That’s twice in a row now for the Buffalo Bills. Last week they overcame an 18 point deficit to beat Oakland. Yesterday, after falling behind 21-0 to New England, they did it again, beating the Patriots on a last second field goal.

Of course, every time that Buffalo falls behind in a game, I’m reminded of THE COMEBACK. Back in 1993. The Bills and Oilers in the first game of the playoffs. The half-time score was 35-3, Houston. And Buffalo’s star quarterback was hurt. But something happened in the second half. Backup Frank Reich came off the bench to lead the Bills to the greatest comeback in NFL history, winning 41-38 in overtime.

I remember watching that game with my boys, age 5 and 3 at the time. And I remember telling them afterwards, “Never forget this game. And never forget the lesson it teaches. You’re never too far behind for a comeback.”

Yeah, I know it’s a heavy lesson for preschoolers. It’s a heavy lesson for grownups, too, but one we desperately need to remember. No matter how many times you have fallen, no matter how far from victory you may appear to be, there’s still time to stage a comeback.

It’s what happened with the Apostle Peter. The first half his life was marked by mistakes and mishaps, culminating in a devastating defeat when he denied knowing Christ.

And then something happened.

In the second half Peter was a new man. He faced life with newfound courage, he ministered with newfound power, and he spoke with newfound authority. What happened to make such a drastic change in Peter’s life?

One, he experienced the power of forgiveness. Two, he experienced the power of the Holy Spirit. Three, he experienced the power that comes with staying in the game.

Do you remember how, at first, Peter was tempted to go back to fishing? But Jesus called him once again. He challenged him to stay in the game, so to speak, even with the warning that it wouldn’t always be easy. Then his final words to Peter were, “Follow me.” (John 21:22)

You may be behind in the game right now, in your business or your marriage or your finances or your spiritual life. You may be behind, but it’s not too late to begin your comeback. Like Peter, you can experience the power of forgiveness and the power of spiritual renewal.  And if, like Peter, you choose to stay in the game, you can experience a comeback.

What’s Jesus saying to you? “Follow me.”

You are different from every other person on this planet … and that’s exactly what God had in mind all along.

King David wrote: All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. (Psalm 139:16)

God knew that you would be you, and he was OK with that. In fact, you were exactly what he wanted. As Rick Warren says in Purpose Driven Life, “Long before you were conceived by your parents, you were conceived in the mind of God.”

You may sometimes wonder: “God, why did you put me here? Why this place? Why this family? Why these limitations?” The answer is that God placed you here and now because he has a plan for you — something only you can do.

As Paul said: From one man He has made every nationality to live over the whole earth and has determined their appointed times and the boundaries of where they live. (Acts 17:26)

In Fiddler on the Roof, Tevye asks the Lord, “Would it spoil some vast eternal plan if I were a wealthy man?” The truth is, were he not a fictional character, the answer would be yes. If Tevye was not Tevye — or if you were not you — God’s plan would be less than complete.

When you’re tempted to be disgruntled about yourself and your lot in life, remember that God created you long ago with something special in mind. He created you to be you, to do what only you can do.

Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. (Ephesians 1:4-5)

When I was first starting out in the ministry, I asked a pastor what are the requirements to be successful. He said, “You need to be an entrepreneur. You need to be organized and efficient, able to manage your time well, and able to see projects through to completion.” I don’t know if he realized it, but he was basically describing himself.

A few days later I asked another pastor (who was approaching retirement) the same question. Without hesitation, he answered, “You need to love your people.”

I said, “What about being organized and efficient? What about being a self-starter?” He said, “A person with strong leadership skills will do well — and you should develop those skills as much as you can. But a pastor who loves people will make a difference in their lives for all eternity.”

This is not to minimize the value of leadership conferences and church growth strategies. It’s to maximize the value of love. And it doesn’t just apply to pastors. It applies to all Christians everywhere.

Do you want to make a difference in the world? You do it by loving others.

Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. (1 John 4:7-8)

H. Jackson Brown, author of Life’s Little Instruction Book, once said, “Where there is a hill to climb, don’t think that waiting will make it any smaller.”

