Waiting for a Comeback, Waiting on the Lord

We all love comeback stories, don't we. With a new quarterback at the helm, the Cowboys came back after being down 14 points and decisively whipped the Panthers in last night's game. Once more Peyton Manning marched his team down the field and got the ball in position for their kicker to make a field goal. The Colts beat the Broncos with a few seconds on the clock.

But what do you do when you just can't seem to come back? Where you seem to face defeat after defeat after defeat? I thought about this after reading of a football team that has faced relentless discouragement.

The Dallas A + Academy has lost 26 straight games. It's been two years since they've won a game. This season they've been crushed by six different teams -- 67-0, 56-0, etc. How do you keep going when you face one setback after another?

I have a friend who has tried so hard to get a job lately. We have prayed together for his employment. He has filled out endless applications and has gone through countless interviews. Nothing has come up yet. His bank account is dwindling. And he struggles with wondering where God is and why He has not yet blessed him with a job.

This morning I was reading in Lamentations the weeping words of Jeremiah. As he witnesses the destruction of Jerusalem, he cries out, "Like a widow broken with grief, she sits alone in her mourning." "My heart is broken, my spirit poured out, as I see what has happened to my people. "

Jeremiah also grieves over his own loss: "I cry out, “My splendor is gone! Everything I had hoped for from the LORD is lost!” But then he suddenly shift gears with this familiar cry:

"Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this: The unfailing love of the LORD never ends!...Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each day...The LORD is wonderfully good to those who wait for him and seek him." -- Lam. 3:21,22a,23a, 25

I remember when I went through a long period of underemployment. My gifts and talents weren't being used. I was so frustrated and mad with God. As I shared my lament at lunch with a good friend, he told me, "Jim, praise Him. Praise Him."

That didn't make any sense at the time. Yet I now know He was right. In the midst of a period of waiting on the Lord, going through dark times and a season of discouragement, our best response is to keep praising God and declaring out loud to Him of His unfailing love and faithfulness.

That's what I would say to my unemployed friend. Or to a downcast coach. Or to a mother who feels like she's getting nowhere with her children. Keep reminding yourself from God's word that "the Lord is wonderfully good to those who wait for him and seek him."

If you're in the midst of a discouraging season in your life, hang on to the Lord, my friend. The Lord who loves you has a way of bringing about the most amazing comebacks. And as you and I will one day look back on what He has done, we'll join Jeremiah in declaring, "Great is His faithfulness!"

Jim