Do you love March Madness? We do! Round ball is in our genes. I am not an athlete. I am a sports fan, and I love the NCAA Basketball Tournament. Have you filled out your bracket? Chosen your favorite teams? Is your team still playing or did a loss end their journey to the Final Four?
Have you ever thought about why it is that a highly ranked team can get knocked out of the tournament in an early round? I believe it’s often because they are anticipating the more difficult games, and look right past the opponent that is considered to be less of a challenge.
We can so easily fall into that trap. I can get so worried about how I am going to handle a difficult situation tomorrow that I fail to do what needs to be done today. Have you ever been worried about an upcoming appointment, and totally lost your temper with another driver for no apparent reason. I’ll bet you can think of a dozen or more examples of times when worries and distractions caused a completely unrelated stumble.
Our “opponent” loves to keep us distracted and filled with worry. Jesus says in Matthew 6:34:
Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes. (MSG)
Let’s learn to always keep our full attention on our present opponent, and with our Lord’s help we will be prepared to win the “game” one victorious play at a time.