By all accounts, 2016 looked like a promising year for Kyle Schwarber. As a young player in his sophomore year in the big leagues, the left fielder for the Chicago Cubs had already made a name for himself as a heavy hitter and one of the most talented young men in Major League Baseball. Everyone agreed exciting things were in store. But only three games into the season, Schwarber chased a fly ball into a gap in left-center field and collided with teammate Dexter Fowler. Schwarber’s left leg got tangled with Fowler, and he collapsed onto the warning track. He was taken off the field on a cart.
An MRI revealed a torn ACL and LCL. The diagnoses meant immediate surgery and an end to the 2016 season. It was devastating news by anyone’s standards, but Schwarber took it in stride.
“You can’t get mad about playing hard and getting hurt,” he said. “I’d rather play hard and get hurt, than not play hard and get hurt.”
Professional athletes understand life in the trenches in a way many people don’t. Perhaps that’s why the apostle Paul often used athletic metaphors in his epistles. Paul spoke of:
- Running the race (Phil 2:16, Gal 2:2)
- Running well (Gal 5:7)
- Competing according to the rules (2 Tim 2:5)
- Fighting the good fight and finishing the race (2 Tim 4:7)
- A runner who receives the prize (2 Cor 9:24-26)
- An athlete who exercise self-control and doesn’t run aimlessly (2 Cor 9:25)
While few of us experience season ending injuries, we all get knocked down. Maybe you’re reeling from a divorce, job loss, depression, anxiety, financial struggle, addiction, or physical illness. Perhaps you’re face down in the dirt wondering if it’s worth getting back up again.
The apostle Paul was no stranger to situations that knocked him to his knees. Acts 14 is one of my favorite chapters because it so blatantly tells of Paul’s grit and God’s faithfulness. Paul and Barnabas were in Iconium, and Paul was preaching at a Jewish synagogue. Things were going well. The text says both Jews and Gentiles were becoming believers. As a result, there were unbelieving Jews who were threatened and therefore stirred up trouble for Paul and Barnabas (Acts 14:2).
I laugh every time I read the next verse. It says, “So they remained a long time….” Notice Paul didn’t cut and run when he sensed trouble. Oh no. He hunkered down in the midst of the adversity, and in doing so, he and Barnabas saw God’s “signs and wonders.”
Most of us prefer to avoid adversity and understandably so. But if we are going to follow Jesus there are times when trouble is inevitable. Jesus warned of this (John 16:33). But in the midst of adversity, there’s a good chance we will witness God work in ways we’ve never seen.
When Paul and Barnabas received word that those in Iconium had a plan to kill him they traveled to Lystra. Paul continued to preach, and he healed a man who had been crippled since birth (Acts 14:10). The crowds wrongly credited Paul, and not God, for the healing. Much to Paul’s horror, the masses began to worship the apostles instead of God. Tensions rose, and the Jews came from surrounding cities, and they stoned Paul, wounding him so severely they assumed he was dead.
Have you ever taken a blow that threatened to knock the physical, emotional, or mental life out of you? Paul did, and for a time his motionless body lay on the ground.
But then something amazing happened. Paul got back up (Acts 14:20). He’d no doubt just received the worst beating of his life. As he picked himself up out of the dirt, there’s a good chance his knees were wobbly and his hands trembling. He was likely bruised to the bone. I can almost guarantee he didn’t feel like rising to his feet. But he got back up.
And he returned to ministry.
If we follow Jesus, there will be times we get knocked flat on our faces (John 15:18-27). It comes with the territory. But in the midst of our wounding, there’s a good chance we will see signs and wonders. And God will give us the strength to get back up (Isaiah 40:29).
Kyle Schwarber’s recovery progressed much more quickly than his doctors had anticipated. Just days before the Cubs played in game one of the World Series, Schwarber’s doctors released him to play as a designated hitter. After spending almost the entire season on the disabled list, he reentered the game and was an integral reason the Cubs won the World Series for the first time in 108 years. A young man who began the season with heartbreak and broken dreams ended as a World Series Champion.
And so it is with those of us who follow Jesus.
“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” (Rom 8:37)
There’s always a good reason to get back up.
