Are you a Game-Changer?

On February 3, 2013, people gathered round TV’s to watch Super Bowl XLVII, being played in New Orleans. Everyone had selected the team he or she hoped would win the game. This Super Bowl had a new level of interest and fun . . . the head coaches were brothers. The teams playing were the San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Ravens.

The Baltimore Ravens quickly went up and at half-time led 21 to 6, leaving many to think the 49ers had not even shown up. After half time, the Ravens continued their march into the NFL history book with a 108 yard kick-off touchdown return by Jacoby Jones. That return extended the Raven’s lead 28 to 6.

Just as everyone began to think it was over for the 49ers, the unthinkable happened . . . the lights went out! For more than 30 minutes the play was suspended and players, coaches, and spectators sat in the dark, and folks watching by TV wondered what was going on.

After the power was restored and play resumed, it became obvious something had happened . . . things had changed . . . the momentum had shifted! By the end of the 3rd quarter the 49ers had trimmed the lead to 28 to 23, and a comeback looked very possible.

Many speculated that the power outage had been a game-changer.

 

Ultimately, the Ravens won the game 34 to 31.

It has been a month since, and we still don’t have a clear explanation why the lights went out . . . or if the event really had an impact on the game. But you can bet if the 49ers had won, odds-makers, critics, and pundits all over the world would have been in an uproar . . . declaring that the electric failure was the single event that had made the difference.

In truth, we don’t know if the power outage really had an impact on the game . . . in one way or the other, but we do know one thing that is certain about life is that every life can make a difference . . . every life can become a game changer. Every person can have a lasting impact on someone . . . or something . . . it is simply a question of how and in what way, and if the change is good or bad.

God constructed us in such a way that every single life can, indeed, make a difference. In fact, each of us have been impacted, changed, and influenced by a relative, a friend, a teacher, a parent, a spouse, or perhaps a neighbor. Hopefully, those who have impacted us have been people who loved us and cared enough to invest in our lives and their impact and influence produced good changes in us.

Are you a game-changer? Whose life are you helping to change? Is the change you are helping bring about in someone’s life a change that will be good for the person?  Or is it a change that will leave him or her scarred for life?

I have begun a new study of I Timothy. In chapter 1, some were discovered in the Church at Ephesus working hard on being game-changers . . . but tragically the changes they were working on making were changes that would hurt and confuse people. What they were teaching was based on myths and fables and far from Biblical truth. Some in Ephesus may have found their teachings profound . . . but their teachings left people empty, and provided no source of spiritual nourishment. Their teachings only led to speculation and debate . . .

The Apostle Paul wrote to timid young Timothy and encouraged him to get in the game and make a difference . . . to become a game-changer for the good of the Church. The people’s spiritual well-being depended on it . . . the wise man that he was, Paul knew that people simply cannot continue to do right, if their thinking is wrong and confused.

 


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