Roethlisberger, Vick, And Jones

Roethlisberger, Vick, and Jones

The Pittsburgh Steelers weren’t yet halfway through the 2015 NFL campaign when they had already gone to their third-string quarterback, Landry Jones. Jones, a star at the University of Oklahoma, said after a come-from-behind victory over the Arizona Cardinals, “I just can’t believe I got in the game.”

Here is a guy who has been the best player on the field wherever he has gone throughout his entire amateur football career. But when he turned pro, he found himself waiting behind Ben Roethlisberger and Michael Vick for an opportunity to live out his childhood dream.

Waiting is hard for athletes, but it is even harder for young wives who can’t conceive. Yes, waiting is hard for a backup point guard or catcher, as they are eager to get in the game and show what they can do. But waiting is even harder on a young father who is watching his son battling cancer.

Throughout my pastoral ministry, I have had to walk with people through some very difficult trials and challenges. Occasionally, there is a great victory that emerges through these trials. I am not sure what you may be waiting for God to move on. As I have had to wait, and as I have walked with others in their seasons of waiting, I will confess to you this harsh reality: waiting is hard, and you don’t always get what you want.

But there are also times when the victory is so sweet, words can’t really express the beauty of what has taken place. You see, there is nothing like that moment when you, like Landry Jones, get to take the field and get the victory you have been longing for. May the words of Proverbs 13:12 bless you today: “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a dream fulfilled is a tree of life.”

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a dream fulfilled is a tree of life.

Proverbs 13:12