By now, if you live in North America, you’ve probably heard that the Chicago Cubs won the 2016 World Series. If you read last week’s devotion, you know how happy this makes me. What you may not know is how I reacted to their win (after screaming with joy in a way that went beyond words).
Why would you care how I reacted to their win? Well, maybe you don’t, at least as far as baseball is concerned. But hang in there with me, because the surprising way I found myself reacting applies to my whole life, not just this one event. Maybe it applies to yours, too.
I spent the evening with a longtime friend from college. She invited us over and prepared “baseball food” for us (hot dogs, chips, etc.); we all watched the game on her large-screen TV.
I say “all,” but by the eighth inning, when things really started to get interesting, only my two youngest daughters and I were still there. Throughout the eighth and ninth innings, our hopes rose and fell with every swing of the bat. My heart seemed to stop and start far too many times; I alternately cheered and closed my eyes (and reminded myself to breathe).
Then, the game went into extra innings. Then, there was a seventeen-minute rain delay. We waited there in my friend’s living room, not knowing whether we were awaiting victory or defeat.
Of course, you know the rest. When the tenth inning started, the Cubs started to score. The Cleveland Indians couldn’t match them, and with the final ball to first baseman Anthony Rizzo, the game was over. The Cubs had won!
We screamed (repeatedly). We raised both fists high into the air (again, repeatedly). We rejoiced.
Finally, at some point, I stopped screaming. I stopped cheering. I fell quiet. Instead of crying, as I openly did when the Cubs won the League Championship Series (and, thus, advanced to the World Series), or continuing to cheer along with the rejoicing I saw onscreen, I simply sat and watched as the win soaked in.
“I have nothing left,” I said to my friend.
I’ve been a lifelong Cubs fan, and my desire to see them win has gone largely unsatisfied. I’d followed them through the Division Series and the League Championship Series. I’d watched every single game of the World Series, and I’d loved them and supported them with all my heart and all my emotion.
That’s why I had nothing left. I had given everything I had. Just like my beloved Cubbies, I’d left it all on the field.
Jesus knows all about loving people until the very end—and no, I’m not talking about what He did for us on the cross. I’m talking about what He did for the disciples prior to that.
I’m sure you know about the part of the Last Supper where Jesus washed the disciples’ feet. But do you know what John says right before that?
John reminded his readers that it was just before the Passover Festival. He then pointed out that Jesus knew what was about to happen. Then—and don’t miss this part—he talks about how Jesus had loved the disciples and continued to love them until the end. And he gives the example of Jesus’ washing their feet as an example of how He continued to love them.
Despite the fact that Judas was about to betray Him, and He knew it, Jesus washed their feet. He illustrated for them in visual fashion what He was trying to teach them with His words, despite the tremendous mental and emotional strain He must have been under, knowing what would happen to Him in just a few short hours.
He washed their feet, and later He died for them, and when He did, He had given everything He had—not just His life (as if that weren’t enough), but all the love He had for them as their God, Creator, and Friend.
He had nothing left.
To slightly paraphrase Erma Bombeck, “When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of [loving] left, and could say, ‘I used everything you gave me.’ ”
Because even more than I love the Cubs, I love my family. When someday Jesus calls me home and I leave my loved ones behind, I want them to be able to say, “She loved us as fully as it was possible for a human being to love. She gave us everything she had.”
May I so live now that they can say those words then.
May you do the same for your loved ones.
Leave it all on the field.
John 13:1—It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. (NIV)