Accomplishing The Unthinkable

Accomplishing the Unthinkable

Have you ever heard the expression “Who would’ve thought?” It is the question asked when the unthinkable or extremely improbable happens. I am sure this was the expression uttered over and over again by the opponents of the Sewanee University football team from 1899.

This team went 12–0 and outscored their opponents 322 to 10. The only team that scored on them was Auburn, coached by John Heisman himself. The Sewanee football players were called the “Iron Men,” not just for their football abilities, but because they won five games in a six-day schedule that had them traveling 2,500 miles. Who would’ve thought?

Orin Lewis, one of the deacons in my church and the president of our not-for-profit clinic, experienced his own iron man moment when he was suddenly admitted to the hospital. Having run the Chevron Houston Marathon a few weeks prior, Orin knew that there was something wrong. When he got to the hospital, he could barely breathe, and he began to throw up blood. The doctors diagnosed Orin with a massive pulmonary embolism that was putting pressure on his heart, causing part of it to shut down. Orin was only hours away from death.

Orin’s wife told me that he would be in the ICU for up to two weeks, if he survived. We prayed at church that day. We prayed as a staff. We prayed on Wednesday night at our healing service. We prayed and prayed and prayed. On Thursday, Orin went home, walked himself up the stairs, and even took his dogs out for a walk. It was miraculous.

I don’t know if you ever feel like you are on a 2,500-mile road trip facing battle after battle. But I want you to know that there are challenges and improbabilities in your life that are easily handled by God. Remember Jesus’ words of Matthew 19:26: “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But with God everything is possible.” Turn over your impossibilities to the Lord, because nothing is impossible with God.

Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But with God everything is possible.

Matthew 19:26