Kick it!
John Fischer

“You've always wanted to be a sportswriter. Now's your chance.”

That was my wife's comment to me over the weekend as we were realizing this is our last week of AYSO soccer for Chandler's team, the White Tigers. This is kindergarten soccer we are talking about, and this is Assistant Coach John here, coming to you this week with lots of spiritual insight from the soccer field.

For most of these kids, it is their first experience at an organized sport, and the first time they have been asked to concentrate on one thing for longer than ten minutes. Of course, at this age, this is humanly impossible, which is what makes this experience so endearing.

A perfect illustration of what I mean would be Claire, the only girl on the team. She is the tallest and thus most obvious. She can usually be found in the center of the field staring off in some direction twirling a few strands of her fine blond hair around a finger as a small moving mass of thirteen shorter kids maneuver around her with a soccer ball somewhere in the middle of it.

Once in a while, the ball will somehow roll in front of her. That's when White Tiger parents will be found cheering her on from the sidelines, “Claire! Kick it!” And in a moment of sudden clarity, her long leg will swing mightily through the ball sending it off in a direction, which may be towards our goal, then again, may not. Thirteen other kids will race over to engulf the rolling sphere while Claire maintains her position solidly in the middle of the field, playing with her hair and watching the dandelions grow.

What happens for her in that moment is what will happen for all of us today. God will put the ball in front of us. Clouds of silent witnesses will be shouting, “(Your name here)! Kick it!” And it will be our turn. Our time to realize God is entrusting us with His more serious game (what we call "life"). It could be any number of things that happen today, but it will be up to us. So just kick the ball, preferably towards the goal, but God can use just about any direction for His purposes as long as we stay in the game.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us” (Hebrews 12:1 NLT).

Look for more from Assistant Coach John this week. Tell your friends!

PDL