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by Rob Globke
The moment it left my stick, the world just stopped. It was one of those moments you wish you could rewind. A moment you hope to snatch back from time. I honestly don’t know what I was thinking. Perhaps, the problem was that I wasn’t thinking! But, no matter how bad I would have liked to redo a hockey moment, there was no going back.
I had just thrown a double cheese, extra large, meat lover’s PIZZA* up the middle of the ice. The result of this just out of the oven pizza was watching my forechecking opponent bury the go ahead goal on an uncontested breakaway. In my defense, however, it was tape to tape and crisp.
It’s crazy how quickly you can go from confident to walking on egg-shells. I mean ten second early I was watching my d-men go “d to d” and opening up for a pass along the boards. Before getting the pass from my defensemen, I even glanced up to see where I could go before the puck was on my stick. There was nothing there (or so I thought). I guess things change fast in the game of hockey because within the 2 seconds from the defensemen passing me the puck and me throwing the puck up the middle a guy from the other team seemed to “magically” show up.
I’m sure many of you might know this feeling, but perhaps not. I do know that it’s happened before (even in the NHL) and it will happen again. On this night though, it was my turn to make the long skate back to the bench. I could actually feel the weight of all the eyeballs on me. I always thought it was impolite to stare, but that rule was thrown out the window really quick. I did my best to sneak into the bench and avoid eye contact with the coach. I know he wasn’t avoiding eye contact with me! The worst part was the sinking feeling in my stomach as I sat there. There was no one else to blame. I had let the team down and I felt it in my gut. Humiliation was followed by guilt which was followed by shame. Of course, I didn’t see another shift the rest of the 3rd period.
The next day I knew I had to prepare myself for seeing this play again during a video session. What I didn’t know was that the coach would rewind and replay this tragic event four times before moving on through the rest of the clips. Each time asking, “What were you thinking here, Globke?” I don’t know if the coach ever forgot that play let alone forgave me. However, I do know that thinking about this play makes me think about my sin and the greatness of God’s forgiveness.
How you ask?
Well, just like in my story above, there are times in life when sin happens. Sometimes in the blink of eye. We are going about our business and the next thing we know we are doing something or saying something we didn’t think was possible. We stop and immediately want to take back what we did, but we can’t. We find ourselves feeling the weight of guilt, shame, and humiliation. All we want to do is be made right again. To be forgiven. To be made whole and free. Yet, we face a God who demands and requires perfection. We ask ourselves, “How can a sinful man like me ever face a Holy, Perfect, and Righteous God?” Deep down we know we can’t.
Of course, we can't. But God can.
The glory of God is that in His great love for us, He provided a way for us to be made whole again, even in our sin. He sent His only Son to die and take our sin, our shame, and make it His sin and shame. So that when we put our faith IN CHRIST, we are forgiven. More than that, our sins are not even remembered.
The world may not always forgive us for the things we do, but we can be sure that through the shed blood of Jesus Christ, God will. This is amazing. This is love.Have you been forgiven?
*For those that don't know what a "pizza" is in hockey slang...it's a blatant turnover, often up the middle of the ice*
Isaiah 1:18
“Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord:
though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red like crimson,
they shall become like wool.
Colossians 1:13-14
He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Hebrews 8:12
For I will be merciful toward their iniquities,
and I will remember their sins no more.
1 John 1:9
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
