The Power of Unshakeable Faith / Guest Post by Jamie Ramer

There are lots of inspirational sports stories and movies out there. This may date me a bit but one of my favorites is an older one called “We Are Marshall,” which came out in 2006. It is an incredible story of Marshall University’s journey to keep their football program alive after devastating plane crash tragedy in 1970 that took out most of their players and coaches.

(We are Marshall Trailer We Are Marshall - Original Theatrical Trailer )

Spoiler Alert:  If you have seen the movie, you will know that that through the challenge and the struggle to keep the team going, they managed to win an epic game at the conclusion of the story.

While this doesn’t come out in the movie, Wikipedia revealed that they only ended up winning 2 games that initial season and they got crushed hard in many of the losses.  They actually didn’t have another winning season until 1984! In the movie, there was a speech that inspired the team to persevere, a belief and faith that “One day, we are going to be like every other team where winning is everything and nothing else matters!” While I could disagree with their priorities, I found the whole story to be a helpful picture of the NOT YET aspect of our faith.

The players from that first season did not experience a winning season themselves and yet they showed up every day.  Some players weren’t even alive to experience the success they would have in the future.  Between 1991 and 2015, the Marshall football program would eventually go on to boast an incredible 148-26 overall record at Joan C Edwards Stadium.  Between 1988 and 2014 they would win 2 national championships and 9 conference championships.  Those 1971 players believed it would one day be possible and put their faith and hope in that, even though most of their experience that initial year was getting pumped!  The team didn’t have a winning season for 14 years!

Do you ever get caught up in your own circumstances and wonder if this is the way it is always supposed to be?

Hebrews 11:1
“Now faith is confidence of what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” NIV
“Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see.” NLT

If you have a few moments, read through the entire chapter of Hebrews 11.  It walks us through some incredible examples of men and women of faith.  While many experienced God move in amazing ways as they stepped forward by faith in the midst of the unknowns, others also experienced incredible hardship.  None of them experienced the fullness of ALL of God’s promises.  The chapter goes on to say in verse 39 that “All these people earned a good reputation because of their faith, yet none of them received all that God had promised.”  God has been faithful with the promises he made to Abraham, but the fullness of his promises was not realized in his lifetime.  Some of the examples listed closer to the end of the chapter (verse 35-38) are challenging to read and yet incredible examples of faith in the face of unreal opposition!  They put to shame my own challenges I have experienced to date, that is for sure!

It is super encouraging to look back at these examples of faith even while we struggle to lean into faith in our own lives.  No matter what we will face today or in our lives, we have a faith that takes us beyond this life, a faith that as we trust our lives with God, our relationship with him will continue long after we die and for eternity.  The relationship and presence we can experience with him now in part now, will be experienced fully for eternity!  How great is that?!  

I don’t know what kind of a season of life you have been recently… Take this encouraging reminder that even in the most challenging things we may be experiencing, we have hope that it is only temporary and there are greater things to come!

As Gary would say…. “Now go CRUSH the week for Jesus!”

- Jamie Ramer