The Triple Crown Winner!!!

It is horse racing season and we have already completed The Kentucky Derby and The Preakness.  In The Kentucky Derby, Calvin Borel, the jockey for Super Saver rode his horse to a great victory.  At the end of the race, Calvin stated that he was going to win all three races that make up The Triple Crown and "run the table."  It was a great challenge for all to hear and, of course, I was hoping he would do it.  The Preakness came around last Saturday, but when the dust cleared there was yet another winner, the horse was Looking Lucky.   The Triple Crown is won by the horse who wins the 3 major horse races of the year, The Kentucky Derby, The Preakness, and The Belmont.  It is a huge accomplishment for any horse and only 11 horses have won it in the last 91 years, and no horse has done it in the last 32 years.  Each year horse racing fans believe this could be the year, and the hype begins right after The Kentucky Derby.  The anticipation for the next race, The Preakness, is unparalleled and if the Derby Winner wins there, it gets even more heightened.  Only to be dashed, year after year.  It's not the lack of a Triple Crown winner that amazes me.  It's the anticipation year after year and the "belief" that it could happen this year.  They have HOPE!

Hope is an amazing thing for anyone, but especially Christians.  We should be running over with hope in our lives.  We should believe anything is possible and live off the foundational truth that God is alive and well, and working a great work in this world.  Sadly enough, that is usually not the case.  Our hope is built off what is going on in the world around us.  We let the news, or should I say bad news, dictate what we do and how we do it.  We begin believing the lie that the world is filling our brains with and quit believing the truth.  Then we lose it....HOPE.  When Christians lose hope we shut down just like people who don't know the Lord.  It's almost like we lick our finger, stick it up in the air to see where the hopeless wind is blowing, and that is where we hoist our flag.

It's an amazing thing hope.  We just don't seem to have enough of it.  Instead of anticipating God doing a great work again and again, we just exist.  Unlike the anticipation of a possible Triple Crown winner by those who are willing to "bet on it."  We at times don't even believe in our "sure thing."  Hope that is generated by the Holy Spirit is hope that is real and does not disappoint.  In Romans 5:5, Paul said, "And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us."  Whether you anticipate it, or believe or not, our God wins The Triple Crown every time.  God the Father reaches down to man through Jesus Christ the Son, and leaves the Holy Spirit to continue winning race after race in our lives.   That is how we have hope.  Psalm 33:20 says, "We wait in hope for the Lord; He is our help and our shield." Psalm 33:22 says, "May your unfailing love rest upon us. O Lord, even as we put our hope in You."

We are in a race and only one will win.  The one who's hope is in the Lord.  In 1 Corinthians 9:24 it says, "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run,, but only one gets the prize.  Run in such a way as to get the prize. "  Hebrews 12:1 says, "Therefore,, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us."  If you can't get any hope in the Lord, and you can't seem to win in any races, are you sure you are even on the right track?  If not, now is the time to get with the best trainer in the universe.  He will continue to grow your faith more and more until your hope quotient starts to soar.  Here is the cool thing.  If a group of people, like a church, could tap into this truth, there would no holding them back.  They would see souls saved and lives changed by God's power on a regular basis, instead of trying to figure if they can keep their doors open. Now that is what I call CHURCH.  If you decide you are going to try this hope thing, then plan on being a little dylexic when getting a read on the world around  you .  When the world says "slow down," speed up.  When the world says "take it easy" bear down hard.  When the world says "the sky is falling" look up and go. "That's not the sky, that's my Lord."  Why?  Because the race has already been won, and we are following the Eternal Triple Crown winner.

The pilgrimage continues.....
David Warren