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Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest

(Matthew 11:28). Bonus Reading: Psalm 27

In the 1982 NCAA basketball championship game, freshman Michael Jordan hit a jump shot with only seconds left to give North Carolina the lead. Then Georgetown guard Fred Brown dribbled down court to set up one last shot for the national title. In a horrible miscue, he passed the ball to a North Carolina player, thinking from his peripheral vision that the unguarded player was his own teammate. North Carolina rejoiced in the victory.

With the nation watching, Georgetown coach John Thompson, a tall, burly man who loved his players, embraced the crestfallen Brown in a bear hug. He warmly assured his dejected player that it was OK, helping him feel safe from the pain and sorrow of his public humiliation. Two years later, as Fred Brown came off the court at the end of Georgetown's 1984 NCAA championship victory, he got another warm hug from his coach.

I'm glad I've got some John Thompsons in my life—people who give glimpses of God's love for me when I've dropped the ball at a crucial moment. But more importantly, when I blow it and come off the court, I know that the warm hug of my heavenly Father awaits to console me.

Rusty Wright in Worldwide Challenge

Thank your heavenly Father for His acceptance of you even when you blow it.

Victory has a thousand fathers but defeat is an orphan.

John F. Kennedy (35TH U.S. PRESIDENT)

Credits: Adapted from--Monday: Worldwide Challenge (3-4/99)

1999 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity. For reprint information call 630-260-6200 or e-mail mail@menofintegrity.net.
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