GLMX #216: Take a Knee

In American football, when the team that has the ball wants to run down the clock at the end of the game in order to preserve a lead or win, the offense will implement a play called taking a knee. After the ball is snapped, the quarterback will immediately drop to one knee, ending the play. Usually, the opposing team does not tackle the members of the offense as they have already resigned themselves to the outcome of the game. There is no need in trying to challenge the inevitable. 

In life, sometimes, we are faced with situations where we have to choose whether to resign ourselves to an outcome that appears all but certain or to try and change the outcome. Perhaps you have heard of people who have been faced with choosing between allowing a loved one to continue living in a vegetative state and taking that person off of life support. That is a very difficult and heart-rending decision to have to make.

However, there are other situations in which we really do not have a choice -- situations in which the score has been settled, the game is over, the time on the clock has run out -- and all we can do is take a knee. One of those things is death. Throughout history, man has searched for some way to escape death. Ancient Indian and Chinese cultures sought the elixir of life. Explorers came to the New World searching for the fountain of youth. Some people have agreed to allow their bodies to be frozen when they die in  the hopes that scientists are able to find a way to restart their life processes sometime in the future. Others are using modern technology and research to find a way to prolong their lives in a bid to avoid death.

However, no one has found a way to eradicate the common denominator of humanity: we all will die one day. The Bible says, "it is appointed unto man once to die."

MUSICAL SELECTION: "I Surrender All" by Casting Crowns