By Grant Gaines
“Dewey Defeats Truman!”
This was the three inch, bolded headline on the front page of the Chicago Daily Tribune on November 3, 1948. The only problem was that Republican candidate Thomas Dewey didn’t win the presidential election…the incumbent Harry Truman did.
The newspaper’s embarrassing blunder was rooted in its confidence in Thomas Dewey’s early lead in the 1948 presidential election. The Chicago Daily Tribune, as did many Americans at the time, believed the race was all but over and there would be a new president sitting in the White House the following year.
However, after an unforeseen change of events on the race’s final evening, Harry Truman mounted an unbelievable comeback to win the election by the slightest of margins.
Whether it is watching your beloved sports team or playing your favorite card game with your family, nothing is sweeter than snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. And on the flip side, nothing is worse than believing victory is unenviable only to have it snatched from your grasp. There’s just something so magical, so gratifying, and so epic about stumbling upon a victory when defeat was all but assured.
As a Christian this statement is especially true and relevant because our heavenly Father knows a thing or two about you-have-to-see-it-to-believe-it type endings.
Throughout His three year ministry, Jesus did many miracles-37 of them in fact. Feeding the 5,000, healing the lame, and changing water into wine are all listed among His record of miracles but none of them catch your attention quite like raising people from the dead. I mean, if you throw enough money at the multitude, you could find a way to feed them. If you prescribed enough medicine to the lame, you could find a way to cure them. And if you add enough food dye and flavor, you can dress up water to make it look and taste like wine.
And yet, despite all of the money, medicine, technological advancements our modern day society has been blessed with, no one has been able to raise three people from the grave like Jesus did throughout His time on earth.
When you or I hear of someone we know dying, our response is likely something similar to, “Oh I’m so sorry to hear that he/she passed away.” Our regret lies in the fact that our friend or family member is no longer with us on earth. But Jesus never had that response when He rolled up to a funeral.
Instead, when Christ heard that His dear friend Lazarus had passed away and that Jairus’ daughter breathed her last breathe while her father was pleading with Him, He responded to both situations with a calm demeanor and the words, “Their only sleeping,” (John 11:11, Luke 8:52). Sleeping? Really, Jesus? Lazarus had been mummified in the tomb for four days by the time You got there and Jairus’ daughter would have been lifeless for a quite some time by the time you made Your way to their house to see the body and You want to say they’re only sleeping? There’s no way they could be merely sleeping after all this time! They are as dead as a doornail!
To spend four days on a tropical island vacation passes like a blink of the eye. To spend four days dead in a tomb is an eternity…literally. After 15 minutes of not getting oxygen to your brain, there is virtually no chance of resuscitating someone. Within 24 hours of passing away, the body loses all internal body heat and begins to decompose as the flesh begins to deteriorate while the bacteria inside of the body eats away at the organs. The bottom line is this: time is of the essence when you are dealing with something that is dead or dying.
But if you haven’t noticed by now, time doesn’t seem to be a factor that God is too concerned with. He has never uttered the words, “If only I had been there a little sooner then maybe I could have helped.” Never once has that even been a thought to cross the Lord’s mind.
But how many times has that been a thought that’s crossed your mind? How many times have you believed that your best years were behind you, that your ship had sailed, and that all hope of things getting better was as good as dead?
If I’m being honest with you, I know that the majority of the time when I find myself in a trial, I echo what Mary and Martha said to Jesus in John 11:21 and 11:32 (NIV) when He showed up to their dead brother Lazarus’s hometown-“Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.”
We tend to live our lives in a state of regretful wishing as we look back in the rearview mirror-“Lord if You had only been here sooner, my marriage would still be intact. Lord if You had only helped earlier, I would still have my job. Lord if You had revealed Your will to me earlier, I wouldn’t be in this situation.”
But the great hope that we have as we read these stories of Jesus raising people from the dead is that the same God that brought lifeless souls back to life is the same God who can give our lifeless dreams, hopes, and prayers a pulse. He can take what is seemingly dead and raise it back to life!
With all that being said, I want to encourage you to hang in there. Perhaps your situation isn’t ideal or easy, but God can bring hope back into your life when we chose to operate in, “…faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7, NIV). God is able to take the dreams you thought were dead and help you realize that they were only sleeping.
You can’t achieve your destiny if you are focused on your past.
Comments? Questions? Suggestions?
