"The Agony of Defeat"

   As I grew up we did not have scads of sports TV stations like we have today. In the Summer we had one baseball game a week on a Saturday afternoon and on Sunday, one game that was shown as well. But we did have on ABC "The Wide World of Sports". This station showed a wide variety of different sports each Saturday and Sunday afternoon's. This show is best known for these words that were a part of it's slogan, "We will bring to you the Thrill of victory and the Agony of Defeat"!  In the 20 plus years of living here in Milledgeville I have seen hundreds of different athletic events that our Jr. & Senior High school atheletes have participated in. I have enjoyed along with these athlete's and their parents, "The joy of victory". But I also have been there in those agonizing times of defeat. Times when our Dutchtown youth  have sustained an injury and were told that their season was over. Times when our athletes have worked so hard , but seen little time on the field or floor. Times when they suffered one loss after another, yet still clung to hope. Times when they fell just short of moving on to the next round, the next meet, the next game by just seconds, yards or one point. But our youth are resilient! They pick themselves back after each agonizing heartache and they move on in life.
     You and I do not do as well as they do when we have to face the "Agony of Defeat" time and time again. But that is why we Christ gave us His Church! A Place, a People, who have been through it just like us! And a people who are there for us when we are in the grip of yet another defeat! I don't know how people without Christ and the Church do it?  But this I do know, I am so thankful that you and I do have the Church to be there with us, to help celebrate our victories and to lift us up as we encounter defeats! So go forth today and build up those around you facing a defeat. Go forth and Be Christ's Church!
     Your Brother in Christ, Pastor Rick Koch