Football is a wonderful sport with high-impact action and tremendous skill. Fans love seeing the big hits and watching the defense chase down a runner. Unfortunately, such extreme physical play often results in major injuries to players.

Two guys, I root for, Tony Romo and Benjamin Watson, are out for at least half the season – Romo with a broken bone in his back and Watson with a torn Achilles. There is great disappointment in knowing they can’t help out their teams for the foreseeable future because of something they weren’t planning on happening.

Romo and the Cowboys were excited about the upcoming season with their talented offense. Watson was getting a new opportunity to extend his career in Baltimore.

Instead, both of them now have to undergo recovery, rehab, and healing. They will also have to wrestle with frustration, pain, discomfort, and uncertainty as they hope and wait to get back out on the field. Due to the injuries they suffered, their plans have changed and they must endure a significant setback.

These athletes are not that different from us. I’m sure we can all relate to either their physical pain or emotional pain – or both. At this moment, many of us are dealing with an injury or sickness, as well as other trials like job loss, financial concerns, relationship struggles, and other personal issues.

In each of these situations, something happens that changes our plans. When we experience obstacles that prevent us from moving forward as fast as we’d like, we are forced to deal with unanticipated hurt, discouragement, and anxiety.

So how do we respond to these unfortunate change of events? The Bible shares countless stories about struggle, persecution, and weakness while revealing God’s goodness and power through it all.

Paul and Timothy tell us about one such story in 2 Corinthians 1:8-10 (NLT):

“We think you ought to know, dear brothers and sisters, about the trouble we went through in the province of Asia. We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure, and we thought we would never live through it. In fact, we expected to die. But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead. And He did rescue us from mortal danger, and He will rescue us again. We have placed our confidence in Him, and He will continue to rescue us.”

As we face a myriad of troubles today, let’s hold onto these two lines from the above passage:“…we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God…” and “We have placed our confidence in Him, and He will continue to rescue us.”

“Unexpected injuries” will happen to all of us at some point in time, but let’s remember to give thought to how we respond…and put our hope in the One we can rely on. I’m Bryce Johnson and you can unpack that!

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, You know the pain and uncertainty I’m dealing with today, and I trust that You will ultimately rescue me. I know that you will use my hurt to strengthen my faith in You and develop my character. Help me to fully rely on You and place my confidence in You. I pray this in Jesus’ name, Amen.