There are times in everybody’s life when they feel defeated. Many times during these valleys my head often doesn’t want to do what my heart knows is best. It causes agitation and anxiety. I know when I’m grumpy. In a sense, I feel like I’m being attacked. Only time and prayer gets me to the point of remembering that I know the ending. The battle has already been won and I am coming from victory.
As strange as it may seem, the word victory brings my mind to homecomings. Maybe because those are 2 things that I have enjoyed in recent years, in different ways, where I did not really want to go, or be involved in, but after I did I was filled with joy.
About 4 years ago, a group of college friends, who lived all over the country, asked that I go to homecoming with them. The first year I went up for just the day. The next year, my kid’s high school had homecoming the same weekend. One of my daughters was a cheerleader and they both planned on going to the dance. What to do? Didn’t want to miss them getting ready for a big dance, one of them for the first time. My head was saying, “Too much” for one weekend. My heart was saying you need to be with your friends right now. Knowing I could do it if I put my mind to it, I went to the Friday night high school football game, drove to my college and spent the night, morning and early afternoon with my friends, and came home in time for the dance photo ops of my girls. It’s a weekend I will always remember.
Another year, one of my daughters was nominated for homecoming queen at her school. I was excited and happy for her but concerned about the popularity contest becoming too important. I really did not want to be a part of that, but I was the mom. When she became queen, and another mother caught me on video crying at the announcement, realization of coming from victory set in. This was God’s plan and felt like some needed healing for both of us.
How? I had been dealing with some difficulties about a public perception being portrayed by a school board candidate. A relationship had just ended for her, in an awful way. She was a competitive figure skater and a couple months later did what’s called a dramatic showcase to a song titled, “Only the Homecoming Queen Cries.” The song is about the expectations and image that everyone has of that person, that aren’t necessarily true. Skating had become a release for her and it was no different this time. A few months after that, she was quoted in the yearbook, “Winning Homecoming Queen came at a time when things weren’t going too good in my life, so, in a way, it made me feel like the whole school had my back. “ Me too!
The bigger picture becomes clear with scripture, “… thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor 15:57). We need to look at the bigger picture. I’m so thankful that every fall, homecomings give me the chance to do just that, to be a winner in some way. All because of Jesus.