The Game of Life

 

(February 3, 2021) Life is a lot like football. (Hey, I have three brothers! I ‘get’ the game!) With the  Super Bowl coming up, now seems like a good time to make some comparisons. 

Each team is one unit, yet each teammate contributes his own talents to the shared mission of scoring points. On offense, players pass, catch, and run with the  ball to move it down the field toward the goal line. As individuals they are  powerless – what good does it do to pass the ball if there’s no one there to catch  it? So they strengthen each other by working together, and that makes the whole  team more powerful. They also stop to huddle on a regular basis, which gives  them the chance to regroup, strategize, and encourage one another to do their  best to advance the ball.  

Football is a rough game; the offense expects the defense to attack and fight to  overpower them. The offense uses the huddle to try to anticipate how the  defense will attack so they aren’t caught by surprise.  

In life, our goal isn’t to score touchdowns but to love and serve God and love our  neighbors as well as we love ourselves (see Matthew 22:37-40 and Matthew  25:34-40). We also are part of ‘teams.’ We may have a spouse and family, our  work, church, neighborhood, clubs, and organizations. Maybe these teams’ purposes and activities differ, but they all give us opportunities to contribute our  gifts and talents to the common goal of living in loving service. 

How do we do this? We strengthen our offense by working together, and we  meet on a regular basis – kind of like huddles. Huddles for our work and  community groups include meetings and rehearsals. Family huddles include setting aside time to listen to each other and sharing meals. Huddles to  strengthen our spiritual resolve include making time for private prayer,  participating in church services, and receiving the sacraments. (Even participating via live-stream because of COVID can strengthen us and boost our feeling of  belonging.)

And, just like in football, life can be rough. There are evils in the world that will attack us and fight to overpower us. They’ll use all kinds of tactics to stop us from loving and serving others. They’ll try to get in the way of our efforts to strengthen our ‘offense.’ We know this, and so we shouldn’t be surprised when it happens.  We should expect these challenges as part of life (see John 16:33). 

So let’s stay focused on the goal of living in love and service to God and our  neighbors. Let’s huddle with our teams regularly to regroup, encourage each  other, and pray for God’s wisdom, guidance, and power. With God on our team,  we know we’ll win in the end. 

“If God is for us, who can be against us?” 

Romans 8:31 

This article is a personal reflection by Gina Bedell © 2021. It and other reflections written by her  invite the reader to reflect on a given topic and then seek deeper answers through prayer,  additional spiritual reading, and/or consultation with clergy or other persons who may guide the  reader to a deeper faith and understanding of God’s love and will for their life.