March Madness will be here soon, but upsets and buzzer-beaters are already taking place in college basketball. On Saturday, Wake Forest hosted number 8-ranked Duke in front of a sold-out crowd (their first since 2017 and almost 15,000 fans!), with the team pulling off an 83-79 upset. As the final seconds ticked off the clock, the Wake fans excitedly stormed the court, sprinting to celebrate the victory. This is always a wild scene, but one that is memorable and special for college students to experience. Unfortunately, during all of the fun, Duke’s star player, Kyle Filipowski was still on the court and got stuck in the crowd. While trying to escape, he got tripped up and injured his knee and had to be carried off the floor by his teammates and coaches. Following the ugly scene, there was a lot of discussion about whether storming the court should even be allowed. We will discuss that topic on tomorrow’s podcast, so make sure that you subscribe and listen HERE. For today’s devotional, I want to focus on some observations I made after watching the replay multiple times. The crowd was celebrating all around Filipowski and because most Wake fans likely hate Duke players, they weren’t worried about him getting hurt or being taken down. This led to Filipowski being tossed around and consumed by the chaos of the crowd. In retrospect, Filipowski wasn't prepared to get out of the crowd and didn't move quickly enough to avoid getting swallowed up in the sea of people. He needed to anticipate what was about to happen as the game ended and find a way out, but sadly, it was too late as the crowd hit him on every side. With lessons learned, we'll see if changes to storming the court will be implemented across college basketball any time soon. As I consider this unfortunate scene of Filipowski being stuck in the crowd and getting hurt by it, there's a parallel for followers of Jesus in that we aren’t meant to remain in the crowd. When we do, we can easily get hurt and taken down by the crowd (or the world) who hates us and wants to swallow us up and toss us around. Jesus explains in John 15:18-19 (NLT), “If the world hates you, remember that it hated Me first. The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you.” When we follow Jesus, He doesn't want us to be caught up in the world anymore and stuck in the crowd. When we anticipate being in a bad situation we must look for the way out by acting quickly and not lingering in the middle of the crowd that's celebrating evil all around us. Proverbs 4:25-27 (NLT) says, “Look straight ahead and fix your eyes on what lies before you. Mark out a straight path for your feet; stay on the safe path. Don’t get sidetracked; keep your feet from following evil.” Today, if we’ve been staying in the crowd or delaying our escape, let’s ask Jesus, along with “teammates,” to help carry us out before getting even more hurt. Just like a Duke player has no business being in the middle of the Wake Forest crowd getting tied up with them, as followers of Jesus we have no business being in the middle of the wrong crowd, getting tied up with them. Instead, let’s choose to follow Jesus and leave the chaos of the crowd behind! I’m Bryce Johnson, and you can UNPACK that! PRAYER: Heavenly Father, please help me not be consumed by the wrong crowd or the world that comes at me on all sides. Help me to stand my ground and follow You out of situations that are meant to hurt me. Thank you for calling me out of this world and allowing me to be included in Your Kingdom. In Jesus’ name, I pray, Amen.
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