One Shining Moment

A Series on Spiritual Turning Points
Moments in Time: Defining
(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 the moments in time that it happened. Applying this to our own life, 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

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www.lifelinebasketball.blogspot.com

 

March Madness and One Shining Moment

A Series on Lent
 (Use the link below to read the verses.)
Mark 14:12-26

[As we approach Easter, consider the example that Jesus set by spending forty days alone in the wilderness to prepare for his ministry and his ultimate sacrifice on the cross. Lent is a forty day period with a focus on spending time with Jesus, to meditate on who he is and what he did for us. This Lenten series is about people who spent time with Jesus; and as a result, their lives were changed forever.]

  

March Madness is one of my favorite times of the year! 

College basketball teams from across the country compete in a single elimination tournament. There are schools that haven’t been in the tournament for over thirty years; and other schools that are there every year. From a small private school to a public mega-university; they’re all thrilled to play.

 

For me, it’s exciting to see what school is going to be this years “Cinderella” team. It’s exciting to watch as the tournament unfolds and is whittled down from 68 teams to 32 to the Sweet Sixteen to the Elite Eight to the Final Four. With each game, the excitement and pressure builds until the climactic finish when they play ‘One Shining Moment”. It’s a pressure cooker that ultimately explodes.

 

The final week of Jesus’ life was a pressure cooker too. Jews had been anxiously waiting for centuries for the Messiah. With these expectations, Jesus road into Jerusalem on a donkey with the crowds cheering him onto victory, and calling him the Son of David.

 

But soon after arriving, Jesus created chaos as he went to the Temple and drove out those who were buying and selling, and turned over the tables of the money changers. Following this, Jesus gave his disciples instructions on preparing for the Passover meal.

 

During this meal, the pressure really ratcheted up. It was then that Jesus informed his disciples that one of them would betray him. On top of that, Jesus told them that all of them would desert him! Peter was adamant that he would never do that; he would die before deserting Jesus.

 

Finally, Jesus took the disciples to the Garden of Gethsemane. Here, while Jesus was fervently praying to his Abba, Father, he sweat drops of blood while his closest friends and followers fell asleep. Soon a crowd came to arrest Jesus. In one final attempt of bravado, Peter cut off the ear of the High Priest’s servant.

 

After three years of living and learning and loving together, the pressure cooker exploded, and the disciples scattered. Peter denied Jesus three times. There seemed to be no victory. All seemed to be lost. There was no “One Shining Moment”.

 

Yet, in the midst of all this darkness and defeat, there was a brief moment of hope... one shining moment, if you will. During the Last Supper, Jesus explained that his body was the bread; that his blood was the wine. And even though they would desert him, he wouldn’t desert them. He would be faithful.

 

That promise is still true for you and me. That same meal is the one that we as believers celebrate to remind us of his promise. It doesn’t matter how badly we sin; it doesn’t matter how badly we fail him; he will forgive us. Jesus paid the ultimate price as the perfect Passover lamb so that we might also know his Abba Father.