Nobody Wins a Miracle Alone

On February 22, 1980, twenty American college hockey players faced a Soviet team that had dominated Olympic hockey for nearly two decades, winning four consecutive gold medals. Just thirteen days earlier, those same Soviets had demolished the Americans 10-3 in an exhibition at Madison Square Garden. Coach Herb Brooks had assembled these young men — average age just twenty-one — not for individual stardom, but because they played for one another.

At Lake Placid, New York, the Americans trailed 3-2 entering the third period. By every rational measure, the game was slipping away. But Mark Johnson buried the tying goal, and then captain Mike Eruzione fired the go-ahead shot past the Soviet goalkeeper to make it 4-3. Goalie Jim Craig stopped everything that followed as his teammates threw their bodies in front of shots during the final ten minutes.

What made the miracle possible was not one extraordinary player. It was twenty young men who refused to let each other stay down.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 says it plainly: "Two are better than one... if either of them falls down, one can help the other up." The life of faith was never meant for solo performance. God places us in congregations, small groups, and families so that when discouragement levels us, someone is already reaching down to help us back to our feet. The odds you face today may feel overwhelming. But you were never meant to face them alone.