March Madness

There's only one way to pick a winner.

⁶ Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.(Philippians 4:6-7, NIV 2011 Edition)

It's that time of year again. Brackets have been filled out and busted up, underdogs are feeling like champions, and college-aged fans from everywhere are trading in trips to the beach to see their teams play on the hard court. Yep, March Madness is in full effect and no team knows whether or not it will live to play another game of basketball or not after each round. We've already seen a few surprising upsets and some incredible games that we'll remember for quite sometime. The madness surrounding it all - the ups and downs, the uncertainty, victory, defeat - reminds me of our daily lives.

Bracketology. Every day we are faced with decisions or situations that have more than one potential outcome yet we either have no control or are unsure of what's best. Some situations seem a bit more predictable like a 1 vs 16 seed match-up but other times we're faced with the sneaky 8 vs 9, where both options look enticing. So what do we do in either of those times? We pray and petition.

Picking a winner. Paul writes in his letter to the Philippians that we should not be anxious about anything but, in gladness, we should turn our desires and prayers over to God. With the number of decisions we have to make and situations we're faced with on a daily basis we can't possibly pick the right option each time. Too much - stress, anxiety, hunger, anger, etc. - can throw us off our game. Instead we should just turn the decisions over to Him and seek his answer and response.

Let the games play out. Once we turn over our decisions to God, all we can do is let the games play out. The stronger our faith in Him, the greater level of peace we experience in letting Him choose a winner. Just like in the NCAA tournament, He may pick the option that we really don't want to win but if it's from Him then it's for our best. What we may see as a loss may really be for our gain. Whereas we see one decision at a time, God sees the full bracket - even things that we cannot see. If we peacefully and joyfully turn our decisions over to Him and let things play out, we're sure to be a winner at the end of the tourney.

Bonus Coverage: Israel Houghton ft. Fred Hammond - Surprises