Missing the Playoffs

The Houston Astros finished the 2025 season with a record of 87-75, solid but not the standard they have set. The team ended up missing the playoffs by 1 win, which makes a myriad of close losses and blown leads feel extra painful. While numerous reasons led to the team’s failure, injuries and lack of organizational depth are the biggest reasons. This has led to most Astros fans viewing the season in one of two ways: blaming injuries for failures or blaming team efforts for failures. One side makes excuses while the other claims the team did not earn it. And this is often how we as people end up thinking, we either excuse mistakes and failures or we believe we should have tried harder. When it comes to our faith and relationship with God this tends to be no different.
Jesus often tried showing those around him this idea using his teachings and parables. For example, the Parable of the Prodigal Son, which Josh just preached well over his last two sermons, shows the careless younger son and the justifying older brother (Luke 15:11-32). In a similar parable in Matthew, two sons are asked to work by their father. The first son says no but does so anyways, the second son says yes but does not do the work (Matthew 21:28-32). The first son wronged by disobeying his father to his face but follows through. The second says the right things but fails to act on his words. The first son represents the sinners Jesus was coming to save, those who had been living in sin but would come to repent. The second son represents the Pharisees and other like-minded people who claimed to follow the Law, thinking this would save them, but could not uphold it perfectly. In the end each is serving self, rather desires or to try and justify.
As Christians I think we often fall into one of these two camps, careless about our sin or trying to justify our sin, and neither glorifies God. Sometimes we abuse God’s grace, neglecting our sin, avoiding repentance, living in a “sinful bliss”. Yet this only drives us away from God and causes a failed understanding of his grace. On the other hand, we often forget God’s grace and seek justification through working harder and doing more. We think if we read the bible more, pray more, do less sin, etc…, we will justify our sin ourselves. What selfish thinking it is to think we can save ourselves, trying to fulfill what only God can do. This too drives a wedge between us and God, stunting our relationship with him. Ironically both ways of thinking lead to a failed understanding of the riches of God’s grace, Ephesians 2 tells us God is rich in mercy (2:4), that we have been saved by grace (2:5), and that it is a gift that no one can earn and that no one should avoid (2:8-9).
Maybe you are “blaming injuries” or maybe you are claiming a “lack of effort”, regardless we still missed the playoffs. We are saved by grace alone, thank you Jesus, abusing his grace through careless bliss or self-serving righteousness only drives a wedge between you and God. I pray that we as a church seek to know his grace and seek to share that grace with others!
-Slade