to be a longshot...

I came to a heartwrenching conclusion this evening: we are all longshots.

We're given one opportunity to live our best life. We fall short of the mark time and time again and to be champions, well, it's a stretch at best. A lot of ifs, a lot of thens, a lot of "well, don't get your hopes up." How many times in life have we been relying on other situations to be favorable and hope that our luck will change?

"We don't know what we're doing. Let it go. It's so hard to fill me in. You better run as fast as you can. When your eyes are getting low--tomorrow is saved for lost and found. Last night, I swore I'd never be the same. I aint lying and I won't ask please. I'll tell you what i had in mind."--phoenix

How many times do we pray that if we could just get a second chance, we'll run farther, jump higher, talk nicer, think purer, just give me that second chance...

And how many times do we find that the second chance isn't related to what we can do at all? It's the situation. It's the outcome of unrelated events. It's the bigger picture that matters and there's nothing we can do to change it. Two words: Georgia Bulldogs. Early in the season, two losses had us down. We just hoped for a strong finish. We thought a good bowl would be locked up but talk about a title game? Well, only in our wildest dreams. And I've got news for you: wildest dreams happen. They happen in big ways and sometimes with complication. And in an instant longshots can become sure things. And I think the most beautiful understanding about this football season has been redemption.

Redeeming grace. That's the one thing that can take us from longshots to sure things. Isn't it beautiful to know that when we have pasts that are colored with questionable, unfavorable memories we can still be brought to the forefront? We are allowed another chance. A chance that hasn't been an option for 25 years--in some cases, longer. What we have in mind never seems to be big enough, crazy enough and risky enough. And what we thought would only result in yet another letdown somehow has us in the grips of an amazing new journey that in our narrow minds, would have never foreseen.

We serve a God who thrives on redeeming the longshots.