Waiting, in fact, tends to give hills the time they need to become mountains. For every challenge that becomes manageable by benefit of procrastination, 99 just get bigger.

The Friend of Mediocrity.
Elbert Hubbard said that postponement is the father of failure. It’s also the best friend of mediocrity. The things that we postpone most often are the things that define the line between surviving and thriving — the things that mark the difference between eeking out an ordinary existence and experiencing the fullness of the abundant life.

This includes getting serious about a closer walk with Christ, following through on a ministry opportunity, putting a business idea into action, taking steps live a healthier lifestyle, making an effort to strengthen a struggling relationship. The only thing that stands between you and God’s blessing in any of these areas is inertia. The sooner you move, the sooner the windows of heaven can open.

Putting together a plan.
Joshua once asked the people of Israel, “How long will you wait before you begin to take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you?” He then outlined a simple action plan to follow for their progress.

His idea worked.

Maybe we should follow Joshua’s example. You might have 50 things nagging you right now; there’s no way you can get to all of them this week, but you can knock out one or two.

Take a look at your list. Which items represent a “possession” that you are certain God wants you to take — a victory you are certain he wants you to claim? Put it at the top of your list this week. Scratch out an action plan that moves you in this direction.

And then, take the first step.

Waiting won’t make the hill any smaller. However, when you start moving in its direction, you discover that that hill isn’t nearly as big as it appears from the distance.

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “The world makes a way for the man who knows where he is going.”

Or even a ten year old, like Jackson Rogers.

A couple of years ago, First Presbyterian Church of San Antonio initiated an innovative outreach program. They gave certain members of the congregation — those who volunteered to participate — $100 in cash and challenged them to use the money in some capacity to further God’s kingdom.

Jackson was one of the volunteers. He took the money and put together a plan to turn the $100 into $50,000 — enough to build a Habitat for Humanity home. He spent the money on paper and stamps, then wrote hundreds of letters to friends and relatives, asking them to contribute to the project. Some sent money. Some even forwarded his letter to more friends, inviting them to participate. Within weeks, Jackson’s letter raised $43,000. It was a little short of the goal, so his church took a special offering to make up the difference.

This ten year old boy singlehandedly designed and implemented a successful campaign to build a house for a needy family in his community. And the world made a way for him. That’s the power of having a vision fueled by focus and direction.

It reminds me of the words of Paul.

(v. 26) I do not run like a man running aimlessly, I do not fight like a man beating the air.

The world is waiting to clear the way for you to fulfill the vision God has given you.

(Adapted from Steve May’s book, Vision: Take Hold of Your Horizon.)

An article in Fast Company Magazine tells about a conversation between the sculptor Henry Moore and the literary critic Donald Hall. Hall said to Moore, “Now that you’re 80 years old, you must know the secret of life. What is it?” The great artist thought for a moment and said, “The secret of life is to have a task, something you do your entire life, something you bring everything to, every minute of the day, for your whole life. And the most important thing is: It must be something you cannot possibly do.”

Paul talks about the ‘one thing’ in his life: preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. He says…

“Yet when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, for I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!” (1 Corinthians 9:16)

Sharing the gospel was the one thing that motivated Paul. It drove him forward day after day.

What about you? Is there something of which you can say, “Woe to me if I do not do this”? What one thing do you pursue with more passion than anything else?

(Adapted from Steve May’s book, Vision: Take Hold of Your Horizon.)

In 1730 a church in Sussex, England posted this sign:

A vision without a task is but a dream;
a task without a vision is drudgery;
a vision and a task is the hope of the world.

I can relate. When my work becomes drudgery it is inevitably because I have become more focused on the task, less focused on the vision God has given me. Both are necessary.

As far as drudgery goes, I personally can’t imagine anything more dull than selling shoes out of the back of one’s car, but that’s what Phillip Knight did. After launching his own athletic shoe company with $500 of borrowed money, he spent several years crossing the northwest, hawking shoes at track meets and mall parking lots. Not my idea of a dream job, but Knight loved it. Eventually the idea took off. His shoe company, now called Nike, became … well, you know who they are.

