Advance!

There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.  Numbers 13:33

This past Saturday marked the end of my sons’ first football season.  The season came to a bittersweet end with a tough lost complete with unfair calls, but I’m happy the boys enjoyed the experience overall.  One issue that hampered the boys all season was fear.  They were afraid of contact in a sport that’s all about physical contact!  I couldn’t figure out why these boys begged to play a sport they were ultimately afraid of.

Nonetheless, they improved somewhat over the season and the final game was the best that they and their entire team played.  Yet that toothless lion called fear prowled around till the very end.  My quarterback son called a bootleg where he’d run the ball himself.  In theory that should have been easy for him all season since he was quite the speedster in track last year.  The problem?  Fear.  Without fail, he would run several yards backwards before attempting running forward and either got sacked (like this past Saturday) or ran straight out-of-bounds for negative yardage.

In reality, he’s faster than most boys on the opposing team.  He could have been down the field before the defense realized who had the ball, but he didn’t believe it.  He saw them as giants; saw himself as small and fear caused him to go backwards.  How often do we do that?  In reality, we’re more than conquerors but we sabotage ourselves because of doubt and false imaginations.  We retreat and lose ground.  My son taught me a timely lesson that day.  I’ve recently embarked on a project I’m very excited about.   It’s overwhelming and intimidating at times, but by God’s grace I will keep advancing and gaining ground!