ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE

      Watching the Super Bowl with one quarter left and the score so lopsided, my mind began to drift as to what I could write about this morning. The game seemed over and like most viewers, I’d already given the trophy to Atlanta. They are a fine team, with both offense and defense playing a great game. Young quarterback Matt Ryan, MVP of the 2016 season, was running the show, and aging quarterback Tom Brady of New England didn’t seem to have the stuff to win the Big One one more time.

      Or so we thought. 

      Somehow Brady and the Patriots came back from a 25 point deficit, tied the game, and won it 34-28 in overtime. “Old” Tom Brady won his fifth Super Bowl ring, proving he arguably is the best NFL quarterback of all time. Ironically, Commissioner Roger Goodell handed the Lombardi trophy to the Patriots owner Robert Kraft and then left without facing Brady, the player he’d tried to humiliate for two years.

      After the game ended, Brady went to his knees, face down right in the midst of a wild, pressing crowd. We don’t know if he was giving thanks, or weeping in disbelief or gratitude that his cancer-weakened mother was able to be there. But when he rose up, he did so as a great winning athlete. 

      I didn’t expect to watch the whole game, let alone find a lesson from it. But it became simple: God’s plans aren’t always our plans. Consider the past months: the Chicago Cubs never win the World Series, Donald Trump would never win the presidency, and Tom Brady couldn’t possibly overcome such odds to win his fifth Super Bowl.

      God’s plans aren’t always our plans. A Yiddish proverb said, “Mankind plans, and God laughs.” With each stage of life, we imagine what it will be like until we get there and things aren’t quite be what we expected. Life takes another surprising direction entirely. 

      But God knows the future and His plans for us are best. Jeremiah 29:11-12 tells us: “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for good and not for evil, plans to give you a hope and a future.” God’s plans are the best for us, and we must have faith that this is true with each day. Jeremiah continues, “Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will hear you.” Jesus told us 2,000 years ago, “With God all things are possible.”

So what’s next? Congress cooperating? Hollywood becoming humble? A cure for cancer?

Rev. Bob Tasler, www.bobtasler.com