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Wrong Way Riegels

The story is a familiar one, but it bears repeating. On New Year’s Day, l929, Georgia Tech played UCLA in the Rose Bowl. In that game a young man named Roy Riegels recovered a fumble for UCLA. Picking up the loose ball, he lost his sense of direction and ran sixty-five yards toward the wrong goal line. One of his teammates, Benny Lom, ran him down and tackled him just before he reached the end zone. The Bruins were forced to punt. Tech blocked the kick and scored a safety, demoralizing the UCLA team. The strange play came in the first half. At halftime the UCLA players filed off the field and into the dressing room. They sat around on benches and the floor. But Riegels put a blanket around his shoulders, sat down in a corner, and put his face in his hands. A football coach usually has a great deal to say to his team during halftime. That day Coach Price was quiet. No doubt he was trying to decide what to do with Riegels. When the timekeeper came in and announced that there were three minutes before playing time, Coach Price looked at the team and said, “Men, the same team that played the first half will start the second.” The players got up and started out, all but Riegels. He didn’t budge. The coach looked back and called to him. Riegels didn’t move. Coach Price went over to where Riegels sat and said, “Roy, didn’t you hear me? The same team that played the first half will start the second.” Roy Riegels looked up, his cheeks wet with tears. “Coach,” he said, “I can’t do it. I’ve ruined you. I’ve ruined the university’s reputation. I’ve ruined myself. I can’t face that crowd out there.” Coach Price reached out, put his hands on Riegels’ shoulder, and said, “Roy, get up and go on back. The game is only half over.” [“To Illustrate,” Leadership (Spring 1992), p. 49.]

No appearance of Christ after the Resurrection is more vivid or beautiful than the episode that takes place on the Road to Emmaus because it is a story of singular grace and charm. The two disciples, like Roy Riegels, were traveling in the wrong direction. They had “fumbled” and were running away from Jerusalem to Emmaus. They thought the game of life was over. Imagine their surprise when Jesus told them that the same team of disciples who had fled from the cross was going to start the second half of the game. He was telling them there would be a tomorrow.

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Pioneer 10

In 1972, NASA launched an exploratory space probe called Pioneer 10. The mission of Pioneer 10 was to fly to Jupiter, take pictures of the planet and moons and send back data about the atmosphere, magnetic field, and radiation belts. Many scientists did not think this would be possible, because they feared that the probe would be destroyed in the asteroid belt, and up to this point, no probe had made it past Mars. But, Pioneer 10 completed its mission in November of 1973, and continued to travel into space.

By 2026, the probe had traveled 7.5 billion miles from the sun. Since 2003, scientists have not been able to pick up radio signals from the probe. For over 30 years these signals were sent by an 8‑watt transmitter, which is only as powerful as a night light. It took the signal nine hours to get to earth.

It is always amazing to me that a generation that takes for granted the wonders of science is so quick to dismiss the power and the purpose of the Creator who set it all in motion in the first place. God is alive. God is personal. God cares about us and God desires to reveal Himself to us just as Christ revealed himself to those two disciples on the road to Emmaus.

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Pooh and Piglet Take a Walk

In A. A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh, Pooh and Piglet take an evening walk. For a long time, they walk in silence, the silence only best friends can share. Finally, Piglet breaks the silence and asks, “When you wake up in the morning, Pooh, what’s the first thing you say to yourself?” “What’s for breakfast?” answers Pooh, and then asks, “And what do you say, Piglet?” Piglet says, “I say, ‘I wonder what exciting thing is going to happen today!’”[Robert D. Dale, To Dream Again, (Broadman Press, Nashville, 1981).]

You and I can’t really plan to meet the risen Christ because we never really know when or where He’s going to show up. But you can be sure of this: He will show up.

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