That’s what vision does for you. It transforms the drudgery of a task into the thrill of an adventure. And it always leads to great things.

What’s your vision?

(Adapted from Steve May’s book, Vision: Take Hold of Your Horizon.)

“If you are not guided by God, you will be guided by someone or something else.” (Eric Liddell)

The majority get their sense of direction, as well as their general sense of right and wrong, from their peers. I would say that this applies to most believers, even many leaders. We let the group do our thinking for us: what we should want, what we should like, what we should do, and where we should go. This is why sins such as racism, gossip, and greed are overlooked in some circles, while “sins” such as voting the wrong way or listening to the wrong music are considered cardinal.

Getting guidance from God means that you’ll often stand alone, but it also means that you’ll see more clearly than the rest. David said, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.” (Psalm 119:105)

Our challenge is to look to God, not culture (not even the evangelical Christian subculture)  for guidance. Let God’s Word establish your steps and dictate your values.

It gave Noah the courage to build a boat. And Moses the courage to cross the Red Sea. And Joshua the courage to say, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” It caused David to pick up five smooth stones. And Elijah to stand up to the prophets of Baal. And Jesus to speak up for the woman caught in adultery. And Peter to confront the Sanhedrin.

Letting God chart your course may separate you from the in-crowd, but it will also bring meaning and purpose and power into your life.

In the movie Clean Slate, Dana Carvey plays a private detective involved in a murder investigation. The problem is that he has anterograde amnesia and is unable to remember any details of his life from the day before. So each day as he wakes up he listens to a tape reminding him of who he is and why he is here.

Just like Carvey’s character, sometimes it’s easy to forget day-after-day just who the real “you” is. It’s not a bad idea to pick up his habit — beginning each day with a reminder of who you are and why you are here. You don’t get it from a tape, you get it from the Word.

Who are you? A child of God. A friend of Jesus. A new creation. Whole and complete. Forgiven. Accepted. Chosen. Renewed. Alive. And that’s just the beginning.

Each new day is a clean slate, another chance to live the life God called you to live, to be the person he called you to be. Forget yesterday. Remind yourself today of who you are in Christ, and who Christ is in you. Let this be your identity. Let this determine who you are and what you do.

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. (Lamentations 3:23)

Sometimes I wish I had a better memory. I have a tendency to forget things, like where I put my keys, or an important phone number, or the exact content of certain conversations. It can be really annoying, both for me and for the victims of my forgetfulness.

I recently read about a woman who has the opposite problem. Her name is Jill Price, and her memory has been the subject of scientific tests for many years, because she never forgets anything. She is able to remember every detail of everyday since 1980: What time she got up, what she did, who she met, and what she ate. You can name a date and within seconds she can tell you what day of the week it was and what took place on that day.

Neuroscientists are intrigued by her “condition”, but she considers it a curse. She says, “Some memories are good and give me a warm safe feeling. But I also recall every bad decision, insult, and excruciating embarrassment. Over the years it has eaten me up.” She blames her memory for many years of depression.

In college I had a friend with a photographic memory, though not to such an extreme extent. He told me once that he had to learn “selective recall.” Otherwise, when people asked about his day, he would tell them everything: about choosing his socks and tying his shoes and every song he heard on the radio and every street sign he passed and on and on. He had to learn to make the choice to not remember every little thing about every single day. If Ms. Price could do the same thing, I’m sure she would.

It’s what we need to do. We need to learn to forget — to intentionally not remember — certain details of our lives. Which details? The details of those events which do not empower us to live a Godly life in Christ Jesus. Reliving the shame of a sin you committed yesterday or 30 years ago will not help you live in Christ today. Remembering the humiliation of a past defeat or the pain of a past rejection will not empower you to move toward the prize today.

That’s why Paul said, “Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:13-14)

It’s a choice you make. It’s not always easy, because memories (especially the worst ones) can be tenacious. Every pastor, every leader, every parent, every spouse, every believer needs to learn selective recall.

You don’t have to dwell on the past. In fact, we are commanded to put it behind us and to start looking ahead. You have God’s permission to forget everything from yesterday that doesn’t strengthen you today.