A Ramble About Winning and Losing

Some time ago I bought and watched the movie Facing the Giants with my family. It's one of those faith based, “Christian” movies along the same lines as Fireproof and Courageous. Truth is, it wouldn't have been my first choice among movies because it's a movie about football and a high school football team, and I'm not really a football (or most sports for that matter) kind of guy. The movie itself is about a football coach at a Christian High School whose life, at the beginning of the movie, seems to be stuck. His house needs repair. His car needs to be put out of his misery. He and his wife are struggling to conceive children. And he's in danger of losing his job because the school's football team has lost too many games. He then makes a change in his life deciding to follow the Lord regardless of what God gives him, and he reinvigorates his football team by using football as a means of discipleship.

In the last couple of days, one line from this movie has been standing out to me, “If we win, we praise Him. If we lose, we praise Him.” The coach told his team this after they had lost the game which would have led them to the playoffs after a remarkable winning streak. He wanted his life's focus, and the focus of the players on his team to be Jesus Christ, and not whether or not they won a football game. In the movie, as he's back at the school disappointed and cleaning things up for the rest of the season, he gets a phone call that the other team cheated and therefore forfeited their win, and his team goes to the playoffs, and ultimately wins the state championships.

My family and I left Bullhead City this past Monday morning in our RV, we did so believing that this was what God was calling us to do. We had given our truck to my sister because we couldn't take it with us. We knew the transmission problems on it would prevent it from doing any more traveling than around town errands. The Lord provided for us to repair the transmission on the RV so that it could be moved. And so we set out towards Mesa, AZ to begin our instruction and experience at a kids' home as the first part of a larger journey to prepare for setting up and running the mission for disabled kids that my wife and I had been praying about and planning for years.

We plan; God laughs. I saw this recently on Facebook and Morgan Freeman's character of God from Evan Almighty immediately came into my mind as he laughed hysterically at the title character's insistence that God's will for him was not a part of his plans.

About fifteen or twenty miles out of Bullhead City, in Golden Valley, our RV broke down. Specifically, it overheated on the eleven mile grade just out of Bullhead. Twice. The first time I shut it down and let it sit to cool down, and I thought we could make it a little farther. The second time, five miles or so later, it began losing power and died altogether as I pulled it to the side of the road. Steam was pouring from various places on the engine where even I (as automotively challenged as I am) knew steam should not be coming from. The coolant was boiling in the overflow container, and I learned an hour or two later when I was able to remove the radiator cap that there was no coolant left in the radiator or possibly the engine.

So, after two hours of letting it cool and attempting to start it again (to no avail), I begin walking to the nearest places I could find to see what can be done and to try to find some way to do it. After about two and a half miles of walking, the Lord brought along my path a generous gentleman and his wife who saw our need and went to bat for us giving me a ride and making phone calls to mechanics and tow trucks. His wife graciously brought my wife and kids to their home while her husband and I waited with the RV (and all ten animals in the RV) for the tow truck. The RV was then towed to Kingman, AZ where the mechanics there could look at it and see if there was any hope for it. The shop where it was towed to graciously allowed us to stay in the RV on their premises and even offered an electrical hook-up and water for our water tank while they diagnosed it. The new friends who had been so gracious to us continued to offer their assistance in helping us to go and get food for the time being.

Well, this morning we got the news that we really had been hoping to not hear. Our engine is fried and it will cost an exorbitant amount to replace it, more than our resources will allow. Fixing it is no longer an option. Right now we are sitting in the shop's lot trying to determine where we are to go and what we are to do next.

Golden Valley is one of the places which we have been looking at as far as starting the mission home. And the Lord has made His presence and His care for us very apparent in the generosity of total strangers. “If we win, we praise Him; and if we lose, we praise Him.”

For whatever reason, God decided we needed to stop in a big way and be towed to where we're at now in Kingman, AZ. When we set out, we thought we knew where we would be going at first. God had other plans. Right now we're calling around to see if there's an RV park or campground which will take us for the time being (yes, we will have to tow it there).

Following the will of God sometimes means going in the direction He points, not necessarily reaching the destination you think you're heading to when you think you're supposed to get there. We don't know why we're here for the moment, but God is still showing His faithfulness regardless.