get past it and find a new identity.  But it took about five painful years to do so.

I love the Psalm I have included, for it speaks to a condition that we all face at times … to be downcast.  The word downcast is synonymous with being crushed and depressed,

dejected and gloomy, despondent, and broken hearted, miserable and wretched, grief-stricken and a feeling of hopelessness.  It might simply be depression, whether it is short term or long term.  Either way, it’s good medicine for someone else to lift our heads, for it is the encouragement from another person, and especially from someone who has been there before that seems to mean the most.

Have you ever considered the blessing we get for being a “chin lifter” to another person?  To be this person we must put others first.  He was a smaller player, so I can imagine it might have been the back-up kicker who filled that role for a sad and bewildered teammate, even though he was competing for the same position.  There is a nobility to put someone else first, even when we are crying within, “Will someone please lift my chin?”  In the passage above we see David go to the one Person he knew who would always be there for him.  That’s what’s so great about our God.  He knows, He cares, He is willing, and He is able and all we need to do is ask for it.

In this world of impatient self-gratification, we tend to want God to act within our perceived timeline.  But we can’t see the blessing that comes from waiting for Him to do other things that may well bless us more by allowing Him to pull them altogether. We need to get in sync with the fact that we must trust His intervention in some way and at some time and we should wait on Him to provide it.

“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”  Romans 8:28 ESV

In the passage in Romans we see the words, all things work together for good.  God is pulling all things together in answer to our cry for help … and they will turn out good.  That’s His promise to you and me.  Will we accept this promise based on His faithfulness to His promises?  If so, we will see that He works things out.  It will come, and we can lift our chin with that thought.