You may not be interested in sports in the least but stick with me here. In 1980, the Los Angeles Lakers were playing in the NBA Finals against the Philadelphia Seventy Sixers. Lakers’ leader Kareen Abdul-Jabbar suffered a sprained ankle in Game 5 of 7 and the team felt deflated because he was not going to be able to play in Game 6. They were already leading the series by three games to two and wanted to clinch the title so they would not have to play a Game 7 tiebreaker. Rookie Earvin Johnson started to think about what he could do to encourage the team.

Typically, when the team was travelling on flights, Kareem sat in the front row in seat one. But on the way to Game 6, Earvin sat in Kareem’s seat, turned back at the team, and said, “Have no fear, Magic is here.” Earvin Johnson, who was given the nickname “Magic” by a reporter while he was playing in High School, had convinced head coach Paul Westhead to let him play center, Kareem’s position, instead of his current point guard assignment. At the conclusion of Game 6, Magic scored forty-two points, made fifteen rebounds and seven assists. The team won the finals.

Michael Cooper, a teammate on the Lakers, during the “They Call Me Magic” documentary interview said, in Game 6 Magic was “making everyone on the team better.” For example, Jamaal Wilkes had a career high of twenty-seven. Michael Wilbon, ESPN Sports Journalist in an interview in the same documentary said he considered Magic’s 42-15-7 “the greatest performance in NBA history.” If the unfortunate incident of Kareem’s sprained ankle did not occur, who knows how different Magic’s game and the team’s outcome would have been.

It is so easy sometimes to become incapacitated with hopelessness when something devastating happens. But somewhere in chaos or tragedy, there is an opportunity. The better we are at finding it, the more likely we are at authoring a positive unforgettable story for our future.

We must not allow setbacks to extinguish our flicker of hope for magic in our future.

Blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence.

Jeremiah 17:7