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I had been watching him for several weeks, studying him, listening to him talk. I was waiting patiently for the right time to challenge him to a wrestling match.

Finally the day came. He looked tired and worn. He wasn’t feeling well and I figured, that this may be the best opportunity that I could have to challenge him.

So I did.

I stepped up, squared off against him and immediately got into my wrestling stance. I began to tap him on the shoulder. He turned to see me crouched down and ready to shoot on him.

His instincts took over and immediately he crouched down and we began to circle each other. We sized each other up looking for that moment of inattentiveness that would allow us to take the advantage. I saw it first and shoot in on him taking his left leg and bringing it to my chest before I tripped him and brought him thundering to the ground.

From there – it only took a moment to get him on his back for the pin. Just as I was confident that the match was over . . .

I blacked out.

When I awoke, I saw him standing over me with his arm stretched out ready to help me up. I saw that there was some rug burn marks on my arm and hand, but other then that no real damage.

It was then that I discovered that I had not challenged an ordinary man, but rather I had challenged a former Army Soldier of the Year to a wrestling match. It was painfully obvious from the beginning that my one year of wrestling in High School was no match for a highly trained elite fighting man.

Where I thought I had the advantage by taking him to the ground, was actually the perfect position for him to put me to sleep.

I had no idea.

I thought I could take him.

I thought I could beat him.

I thought that I could win.

I lost horribly.

Two years later, I see the scars of that match on my hand and arm. They’ve healed, but they are a visible reminder of that match.

I have found that I have similar scars on my heart, mind and soul from trying to wrestle with sin. I have sized up sin thinking that by my willpower and intelligence I could beat it. Only to find out that once inside the arena of life, sin quickly grabbed me and choked me out. What I’ve learned is that . . .

My willpower is not enough to take on sin.

My intelligence is not enough to beat sin.

My desire to overcome sin is not enough on my own.

I need help.

The only one who can overcome sin, who can beat it, who can make sin submit is Jesus. When I choose to allow Christ to lead and guide me. When I choose to allow Christ to be my protector and my savior. When I choose to allow Christ to be my defender, it is only then that sin is defeated.

Thoughts?

When I was around age 7 or 8, we lived on a farm in Newton, Iowa. That summer, I climbed trees, jumped hay bales, chased chickens and goats, tried to drive a car, and would jump the fence to see if I could out run the sheep and the ram. I rolled down a giant hill in a burn barrel with my best friend Tommy and I also jumped a giant dirt pile, which put me in the hospital with a hernia.

I took those chances and they changed me forever.

When I was 16, I was listening to a high school friend, Bill Barlow, preach a message in for our youth group at Pinellas Park Wesleyan Church in Pinellas Park, Florida. I reasoned, at the time, that if my friend, who I hung out with and played basketball with, could get up in front of our entire youth group and preach the gospel of Christ, that I can seal the deal and quit playing games with God and fully commit my life to Him. Less than a year later at the Cedar Springs Wesleyan Camp, I accepted God’s calling on my life to full-time pastoral ministry.

I took those chances and they changed me forever.

When I was a junior at Clearwater High School in Clearwater, Florida I started researching what I could do to get out of high school early. I found a loophole in the Florida state law that says if I was accepted to an out of state college, I could attend that college and finish my senior year while completing high school. I left high school and went to Indiana Wesleyan University.

I took those chances and they changed me forever.

After three years of never-ending Indiana overcast skies, I transferred to Oklahoma Wesleyan University so that I could complete my ministry training. That turned out to be a great move because within the first week of being on campus, I met a girl from South Dakota named Cristin and I fell in love with her. Within 11 months we were married.

I took those chances and they changed me forever.

I have taken lots of chances. I’ve been victorious in some of those chances and I’ve failed miserably in others.  I’ve made it through all of those chances and I’ve collected quite the assortment of scars and bruises.

Despite a history of taking chances . . .at 37 . . . I feel that I am slowly becoming afraid to take the chances I once would have jumped at. Is this maturity? Is this complacency? Am I simply tired of knowing that each chance I take can lead to more scars and bruises?

Or is this simply my familiar enemy, the fear of failure, raising it’s head again telling me that taking another chance isn’t worth the risk and that I’m better off staying right where I’m at? Has this enemy griped my heart and paralyzed me from taking chances that could forever change my life? I hope not.

When I recognize that I don’t want to fail and that I am afraid, I remember what David wrote:

“When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me?” (Psalm 56:3-4 ESV)

Without my trust in God, I’d simply be wandering around aimlessly without any direction. The chances I took would be meaningless and foolish without trusting God’s guidance. But knowing that my trust is in God, I can keep pressing forward and taking chances that I know will change my life forever because when my trust is in God, then I know that the chances I take really aren’t chances at all. The chances simply become, once again, the result of trusting God and learning to listen and walk in His ways (Psalm 128:1).

What chances have you taken recently that have changed your life forever?