by Rob Globke
Galatians 6:9
"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up."
This will be a short one today...hopefully. :-)
Galatians 6:9 is a great verse about backchecking. No, not backchecking on the ice of course, but backchecking in life. I especially am drawn to the words at the end of the verse which state: “DO NOT GIVE UP”
Isn’t this backchecking?
When you get down to the root of it, backchecking is never giving up. It does not take any special skills. It doesn’t take a certain kind of player. It doesn’t require a special position. (Well, maybe goalies are exempt!). Backchecking is really about not giving up. Every single hockey player can do this. Every single hockey player should do this. When you’re on the ice, give everything you have until it’s time for your teammates to pick up where you left off. This can be very hard to do. If you’re anything like me, there will be times when the last thing you want to do is backcheck.
- Maybe you're sucking mountain air through a straw.
- Maybe your legs feel like concrete.
- Maybe you're mad you didn’t make a play on the offensive end.
- Maybe you just don’t care in that particular moment.
Whatever the case may be, there will be times when we convince ourselves that we don’t have to backcheck. Someone else will do it, we say. It’s not going to cost the team if I just don’t go hard this one time, we think.
This is no way to play the game!!!
The same can be said for life. Galatians 6:9 is a great example of the need to address this. There were Christians a long time ago who were getting tired and exhausted for doing the right thing. They were getting picked on for believing in something true and good. They undoubtedly faced times when the last thing they wanted to do was keep going, to keep doing good things. I’m sure they probably thought to themselves, “It’s ok if I take the day off.” Or, perhaps they mentioned to a friend, “I’m just too tired to be kind to my mom, to my wife, to my kids, or my friends….cut me some slack!”
And we can't be let off the hook so easily and say, "Well, that was for a different time and different place. Things are different now." This didn’t just happen thousands of years ago. The same battle is still being fought in our hearts today. We don’t always want to “backcheck” in life. We get frustrated, tired, and weary of always trying to do the good thing, the right thing. We just want someone else to be able to do it for a change. We want a break.
Galatians 6:9 gives us hope! Nobody may notice some of the times we backcheck on the ice, but we can be assured that there is someone who is always watching whether or not we are backchecking in life. Don’t give up doing good. When it’s hard, keep going. When it’s harder still, keep going. Your heavenly Father is watching and He knows the proper time to reap a harvest for the hard work of doing good. Don’t forget that.
