After losing every game during soccer season, I learned a lot about perseverance, or “doing the deal” in the face of great odds. We all like to win, but it becomes harder for a coach and her players to keep going during a losing streak. It’s not easy encouraging players to win when they realistically don’t have a chance. What we needed in our town was a recreational soccer league. Such a league would be instrumental in helping players develop their skills; however, those who could make the league happen didn’t believe it would be successful. Consequently, I wrestled in prayer about whether or not I was really called to coach; it didn’t appear that I was doing the players any good.

Then God began to change things. Our city recreational director called to say they would start “rec soccer,” and a player was offered a scholarship from a nearby college despite our losing season. Just when it looked like nothing good would come out of the year, God reminded me He is always at work for the sake of His people, even when we’re not sure what’s happening. Just as the people wondered if “anything good could come out of Nazareth” (Jn 1:46), so, too, does God continue to remind us that things are not always as they seem. No one expected the Savior of the World to die an excruciating death on a cross—but He did because He loves us. By having faith in Him and persevering in what we believe God is asking of us, we can watch Him take any situation and do something good. A friend of mine is known to say, “Don’t give up five minutes before the miracle.”