What a Game

Posted on November 5, 2008 12:00 AM MST by Tiffany Kinerson

“...God has combined the members of the body ... so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.... Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.” –I Corinthians 12:24-25 & 27

Life in Christ is like a soccer team.

I just stepped up in my mommyhood role to “soccer mom,” complete with bagged fold-up chair, a four-pack of ice-cold water bottles and enough sliced oranges to feed an army of first-graders.

Our boys play on the Cheetahs—not the Cheat-ers, as I tease them...the Cheetahs. This team comes complete with red-headed wonders scooting around in circles, blonde giggling boys flying through the wind with jet-propelled wings jutting from their sides, and dark-haired, sweaty boys chasing a spotted ball out of bounds. Constantly.

Last weekend was The Cheetahs’ second-to-last game of the season. They had: a soccer ball roll right between the goalie’s legs as he waited with hands spread like a catcher at the twenty yard line; the offense blitz by the defender who twirled somewhere near mid-field in a dance that crescendoed inside his own head; and balls thrown to the wrong team...and the wrong side. And this was a good game for their first season.

The coach does well with his available tools. He yells out things like: “Stay by the goal!” “Behind the line, behind the line!” “Stick with the ball!” Pretty consistently, these are admonitions to stick to their positions.

I watch him and replay the words. Stick to it. Stick to it. Can this be what God—the ultimate coach—is trying to teach us as well? I mean, He says things like, you are the body (Ephesians 5:30), or one part cannot say “I don’t need you” (I Corinthians 12:21), or you are many parts to one unit... (I Corinthians 12:12). He tells me I have a place, and it is very important. Now stick to it. And He says this over and over again.

But just like those little soccer players, sometimes I kind of stare up at the Great Coach. And I argue, “But this doesn’t seem right.” How could it be that my little five yards of defending space can be enough in this great big playing field? Because really, shouldn’t I do so much more? After all, there is PTA and Bible Study and Sunday School and Soccer mom and thank you notes and my job and laundry (there’s always laundry). And I need to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, remember the widows in their distress. I can help with hospice care, donate my time to the local animal shelter, have coffee with my friend in need. Oh, and I’ve got to do all this before a home-cooked meal by 6 p.m. And my husband’s shirts need ironing. Shouldn’t I have made our bed, too?

After all of this opportunity, are You sure five yards is all I need to fight for?

And then I watch my boys’ soccer game. And it’s chaos. Seriously. Chaos. Defenders run up the field, goalies step out of the box, one kid keeps playing opossum every time the cluster of ball-chasers rushes him. He falls to the ground, misses everything. And they make me wonder.

What would happen if they just played their own position? And what if they focused on that position so fixedly that they became great at it? What if?

Would they take the sport by storm?

And what if I really and truly stuck to my position? What if I fought out every good thing that came up and focused on only God’s best things? What if I became great at it? What if?

How many points would I get to see God score through me?

Show me the greatest position for me, God, and let me see Your work at its most exciting. I want nothing more than to yell and scream with each new point You score through me, through us. Because that is what I call a good game.

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