Goal!

My son Andrew plays on a local travel soccer team. Over the course of two seasons he has become the team’s starting goalie and is thriving in that position. He is becoming very vocal in positioning his teammates and is really learning how to anticipate where a shot will come from, etc. He’s learned how to be aggressive and cut down a shooter's angle to the goal, etc. Yet, he still gives up a goal from time to time and gets frustrated. No matter how hard he works there is always a possibility that the other team will get a good shot off that he just can’t stop. There is also a possibility of a communication break down or lazy teammate who doesn’t do their part, which can result in a goal for the opponent as well.

As I’ve been teaching Andrew about playing goal, one thing we’ve really worked hard on is knowing that he isn’t going to be perfect in goal all the time. There will be times when a ball gets through even in near-perfect circumstances. The hardest part is making sure when this happens he doesn’t become frustrated. He has to accept this possibility and do what he can to keep that from happening, but know in the back of his head that it’s always possible.

This has me thinking about my own Christian walk. What a lesson to learn, eh? No matter how good our defenses are, there is always a possibility that the enemy will get through our defenses. We can stop attempt after attempt, but there is always the possibility that something will go wrong and something bad will happen, even in the best of circumstances. The key is not to get overly frustrated when it happens. We have to figure out how they “scored” and take steps to not allow it to happen again. Just like Andrew, we have to continually practice to make ourselves better. In order for our defenses to be at full strength we always have to be on alert. Sometimes the enemy will come with only one attempt. Other times they’ll take multiple shots. Some times, they’ll even “score”.

Do you work on your “game” every day? Have you learned from the various attempts to “score” on you and worked to get better at keeping those advances away? If you want to continue to thrive in your Christian walk you have to keep working to make your “team” stronger. The more defenders you have in the way, the easier it’s going to be to be great at defending your goal.