Good, Better, Best
“Good, better, best!” That phrase has become a rallying cry of sorts for those of us who are long-suffering Chicago Bears football fans. For the uninformed, the Bears are nearly always bad. They last won a Super Bowl in the 1984-85 season and they last made the playoffs in 2020 (but haven’t won a playoff game since 2010).
Bottom line: Bears fans are used to losing.
But this year has produced a very surprising string of wins and just this week the Bears clinched a playoff berth with a win over their rival Green Bay Packers. Our oldest son, Jude, and I danced around the living room and screamed silently (most of the family was long ago asleep) when the victory was sealed.
After all, we had waited a long time (Jude doesn’t remember the last playoff win)! The celebration was intensified because of the long anticipation. After the victory, the now-familiar cheer rang out in the winning locker room:
Good, better, best!
Never let it rest!
Until your good gets better!
And your better gets best!
There is probably another conversation to be had about how leadership and team dynamics contribute to wins on the field—and in life. But this week, as we in The Equipped community look toward Christmas morning, our pending celebration is building size and steam because of our long anticipation!
Yes, that includes the anticipation from the Advent season, in which we sit and reflect in the period of death and burial our Savior endured for us. That reflection of Advent builds our anticipation.
But it also includes the wait from Adam to Jesus. It includes the 400 years of silence between Old Testament and New. It includes the generations and generations of waiting for the appearance of the promised Messiah. It includes countless births and deaths without full realization of the promise. Finally, it includes your personal anticipation of the day on which there will be no more tears, pain, or suffering (Rev. 21:4).
Friend, you have been waiting. You have been longing for the fulfillment of what is promised. Your anticipation has been building. The wait can seem long and the pressure of the building anticipation intense.
But the celebration on the other side of the anticipation will be oh so worth it! It will make the jubilant celebrations in the Chicago Bears’ locker room feel like a dirge by contrast!
The long-anticipated Savior of the world has come! We celebrate the end of the waiting on Christmas! Death is defeated and the silence is no more! Allow the built-up pressure of your anticipation to burst forth into rejoicing!
After all, if a losing football team that transitions to winning is worthy of a “good, better, best” chant, surely the arrival of the King of Kings deserves your loudest “Hosannah in the highest” (Matt. 21:9)!