The Low Places

Life is full of highs and lows. Sometimes we find ourselves on the highest of mountaintops. Other times, in the lowest of valleys. In 1979, my college football team experienced both.

In the third game of the season, we scored 17 points in the last 75 seconds of the game to shock our opponent, in probably the biggest comeback in school history. Then in what turned out to be the last game of the season, on our home field, with a packed to capacity stadium, in the first round of the national playoffs against the #1 ranked team in the nation, we had a chance for the biggest upset in school history.

The team was undefeated and nationally ranked after six games, then, after being upset 12-7 in the seventh game of the year, which dropped us out of the Top Ten, we needed convincing wins in our final two games to climb back into playoff contention. We did just that, winning those two games by a combined score of 99-16. That moved us up to #8 in the final poll, qualifying us for the NCAA Division III playoffs.

We had confidence going into the playoff game and late in the game, had an upset win within our grasp. With under one minute left in the fourth quarter and the ball sitting on the one yard line on first down, with the best offensive line in the conference, and with one of the best running backs in the country, who would later go on to play in the NFL, we had four chances to simply gain one yard and tie the game, sending it into overtime. But their defense rose to the occasion and stopped us four times, beating us 21-14, ending our dream of winning the national championship.

So, after an exhilarating high just two months earlier, we now found ourselves in the locker room with tears streaming down our faces, hurting from a painful low. And for us seniors, real sadness, knowing this was the last game we would ever play. That loss still stings, more than four decades later.

Today, do you find yourself in one of those low places? Does the valley you are in feel so deep that even if you yelled for help, nobody could hear you? Is your life spinning out of control so badly that you’ve stopped trying to re-orient and have simply put your head between your knees, bracing for impact?

In John 16:33 we read these words of Jesus – “I tell you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

“The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth” (Psalm 145:18).

When a young unmarried servant woman with a son sat all alone in the desert, God met her right where she was. We see these words in Genesis 16:13 – “She gave this name to the LORD who spoke to her: ‘You are the God who sees me,’ for she said, ‘I have now seen the One who sees me.’”

And these very comforting words of Jesus, found in Matthew 11:28 – “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”

Will you allow the ever-present God to lift you up out of the slimy pit, the mud and mire, the pit of despair, and set your feet on solid ground (Psalm 40:1-2)?

Allow me to offer some encouragement. Speaking from experience, even in those low places, those valleys, those dark places, those spinning out of control places, God is still with you, He sees you, and He can and will lift you up.

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