life is a team sport

Victor Valley Jackrabbits, 1966

I loved playing football in school. I was a year younger than most of my class mates and correspondingly smaller. The love affair began when I was a 7th grader. We were scrimmaging against the eighth graders and my assignment was to block the biggest kid in school, Bill Smiley. Fortunately Bill was one of those gentle giants. He was easily a foot taller and 100 lbs heaver. NO WAY was I ever going to block him, I was not even a speed bump on his freeway to the quarterback. With pity and the best of intentions, Coach Lampkin called me aside and broke it to me. I would NEVER be big enough or strong enough to block the Bill Smilies of life but there was a way to beat them. He then imparted a bit of wisdom that carried me through to All League honors and the best blocking percentage in high school. On the next play, I followed the coach’s advice exactly as I understood it. Perspective now makes all the difference: From my perspective it was perfect, from Bill’s it was really bad. Did I mention I always liked Bill, he really was one of the few good guys! Unfortunately and unforeseen, Bill hit the ground and broke his collarbone. I am sorry about that. It was an accident. But it was David slaying Goliath. (Bill recovered quickly with no ill effects) I however discovered a way to control the biggest opponents. It never failed me in the next 5 years of competitive football. It worked so well I was offered a spot as center on a good College team. NO WAY. I had grown by then but still way to small for that level of play. My plan would NEVER have worked in college. They would have killed me and since I did not want to die, I accepted the Tennis scholarship instead. (And no songgirl, I am NOT going to tell you what I did. Your son IS THE GIANT, he doesn’t need the help and your number 3 would definitely do it to your number one and two if he knew how…so you don’t want that information out:) I tell this story because one of the purposes of this blog is to recapture life for my grandchildren. The other purpose is to pass on a little insight from my pilgrimage. Here it is. Some sports are team sports and some are solo sports. I happened to love the polar opposites of Football, where from the opening play it is all about dominance, to tennis where every game of every set starts out Love/Love. (How that got started I have no idea. It is just a polite way to say ZERO). While sports do have a place for team effort and individual effort, our life in Christ is strictly TEAM. We were created to live in literal and living fellowship with God. We were not created to live or act independently. We were designed to live in cooperation with the spirit, not conflict or competition. Self living of any description is harmful and hurtful to us. We must always consider the rest of the team in all our actions and reactions. We are on Team Jesus, he calls all the plays. Victory only comes when we play as a team. That is the true context of all the Biblical passages that speak to us of self denial, cross bearing, and yoke wearing. It is what it means to be part of the team, never alone, never abandoned. Teh sahck study guide Shack discussion guide