We live in a world today where effort matters in almost everything you do. Effort matters in a relationship and building a solid foundation. Effort matters in the job place to work your way up and achieve success. Effort matters in the classroom to get good grades. Effort matters on the court or field to perform well in a certain sport, Effort matters. God tells us many times in His word that it does.
“For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” - James 2:26
“But you, be strong and do not lose courage, for there is reward for your work.”- 2 Chronicles 15:7
If you are reading this, you are only here because God allowed you to. Because of what Jesus did for us on the cross, we are still able to live a life pleasing to God. This is called grace. One thing that people make mistakes in life is, effort brings success. Success in the christian life is defined as living out your role for God’s kingdom. It is not how much money you have, or fame, or even social media followers. One thing effort does is puts us in a better position to succeed. It does not mean we will succeed how we want, but effort and work does increase our odds.
When you operate out of grace and faith, that means you are doing something not because of what you can get out of it, but because what was already done to give you the opportunity. I am a big believer that to succeed, you must fail. In order to lead, you must learn to follow. God has given us the opportunity to do these things because we are not punished for our mistakes. I am not saying there won’t be consequences to our decisions but I am saying we are still accepted by Christ despite these decisions.
I recently started playing for a professional team called the Columbus Condors in “The Basketball League,” here in Columbus Ohio. We play teams scattered all over the United States. A couple weeks ago, we traveled to Michigan to play a game. My normal schedule is, I start work as a production supervisor for a packaging and fulfillment company every weekday at 7am. The other things I do throughout my days sometimes vary based on training schedules and such, but I always start at 7am. On the day we traveled to Detroit, the night before I tried to pack and plan out everything so I was prepared for the next day knowing I had a lot to do. I pack all the things I need for work, then I pack my basketball clothes and gear.
From Columbus, Ohio to Flint, Michigan was about 3.5 hours driving. So as we take the team bus down to Detroit it was only 7 players that traveled due to other people's schedule and prior commitments.Going into this game I knew we were limited on substitutes and it was a game we needed to win to make sure we put ourselves in the best spot for the upcoming playoffs. About 2.5 hours into the drive, something popped in my head and told me to check my bag to make sure I have everything. Which I second guessed myself because I knew I packed the night before. As I went to look into my book bag, I realized I forgot the most important thing I needed to bring. My game shoes. At that moment when looking into my bag and realizing I forgot them, my whole mood changed. Immediately I started to panic and didn’t want to say anything to any of the players or coaches because I knew they would be upset that we would be down another player.
We just arrived at the arena and I have to tell everyone. Me thinking in my head about how they would react, I said it in a hesitant way of telling them I forgot my shoes. My coach responded with, “Let me look up the closest Foot Locker.” Right there, I felt like a burden was lifted off because instead of making me feel guilty, he wanted to help. Even my teammates joked and made the situation easy to deal with because they supported me. My coach went out and bought me a pair of shoes and we won a close fought game on the road.
Overall, a situation where I gave great effort to prepare and improve my odds in putting myself in the best position to succeed, I still came up short. Even when I did fail, I was shown grace by my teammates and coaches. In our walk with Christ, we are supposed to give great efforts for Him and His Kingdom. That doesn’t mean we will always succeed how we think we should. It does mean that God will show us enough grace and mercy to still live out his plan! Today, seek to show someone grace that might need it. You never know when it can go a long way.
“But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.”- Ephesians 2:4-5
