soccer tragedy

Today is Tuesday and I have yet another invite to go play soccer with a few college guys at our local indoor soccer complex. I love playing soccer but let’s be honest it has been years since I have ran up and down the field and I am sure that I will kill over after one pass down and back. Regardless if I can slip away for a few moments I will end up playing leaving everything on the field including my breakfast, lunch and dinner. It should be an amusing time for all the spectators.

To be truthful I planned on playing last week but upon arriving at the game I had a young man that needed to talk. He thought I was doing him a favor but honestly a large part of me was glad he was there. So we sat back and watched the game. It quickly became painful obvious the caliber of my friend’s team as in the matter of a few minutes the score was already 4 – 1. My heart went out to them. It’s tough playing a college team who wanted to get some practice on the off season.

As the game drummed on with goal after goal the opposing team started to get bored with the whole endeavor. Many of them quickly became disengaged, no longer hustling after the ball or making clean passes. In fact eventually they started turning and shooting at their own goalie just for the amusement of it all. Finally the buzzed rang and it was halftime. It was easy to see the morale of the teams as my friends were on the benches resting and drinking water with heads hung low while the opposing team never took a break and stayed on the field passing and shooting the ball

Then something interesting happened.

As the second half began one of the best players for the opposing team (aka bad guys) came over and joined my friend’s team (aka good guys). The “bad guys” perked up and the game was on. Most of the second half was like watching a tennis match with the ball on one end and then the next. There were only a few goals scored in the second half which you could attribute to the player who switched sides but honestly it was the defense and rest of the players that stepped up their game.

interesting…

Well the game ended; it was finally over. I asked my friends how they felt about the guy changing teams and most of them responded negatively saying that they wish he wouldn’t had do that. But the painful game was over so we chatted for a while about life before heading home.

So this even has been swirling in my head over the past few days. Here are some thoughts and observations that I have been wrestling with.

I had always heard that great leaders raise the bar of whole team but I found it very intriguing to see it happen even when a team didn’t want his leadership or help. On the other hand I was fascinating to see what little impact personally this guy who changed teams seemed to have. Individually he was shutdown every time he got the ball reminding me that you can have talent – maybe even be the best, most talented person out on the field but most of the time it all comes down to the TEAM working together that makes the difference and it seems that will always trump individualism.

I also thought about something that Reggie Joiner said (via my last post by Carey N.) If you don’t give people something of significance to do they won’t feel significant. I really saw this come to life as the “bad guys” team lost their significance as the game became insignificant to them. They quickly became apathetic and lazy even to the point of fire goals on their own goalie. It seems like that is something I see all too often in the church as well.

I’m still chewing on this one.

We'll see if I end up on the field this week so until next time have a great week. Thanks!