#646. Comebacks.

I love a comeback story.

I love when someone who has fallen or stumbled picks themselves up and keeps going. I love when the underdog outreaches the distance we assumed they could reach. I love when the small nobody rises above a thousand obstacles and turns out to be a big somebody.

And I don’t think I am alone in that. This is why we all get excited about the “Cinderella Stories” during college basketball season, those teams from schools in the middle of nowhere that some how beat the giant school. It’s not nearly as exciting to see the team that should win, win. It’s not nearly as dramatic or interesting to see the seasoned professional hit the winning shot. That’s just what seasoned professionals do. The kid with the gruesome background who taught himself how to play basketball on a peach basket in his backyard? That’s a shot heard round the world.

This isn’t a new phenomenon, our desire to see comebacks. David and Goliath is the classic example of something being made out of nothing. But Youtube has opened up a whole new way to experience stories like this and I have a new favorite.

The back story is simple and chances are, you’ve already seen this wildly popular clip. Danyl, an unassuming teacher from the UK takes the stage to audition for a television show called the X-Factor. Dressed in simple clothes and with a nervousness that is palpable, he starts to sing in front of Simon Cowell, the American Idol judge. Watch this video …

I have a difficult time not being happy after watching that. That clip is like digital sunshine. From the very start of the song you can tell something special is going to happen, that there is a previously untapped reserve of talent hiding within the contestant that will soon burst out in that auditorium. And when it does, when it breaks open in the song, the people in the room can’t help but get caught up in it. From the judges that awkwardly blush with surprise to the crowd waving their hands to the family members backstage cheering them on, there is not a person in the building that doesn’t fall in love with the comeback.

We love a comeback. There is something deep and true inside us that wakes up when we come into the presence of a person who is making a comeback. But something strange happens when we are the ones in need of the comeback. Something peculiar happens when we are the ones who have fallen and broken relationships and failed in our opportunities.

We start to believe that God does not love comebacks.

We start to believe that when He sees us wallowing in our mistakes, when He looks down at our sin and grossness and wretched failure, that He wants to turn His back. We start to believe that we’ve got to fix ourselves first. We’ve got to distance ourselves from Him so that we can get our lives in order before we get close to him again. We start to believe He is not rooting for our comeback.

I think that is wrong.

I think that is a lie.

I think God is an even bigger fan of comebacks than we are.

I think God loves the comeback.

What does He do when He gets but a glimmer of a comeback in the Prodigal Son story? What does He do when a small dot of a human appears on the horizon? What does He do when the very first glimpse of a comeback comes into His view?

He sprints. He runs. He celebrates.

How does heaven react over a comeback? In Luke 15:10 Jesus tells us,

“there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

In Matthew 21:28-32 Jesus drives home the point further with a story about a father who asked his two sons to work in the vineyard. The first son told his father told his father no. The first son refused to work in the vineyard and blew it, but came back and did the work in the end. The second son said he would work in the vineyard but never did.

Jesus held up the first son as the model for us. He blew it, he messed up. He slapped his father in the face by refusing him initially. He created a need for a comeback by arrogantly refusing to work. But he came back. He came back. And Jesus highlighted that comeback by saying:

“I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did.”

Don’t you love that we have a savior who tells stories where prostitutes are the heroes? Don’t you love a savior where comebacks, get to come back?

I don’t know where you are right now in your life. I don’t know what chapter is being told right now. But know this, we all need a comeback. We have all fallen short of the glory of God. And the glorious thing, the thing that makes my heart beat fast is that the feeling you felt when you watched that video of the audition. The hope and emotion that stirred up, pales in comparison to how God feels when he sees you comeback.

God loves a comeback.

Be a comeback today.