Devotional Thoughts and Teaching Illustrations About Treasure
From trash to treasures
BY JAY HART
True story. I moved recently, and if you’ve moved recently you know this: it ain’t cheap. So when the mover offered a discount if I paid in cash, I made a beeline to the ATM. Took three days because of withdrawal limits. Rather than keep a bunch of cash in my wallet, I stashed it in a box where I thought it would be safe. That is, until someone threw the box out.
Panicked, because I’d just put the trash bins by the curb, I ran outside only to see the garbage truck a few doors down. I opened the bin, found the box and … phew … got the cash about two minutes before it ended up in the dump.
So what does this story have to do with this newsletter? Well, it wasn’t so long ago the Carolina Panthers, Detroit Lions and Jacksonville Jaguars were all thrown into the trash. Now, in the middle of December, all three teams have picked themselves out of their respective Dumpsters, washed off the grease and grime, and planted themselves smack dab in the thick of the playoff hunt.
It wasn’t two months ago the Panthers, having already fired their head coach, were sellers, jettisoning Christian McCaffrey in a white-flag-waving move the likes of which is rarely seen in the NFL. They’re still not great, but they have won two straight, which, in the NFC South, puts you just a game back of the division lead.
In Detroit, the Lions have won five of six, the lone loss coming on a last-second field goal against the mighty Bills. Their offense is humming as loud as anyone’s right now, with Jared Goff looking like the fantasy comeback player of the year. They’ve scored more points than every team in the NFL this season save the Eagles, Cowboys, Chiefs and Bills. In short, no one wants to play the Lions right now — first time those words have been written in a while — and the four games remaining on their schedule — Jets, Panthers, Bears, Packers — are all winnable.
Meanwhile in Jacksonville, the question is … can the Jags catch the Titans? Well, if Trevor Lawrence plays like he did Sunday, most definitely. That the question is even being asked is a minor victory, but right now Jacksonville has its sights set on the bigger picture, which could come down to a Week 18 matchup against Tennessee at home.
And therein lies the key: Week 18. The additional one game for sure serves as a revenue driver for the league, but it also allows for some rallying. It gives a team trending in the right direction a little more time to catch up, while at the same time pushes the finish line a little further out for a team limping toward the end (see: Tom Brady and the Bucs).
Put another way, it’s the extra two minutes teams might need to save themselves after ending up in the trash bin prematurely.
*Clickable Links Are Blue with Underlines:
Video
Church Songs?
#Treasure
#Scripture
You Think About it!
Kevin Rayner
- Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/ParableIllustrations
- Email distribution list at https://groups.google.com/g/parable
- Go to Kevin Rayner's blog at https://parable-illustrations.blogspot.com/ for more illustrations and videos with illustrations. Help us spread the word about the teaching illustrations list. Pass on to your friends and invite them to visit the blog at https://parable-illustrations.blogspot.com/
- What illustrations would you suggest adding to these?
No comments:
Post a Comment