20 to 18 was the final score, and the Broncos defeated the Patriots through the combination of a tough defense and an offense led by an aging quarterback.  Peyton Manning is the comeback kid of 2016, and he has been dreaming what has seemed to be the impossible dream.

Other than the Denver faithful, most people, including the odds makers, thought the boys from Boston were the kings of the mountain, and they would win this game.  Manning, however, has a history of trekking up the paths of rugged trails and scaling a mountain’s summit.

Manning is just half the age of another mountaineer.  When he was 80 years old, Caleb was still a man of grit.  His spunky nature and “can do” attitude is seen in his five-word request: “Give this mountain!”

Forty years earlier, the giants who lived on that mountain had spooked all of the Israelites except Joshua and Caleb, and the fearful chose the life of wilderness nomads rather than the promised land of “milk and honey.”

People like Peyton Manning, Joshua, and Caleb, are not deterred by challenging detours—they make mole hills out of mountains.

The many hardships these men overcame reminds me of the perseverance of the Apostle Paul, who said, “We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed (2 Corinthians 4:8).”

While there is a reservoir of strength that is available through Jesus, scaling the mountains you face will also require a little grit or what Webster calls, “firmness of mind and spirit, unyielding courage in the face of hardship or danger.”

Old number 18 was pumped full of it on Sunday.