One Shining Moment

A Series on Spiritual Turning Points: A Defining moment
(Click on the link below to read the verses.)
Genesis 32:22-32 

[God is always at work in our life – drawing us to him, helping us to become the person he created us to be and leading us to opportunities to serve him. In this series we will look at spiritual turning points in the lives of real people, and words that help us to understand how God works in us and through us. Sometimes this happens suddenly, sometimes gradually, but always with purpose.]

 

The NCAA men’s basketball tournament, better known as March Madness, recently finished. Since 1987, after the clock of the championship game has hit 0:00, CBS has played the song titled “One Shining Moment”.

 

As the song plays, video clips are shown from throughout the three-week tournament highlighting game-changing plays. For many, this song is the climactic finish where you can see the raw emotion of the players, coaches and fans.

 

But, out of the 68 teams that start the single elimination tournament, only one team wins. For that team and for those players, it is a defining moment. Because for the rest of their lives… they will be national champions!

 

Jacob was constantly struggling with others to get what he wanted. Even at birth he grabbed the heal of his older twin brother Esau – a sign of things to come. Later, as a young man, Jacob made a “deal” with Esau for his birthright. Finally, he stole Esau’s blessing by deceiving their father, Isaac.

 

Because of this, Esau planned to kill Jacob once their father died. When Jacob learned about this, he fled to go live with his uncle Laban. After a month Jacob arranged with Laban to work for him for seven years. In return, Laban was to give Jacob his younger daughter Rachel in marriage.

 

However, when the time came, Laban tricked Jacob and gave him his older daughter, Leah. As a result, Jacob worked for another seven years – this time to marry Rachel. But Jacob’s struggles continued when Leah, whom Jacob didn’t want, gave birth to many sons while Rachel, whom Jacob loved, had none.

 

After twenty years, the Lord told Jacob to return to his family in Canaan to fulfill the covenant that he had made with Abraham. Therefore, Jacob gathered his wives, sons, servants and all of his livestock and possessions and left.

 

However, he was worried about how Esau would receive him. And when he learned that Esau was coming to meet him with an army of 400 men, Jacob proceeded to send gifts of livestock to precede their meeting. He also sent his wives and sons to a safe place while he stayed for the night by himself.

 

All that night Jacob wrestled with a man. But Jacob wouldn’t let him go until the man blessed him. So, the man blessed him and then changed his name from Jacob, which means “deceiver”, to Israel, which means “struggles with God”.

 

Jacob had struggled his entire life, but he finally realized that his real struggle was with God. The result was that Jacob was a changed man for “I saw God face to face”. It was his “one shining moment” that defined the rest of his life.

 

If we’re honest, we struggle with God just like Jacob. Paul wrote about this struggle in his letter to the Romans.

 

²¹ So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. ²² For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; ²³ but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. ²⁴ What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? ^25a Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!  NIV            Romans 7

 

Jacob struggled. Paul struggled. We struggle. How are you seeking Jesus? How has he redefined you?

 

Copyright 2026 Joseph B Williams

Feel free to share this blog with others.

www.lifelinebasketball.blogspot.com