Proverbs 18:16-18

A person’s gift makes room for him,
and leads him before important people.
The first to state his case seems right,
until his opponent begins to cross-examine him.
A toss of a coin ends disputes,
and settles the issue between strong opponents.

Being a big football fan, there are many different kinds of games. Of course, there is only one, true, football. And, for those of you who read from around the globe, I am not talking about soccer. No offense, I’m just talking about real Football.

When watching a game you can see how some of the games are going to play out. There are some games that are defensive battles. The scores are low because the defenses are so good that the offense can’t get anything done. There are lopsided games when one team is so good and the other is so bad that the good team is just going to run away with it. Then there are games with fast scoring offenses, and the scores get really high.

Being someone who likes to watch a good defense, I don’t get as much of a kick out of these kinds of games as others. But, I will admit it is fun to watch the offense score quickly.

What happens in the games where the offenses just run away with the game is, whoever has the ball last wins. I don’t know if you’ve ever watched a game like that, but they happen quite regularly now with the offenses that are catching on in football like the spread offense and west-coast offense. Whoever has the ball last wins. There have been plenty of games where I thought one team was going to win, but they left too much time on the clock at the end of their last possession, and the other team was able to score as the clock ran out.

This last team with the ball idea is what comes to mind with I read this proverb about the first to state his case seems right, until the opponent takes the stand. Then he seems right. It seems like the last person with the ball, or in this case, the last person to take the stand wins.

Whatever the truth of this proverb may be, the thing I think we should take away is, don’t put yourself into situations where things get decided in this way. Don’t put yourself in a spot where you have to bring a gift, where you have to flip a coin or where you have to be the last person on the stand.

Instead, pursue wisdom and knowledge and do everything you can to keep yourself out of those situations to begin with.