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In 2017, our fourteen player football team won the TAIAO sixman state title; however, it looked very unlikely because in week two, we lost a game where three of our starters were injured. Our best player, and running back, broke his ankle and was out for the rest of the year. So, we were left with a bunch of underclassmen and only one returning starter from the previous season.
To compound matters, we had a very hard schedule and three of the first four teams would end the year having a combined two losses. Our only senior was a first year starter. We had mostly underclassmen on the roster. It certainly looked as though we were under water by week five of the season as our record stood at 1-3.
You will experience floods. This is 100% certain. Some of them are going to be personal, some familial, some are going to be social, political and economic. As sure as the sun rises, these floods will appear in our lives. The question is how are you going to handle the floods? Are you going to prepare? Do you have the temerity to ride them out? Might you be able to foresee them and prepare enough to avoid the devastation they can initiate?
So, trouble is coming. What are you going to do about it? Maybe you should consider getting your act together so as to make whatever is about to hit you be the least amount of hell on earth. Look no further than Noah. He was surrounded by awful people. Political, social, familial... he was surrounded by evil on all sides; yet, he clung to God. In Genesis 6:8, we are told Noah was favored by God. He saw the evil around him and he opted to faithfully follow God.
By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.
Hebrews 11:7
Noah knew there was evil around him. He knew the enemy was at the gates. He was rewarded by God opting to save him and his family through the building of the Ark. However, that was no small feat. It took years to build, it cost him dearly in money and relationships. I am certain there was significant tribulation both building the Ark and then attending to the animals once the flood came. However, these trials paired in comparison to the alternative which was death.
While the 2018 team might have been young, they had spent years playing together through our junior high program. They had made the most of their time in practices when they were not getting playing time on the field. They had a confidence in each other which could not be coached but comes from having fought other battles together in other game and in other seasons.
They might not have known the totality of the flood which started their season; however, they did know how to deal with it. Week by week they got better until at the end of the season they were standing together holding the first of what would eventually be four straight State Title wins.
Not every flood can be avoided and some might wreck havoc on your life. However, the more you draw closer to God through faith and trust in Him, the better your chances of riding out the storm.
