We won! We won! We are used to hearing this cheer at the end of a kid’s baseball game. But victory often comes well before the game is won! I would like to suggest that victory comes while the sky seems the darkest and when hope is all but gone.
Londoners were victorious long before V-E day, May 8, 1945. The experienced victory before the win as they rallied to fight fires across the city and as they hurled their last and best pilots across the channel in defense. Victory was in the forging of a country united against a common foe, each doing their part.
Firefighters on 9/11 were victorious with their first step into the fated towers, even more than when victims were saved and their own lives often lost.
TobyMac, a contemporary Christian artist, in his song “Till the Day I Die” sings the following words:
‘Til the wheels fall off
‘Til the spotlight fades
I will lift your banner high
I will lift your banner high
And ’til the walls crash in
For the rest of my days
I’ll lay it all on the line
‘Til the day I die.
Even Paul focuses on the way the race is run… well before the end is in sight.
Run in such a way as to get the prize. -1 Corinthians 9:24 NIV.
As I look back on the recent Easter Sunday, I’d like to suggest that Jesus was victorious well before He was raised from the dead that Sunday morning. I believe He was victorious as He chose, moment by moment, to stay hanging on the cross for your sins and mine.
As the weeks go by in our fight against COVID-19, I see the new case numbers starting to slow down. I wonder how long it will take to see no new cases from one day to the next. But then I realize that long before we win that achievement, we are victorious. We work victoriously together to Do Your Part. Stay Apart. We see victory when we are unselfish instead of hoarding. We live victory as we continue to restrict ourselves, battling against the virus spreading. We can experience victory right now, as we do the right things to keep our families and communities safe.
On that great day, when this enemy is behind us, we’ll be winners alright, but remember that we found victory well before the win!
#wonderwomenof7north#victory