I stayed up and watched the National Championship Men’s Basketball Game between Butler and UConn. I watched and even rooted for Butler as the team I cheer for (the Buckeyes) lost earlier in the tournament. While it was not a great game—neither team shot particularly well (Butler’s 18% shooting was the lowest of all national championship games) and the score reflected more of a high school game then a college game. 

After the game, I heard one of the Butler players say that while they were struggling with shooting the ball, the coach told them to keep shooting and eventually some will go. They did make some baskets down the stretch, but still not many. But the lesson here I think is applicable to many other spheres of life. The lesson the coach was instilling within his players is that even when things are not working out the way they had hope, they needed to continue to be persistent and keep working at it. One cannot simply say, oh well and then quit. But rather—stay the course.

Within our own faith lives, we may encounter struggles and have times where God does not seem near to us. Everything seems to go wrong and we wonder what are we doing and does it make any difference. The promises of God are that God is with us as Jesus promised that he would be with us even to the end of the ages (Matthew 28:20). God continues to journey with us and is present whether or not we can sense or feel God’s presence. We need to only keep on trudging along and keep trying.

This is what Butler did. It would have been easy for the Butler team to just pack it in when they were only shooting 18% and get killed by the UConn team. But the Butler squad kept going and playing defense— attempting to keep the game close so that if the shoots started falling they might just pull it out. We all know that they were not able to pull it out. But even though the story did not end the way many people wanted it to end—for it would be a better story—but nevertheless, they kept plugging away and keeping at it.

There will always be times when we may encounter dry periods in our faith life and not feel like reading the Bible or being diligent in our prayer life or serving others. However, we know that even during these times God is still at work and present with us. We need to take a page out of Butler’s play book and realize that even on off nights and when nothing seems to be working, to stay the course and keep after it.

Fortunately for us, the faith journey is not simply one game where we either win or lose—but it is a long journey. One with many twists and turns. One with many ups and downs. God calls us to continue to journey with Him trusting that where He is leading us will bear much fruit. When we are struggling, we need to be patient and keep plugging away because we know that God is good and will lead us home.

Pastor Steve