Which would you choose?

Well, in light of yesterday's prescient post, I had to make a quick comment on another basketball game last night. In case you just flew in from Mars, last night featured the "Battle of the Blues"--a basketball game between the Carolina Tarheels and the Duke Blue Devils. (I'm employing all my self-control in refraining from editorial comment about the relative goodness of one team and the, hmm, well let's just say the non-goodness of the other! Okay, just kidding, since I have many very dear friends who pull for the team with the VERY evil sounding mascot.) It truly was a spectacular game--a game for the ages. A game we Tarheel fans will be seeing on Sports Center for the next century or two... Lord have mercy. That in and of itself is a trial.

For most of the first half, Dook--oops, sort of an honest mistake, I meant Duke--was leading. Carolina finished the half in a flurry and went in to half-time with a 3 point lead. The crowd was in a frenzy... as were the Fountains.

Then the boys in light blue (as in the color of the sky so that's how we know God is a Tarheel--gee, there I go again) seemed to take a semi-commanding lead. They were up by at least 8 to 12 points for the entire second half. Once again, the crowd was in raptures of cheering as were the Fountains (including even our 10 year old who stayed up for the late game). Life was good. This was fun. Boy, we loved basketball!

Until the last 8 seconds of the game. With the Tarheels up by 10--yes, 10--points with less than 2 and a half minutes to play, Duke starting hitting those deadly 3's and crept back into it. But the Heels still led by 3 points with less than 30 seconds to play and had the ball. Life was still good. We still loved basketball.

I won't go into all the devastating details, but suffice it to say, Duke, still down by 2 points, had the ball with 8 seconds left, and a freshman went down the court and, cool as a cucumber, hit a 3 pointer at the buzzer to win the game. No comment on how we felt about life and basketball right at that moment.

But here's my point: for most of that second half, life was miserable for Duke fans. I'm sure they felt like it was the longest game of their lives (since Duke and UNC fans HATE to lose to the other boys in blue). Their misery for 19 minutes and 59 seconds contrasted completely with us happy, happy, relaxed Tarheel fans... for 19 minutes and 59 seconds.

And then in a moment, everything changed. One team that had struggled, fought, surely felt discouraged and defeated, turned it all around in a second and won the game. And the other team who had been sailing along in seemingly joyous, trouble-free march to victory, lost. So I had to ask myself: would I rather be miserable for 19 minutes and 59 seconds but joyous and victorious at the very end or would I prefer to be delighted and carefree for virtually the whole game only to lose at the last second? Well, guess what, I'll take the misery for a long, long game but with a joyful victory at the very end, every single time. Who on earth wouldn't make that choice? Who wouldn't be willing to suffer through the trials and troubles for a little while in order to enjoy the joyous victory at the very end?

Yet how many of us do that daily in our lives? We want unmitigated happiness and success and pleasure RIGHT NOW. We envy those who seem to be sailing along in life, while we suffer through poor health or shaky finances or difficult relationships or lost loved ones. We tend to forget something very important:

THIS IS NOT OUR HOME!

We may still be struggling through the second half, the shots may not be falling, we may be overcome with discouragement or exhaustion or fear. Failure might seem to be haunting our every step.

BUT THIS IS NOT OUR HOME.

And someday, boy, will it be glorious! All those trials and troubles, all that suffering, all that waiting, all that failing, all that crying will be long behind us as we rejoice in our true home, heaven, and the victory of being with the Lord Jesus and all the company of our loved ones and the saints forever and ever and ever and ever.

And all those long second halves, all those struggles and defeats, will all be long-forgotten... except perhaps to remind us how overwhelmingly thankful and joyful we are for all God taught us and shaped us and helped us through every single one of those sorrows. And really, how long do our hardships and disappointments and sorrows really last in this brief life compared to eternity... heaven is forever and ever.

So to my dear Duke friends--way to go! Your team fought long and hard and deserved their joyful victory at the very (bitter) end. Might we all persevere in whatever trials God has allowed in our lives, trusting that He is at work and that one day, every single struggle will be so worth it in the glorious glow of heaven's eternal victory. To our God, our Savior who will bring all of His own home, really home, one day, be all the glory forever.