I was at church on Sunday, and during the praise and worship portion, was so overcome with joy that I held up both arms in that classic pose of YES! As soon as I did it, I flashed back to the previous night.

See, there was this football game involving Georgia and Auburn where things got a little crazy. Now I’m a VOLS fan, through and through, and normally I wouldn’t even turn on the Georgia game, much less cheer for them. Since my husband is a UGA grad, and my daughter was born on Georgia soil, I decided to let the game run, on mute, in the background. It wasn’t that exciting of a game anyway – when the 3rd quarter ended, Georgia trailed 17 to 34. But then came the 4th quarter and Georgia scored a massive 21 points. With only a little over a minute left to play, they led by 5 points! Even I got excited and joined my family in cheering.

Auburn got the ball and went nowhere, fast. Now with only 30 seconds left, they were 4th and 18 and the goal line was a mile away. The game was over, Georgia was about to pull off one of the greatest comebacks in history.

Then this happened:

Unbelievable.

Anyway, back to church. As I was sitting there listening, I started thinking about God, and the SEC, and Georgia and basically how there are a lot of biblical lessons in that game. For Auburn fans:

• Miracles still happen. Sure the clock is running out and you’re on the brink of defeat, and if God doesn’t come through in a big way, you are done, but He does! When you least expect it, and probably not at all HOW you expect it, you win!
• Being faithful pays off. Who knows if Ricardo Louis REALLY believed that Auburn would win, but he still ran down field as fast as he could go, and was in the right place, ready for the miracle. What if he’d seen those two Georgia players and had just given up?
• God is merciful and loving even if you don’t deserve it or do bad things, like charge $38,000 dollars a year for tuition.

Yeah, that’s great for AUBURN, but what about Georgia fans? What’s the big biblical lesson in crushing defeat? I mean, besides that God loves everyone apparently, even people from Alabama? For Georgia fans:

• Sometimes, your assistance is not required. Did you see that pass? It was SHORT. The game was over, but as the two Georgia players went for the ball, they actually knocked it into the enemy’s hands! It hurts every time I look at it.
• You have an enemy that is walking around like a lion, (or tiger, as the case may be) looking to devour you, so be on guard at all times, like maybe EARLIER in the game instead of waiting until the last minute.
• Be disciplined. Georgia might not have been in this position if they’d gotten fewer penalties. Stop messing around and get serious about your game.

The good news is that while your enemy rejoices, the game is not over! Your God is the quarterback, the wide receiver, the corner back – the Holy Trinity and one day EVERYONE,  including the refs with their stupid, yellow flags, will bow down! The play clock has no end and He had as many downs as He NEEDS. If that’s not worthy of face-paint, I don’t know what is!

When it comes to SEC football, I’m not stranger to heartbreak. Who can forget Tennessee’s almost touchdown in overtime which would have meant a win over *Georgia? But as it says in Job 13:15 – Though He slay me, still I will hope in Him.

Christians, like SEC fans, know that while life with GOD is not always easy, the alternative is unthinkable. No way we’re going to hell. Or the Big 10, as the case may be.

*See comments.

I know that patience has a lot of fans, but for me, when it comes to the fruit of the spirit you can’t beat self-control. I use it almost every morning when I read political blogs, then get on Facebook and read how stupid all of my friends are. But do I TELL them? No, cause I got control.

Besides, what good would it do?

The problem with self-control is that no one ever recognizes you’re using it. Sure you’ll hear people say, “You have so much patience!”, or “What a kind thing you just did!” but no one EVER says, “Thanks for not pointing out what a donkey’s behind I am!”

But just when I think that maybe I should give up on the whole Self-Control thing, I meet someone who already has, and oh, boy.

Sunday, my tennis team played in the semi-finals. I wasn’t in the line-up (what!!) but I decided to go and cheer them on. Apparently, just before I got there, the other team Captain cussed out our team Captain and we had to threaten to call the police to get her to shut-up. I. Miss. Everything.

Maybe she had a good reason? Seems that she wanted us to play three matches at once, instead of two, and when our captain wouldn’t start early, she threw a fit. One of my teammates asked her to move so they could see the tennis match that was going on behind her, and the crazy woman jumped on the bleachers and yelled that she would stand anywhere she dang well wanted! She cussed and jumped and generally acted like a PURE IDIOT. Another team member asked her to stop using crude language in front of the kids that were there and she said, “You want crude? I’ll show you crude!” then she proceeded to SHIMMY her belly and boobs at our team. And she had a lot of both to shimmy.

