2012 - The Season

Ah, Lord GOD! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you. (Jeremiah 32:17 ESV). The college football season has begun. With that I seem to wear a little more maroon and white and follow the Aggies a lot closer than during other seasons. It is a real juggling act to balance the important things of my fall schedule. How much time should I give to hunting and how much to Aggie football is a real problem (said with some tongue in cheek). To prepare for this season a bit better, I reviewed the 2012 season, which I have on DVD (was there ever a doubt in your mind that I would?). Some things began to really pop out at me about that year. You may recall that it was A&M’s first season in the SEC; and, few gave them much chance of being very good. However, something special began to happen, even though the season began with a loss to Florida.  This team would go on to win eleven games that year. A record that had been duplicated only three other times in the history of Texas A&M football.  Kevin Sumlin, the head coach, would be named SEC Coach of the Year.  Johnny Manziel, a red-shirt freshman who did not have the starting job at quarterback until fall camp, goes on to win the Heisman Trophy; and, the offense sets and all time SEC record for offense in a single season, as he sets an all time high for a single player in offense.  Luke Joeckel became the first Aggie to win the Outland Trophy; and he and three other Aggies (Manziel, Matthews, and Moore) are named All-American for the first time in A&M history.  They take their team into Tuscaloosa to face then #1 Alabama in their home field and accomplish something that had never been done by an A&M team. They beat a #1 ranked team on the road for the first time ever.  Then to top off this great season, they go to the Cotton Bowl and beat Oklahoma 41-13! It was THE Season! It was something only dreams were made of; yet, it was reality. Funny, I have often wondered if we had the kind of trust Joshua must have had in the Lord, how many of our dreams would become realities? Our reading today simply states nothing is too hard for our God. This was said in the face of the greatest battle campaign Israel would ever face. Joshua had seen the “giants” in that land. However, he knew that God had given it into their hands. It was only a matter of going forward to possess it. I wonder how many times we have simply not gone forward to possess that which God has already given us? Let’s make this year THE year!