On February 22, 1980, a bunch of college kids from Boston and Minnesota pulled off what many still think is the greatest upset in all of sports by beating the Soviet hockey machine. The Soviets had won gold medals in every Olympics since 1964, losing just one game during that stretch. They had crushed the NHL’s All-Star team 6-0 in 1979, and they’d beaten this same young US team in an exhibition game 10-3 just two weeks before on Feb 10, 1980. But on that fateful night, the US hockey team was different. They were better. In fact, they were the best team in the world and beat the Soviets 4-3.
In the movie, Coach Herb Brooks gives an inspiring pre-game speech to his team. “If we played them 10 times, they might win 9. But not this game. Not this time… Tonight we are the best hockey team in the world…You were born to be a hockey player.”
What were you born to do?
In Ephesians 2:8-10, Paul gets at this idea.
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
We are God’s Creation, made for a purpose that God prepared before He made us.
But there’s a problem. We sinned. Adam fell, and took us all with him. And as a result of our sins, we are corrupted, weak, dead. We are separated from God – and so we are unable to do the very thing we were designed and made to do. Even more tragic: we’re unable to fix the thing that’s broken in us – we can’t save ourselves, we can’t fix what it wrong – and so we go through life, wired to do things that are eternally significant, that our Creator gave us to do… but we’re unable to do them. Sin separates us from God, and apart from Him, we can do nothing (John 15:5).
“But God…” Remember those words from 2:4!
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
God intervened. He sent His Son to save us, to redeem us – to fix what was broken so that we could do the things He made us to do. As Al Michaels famously asked his TV audience, “do you believe in miracles?”
We were created to go and do. We were created to accomplish things so impossibly big that they require the divine power of God in us to do them! And Christ died to give us the ability to do those works, to “walk in them.” Our salvation was just the first miracle – what He wants to do in us and through us for His glory will require more. Do you believe in miracles?
What impossibly large thing has God given you to do today that will bring Him glory? What were you made to do?
Maybe a better question: what did Christ save you so that you could do?
When you pray today, thank Him for saving you – for doing something that behavior modification, “being a good person,” positive thinking or church attendance could never do. “By grace you have been saved…” You have been given a gift – call it a tool. But like a tool, it wasn’t intended to sit on a shelf. It was given to you for a purpose.
What were you born to do?
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