I’m going to be honest. If I found a time-machine and could only make one trip to the past and it was between stopping a presidential assassination and getting to the match twenty minutes earlier with a recording device, I’m not sure which one I’d choose.

Long-time readers of this blog, (hi, Mom!) know that I play tennis on the weekends with my friend Sharon. Previous posts have mentioned how we pray throughout the match. We do this because:

A) We’re Godly women who talk to Jesus all day long, and/or

B) We are much too busy to actually practice.

My theory is this – if both teams are roughly equal in fitness and skill, but ONE of the teams is praying constantly for help, then that just might make up the difference. Usually I pray for help on points, that my serve will go in, etc. but I’m not above pointing out how our opponents are cussing, seemingly hungover, or are looking really cute in their expensive Nike outfits which proves they are obviously vain and hate the poor.

Last year it didn’t work so well. In fact, we only won ONE match and when our team still somehow made the playoffs, it came down to us and we LOST. I’m not sure why, but for some reason they invited us back and it’s been a much better year. Like, UNDEFEATED, better. So when we made the playoffs again, I was feeling confident.

Side note: Here’s how playoffs work. Each team has five doubles partnerships, ranked from 1 (the best) to 5 (the worst) and the team that wins 3 of the 5 matches wins. It can be the 1s, 2s and 3s or any combination. When I got to the match on Sunday, our 1s were losing, and they were followed quickly by the 2s. Okay, not a big deal. Sure I now HAD to win, but as I mentioned, we were undefeated and what are the chances that it would come down to me and Sharon again?

Pretty good, as it turns out. Our 3s won in a 3rd set tiebreaker, and our 5s won easily in 2 sets. Sharon and I? Well, we were up 3 – 0 in the first set, when somehow the other team took over and won it 6-4. Gulp. Not that I was REALLY concerned. I’d been praying, “3s, 4s, and 5s, Lord” over and over from the moment I stepped on the court. Sharon was praying hard as well. At one point she hit a great shot and when I complimented her, she said “It was Jesus.” Then later when I hit a good shot, she said “I know THAT was Jesus.” She doesn’t just know her Savior’s voice, she knows His backhand!

But as I watched our 3s walk off their court as winners, and I saw that our 5s were winning easily, I realized that yes, once again it would come down to us, and I started worry. Before I knew it, we were down in the 2nd set, 5-2! Since we’d lost the first set, we were only one game away from losing the whole thing! What the what? Couldn’t Jesus hear us praying? Then it hit me. See, we weren’t playing in a subdivision, or at the local park, we were playing at a church. On the crossover, I asked, “So, do you just play out of here, or do you actually go to this church? You probably just play here, right?” But, no. THEY ACTUALLY WENT TO THE CHURCH! Somehow I hadn’t planned for this contingency! Now what? Well, if you’re anything like me, you start to whine. My prayers went from “3s, 4s, and 5s, Lord” to “Why do you have to keep HUMBLING me over and over like this?”

Oh ye of little faith and the unreliable backhand.

Somehow my partner won her serve and the score was 5-3. Our opponents served for the match and suddenly we were at match point. Which Sharon and I won. Then they had match point again. Which Sharon and I won. Then we won the game. Then the next one. And the next one. And the NEXT. From down 5-2 and two match points to winning the 2nd set 7-5!

Since we split sets, our opponents took a break to visit the restrooms, grab a banana, and stall as long as possible to halt our momentum. Sharon and I weren’t having any of it. We stayed out on the court, hitting the ball to keep warm and basically acting like we were in the finals of the US Open. Finally, our opponents came back and we played the 3rd set.

Which Sharon and I WON, 6-2. We WON.

We might have gotten a little excited.

If you replaced the two Olympic athletes with a pair of  pudgy, middle-aged women, it would look exactly the same.

Our team went wild. We, the pair that lost it for everyone last year, came through in dramatic fashion and we go on next week to continue the fight.

On the way to the beach last week, my friend Keekle played a bit of a Louie Giglio podcast called The Comeback. He was talking about Lazarus, who as you know, DIED. To most people that’d be a real setback,  but as the story shows, you never know what the Lord will do.  So next time you find yourself in a desperate situation, remember Lazarus, or my tennis story cause either one would probably work.

Now you know why He has to humble me over and over.