I watched a team in Perth, Australia get crushed yesterday, completely overwhelmed. The game was Australian football, an aggressive, 18-men-to-a-side, continuous action, contact sport on a large, outdoor, oval pitch. The score in the first quarter alone was 49-4. It didn’t get much better. A sell out crowd of 60,000 fans endured witnessing a massacre at home. I sure don’t want to see that team stay down.

Athlete, how do you recover from life’s crushing blows? Like the game yesterday, they do come. They crash the beach of our spirit like a huge ocean wave, stagger us like a punch from a champion prizefighter, and level us like the blindside sack of a football quarterback.

The answer? Apply the good medicine of a cheerful heart. It is a balm to the mind, revives the soul and resets the spirit.

Where does cheerful heart-medicine come from? How do we find this merriment ointment? How do we get joyful recovery? All over the place Scripture points to three things:

A GREAT DELIVERANCE. God delivers. It is His way. He delivers us from the crippling inner tyrannies of sin, self, guilt and shame. The deliverer is Christ. Our Deliverer has come. He stands before us to fight to ensure that our past will not condemn our future.

A GREAT PURPOSE. Great purpose gets us bravely off the canvas. We can refuse to be beaten because the purpose for which we live and fight is too great, too strong. We know that somehow, purpose will prevail, victory will be won. Great purpose produces great fight.

A GREAT TRUST. When trust in deliverance and purpose truly forms, anxiety and fear must flee. This allows room for good cheer to grow and healing hope to enter. Trust in truth. The truth will prevail. And remember, truth is a person -- Jesus. Trust Him.

Athlete, don’t stay crushed. Be of good cheer. Take some good medicine. Realize the great deliverance, purpose and trust we have in and through Christ.