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TRYING TO BE IMPERFECT #8
WHAT'S YOUR GOAL IN SOCCER?
A kid named Edson was just 15 when World Cup veteran
Waldemar de Brito took a good look at him and then said to his partners:
"This boy will be the greatest soccer player in the world."
That's a bold statement about an adolescent who had only been kicking
a ball around on a field for four years; until he turned 11, young Edson
had helped support his family as a shoeshine boy. But de Brito took this
teenager and put him on the professional São Paulo team, Santos
Futebol Clube, where he proceeded to rack up, over 18 years, a lifetime
total of 1,281 goals and play in four World Cups, where he personally
scored 12 goals in 14 matches. He was so admired that when his Santos
team traveled to Nigeria for some exhibition matches, the country actually
suspended its ongoing civil war, signing a 48-hour armistice so both sides
could watch him play.
Edson became known to fans around the world as the Black Pearl, and the
media in France dubbed him "The King." And if the name Edson
Arantes do Nascimento doesn't ring a huge bell with you, maybe you recall
this abbreviated name for him: Pelé. Without a doubt the greatest
soccer player in history.
Well, we can't all score a hat trick or put in a header or slip through
defenders like the Black Pearl, but here in the United States it's a very
familiar sight early on Saturday or Sunday mornings. Vans and SUVs park
next to grassy green fields and parents begin setting up orange cones.
There are canopies where spectators can get some shade. Lawn chairs so
a proud parents can watch all the action in suburban comfort. And often
there's a sign next to the park entrance, with these four letters: AYSO.
American Youth Soccer Organization - and often the "AYSO" is
cleverly embedded inside the longer slogan: "plAY SOccer." And
ever since 1964, when the AYSO organization began in Torrance, California,
more than 630,000 young people have competed like Pelé, trying
to get the ball past the goalkeeper.
Well, friend, as we continue to think about what the Bible teaches regarding
the issue of perfection, I guess you could forgive me for putting a player
like Pelé up on the pedestal. He's obviously in the Hall of Fame,
inducted there in 1993. And if any player in history were to qualify as
"perfect," it would be the Black Pearl, averaging, as he did,
almost a goal a game his entire career. But picture with me - and maybe
you've done this, you soccer moms - that weekend out there on the field
three blocks from your home. And your little five-year-old is on a team.
So your little son or daughter, with their size-two soccer cleats, and
professional jersey, and knee-high socks, is out there on the field flailing
away with the other kids, trying to mash the ball through the goalposts.
I understand that AYSO is truly dedicated to good sportsmanship; every
child, no matter how skilled or unskilled, how perfect or imperfect, has
to play at least half a game. Isn't that nice? But between you and me
and the goalpost, I can't help but imagine that parents and friends see
all kinds of soccer being played out there. Missed shots. Kicked shins
instead of kicked balls. Kids falling right on their faces. Balls squirting
out of bounds. As basketball announcer Chick Hearn often says about the
L.A. Lakers, "Folks, the mustard's off the hotdog!"
And yet, when the game is over, even if your team loses fifteen to nothing,
I imagine you drape an arm around your child and say: "Honey, great
job! I sure liked watching you play. That was perfect!" And he says:
"Mom, we got killed!" "Oh, who cares? You did a good job.
You played hard. You did your best." In other words, "Honey,
for five years old, you did good. You played like a good five-year-old
kid. What else can Mom ask for? Let's go for some ice cream." If
perfection is defined - as the Bible very plainly does - as "maturity,"
growing in grace, then your child with those mud-smeared shorts is doing
all right.
We mentioned yesterday a marvelous book by Dr. Roy Adams, entitled The
Nature of Christ. We learned four new Hebrew words describing our bad
soccer playing. One of them was 'awon, that sinful "twist" or
distortion inside of us. A bit later Adams has this to say:
"Through the process of sanctification (as commonly
understood in Christian theology) God works to counteract and correct
this evil bent within us. 'Sanctification is the work of a lifetime' because
it takes time - even for God - to bring about the needed change."
Then he adds this extra insight: "It is a process that entails allowing
us to try . . . and fail . . . and experiment . . . and succeed - in Him.
It involves disappointment and hardship, doubt and faith, fear and trust
- and a thousand other factors - all under the Spirit's control. The chiseling,
the polishing, the straightening, the loosening and tightening never stop.
Every day as we follow on to know the Lord, the raw material of our crooked
spirits becomes more pliant, more malleable. Thus the gentle Spirit molds
and shapes us continually into the divine image."
There's a powerful truth in that rather deep dissertation.
Did you notice it? "Sanctification is the work of a lifetime."
Becoming a great soccer hero doesn't happen in five minutes. But God takes
us patiently, graciously, and relentlessly - over the course of many,
many games . . . many, many bruises . . . many, many wins and losses .
. . toward His own Faith Hall of Fame.
C. S. Lewis once described God as a kind of Soccer Dad, who watches His
five-year-old on the field. Listen to this play-by-play:
"This Helper who will, in the long run, be satisfied with nothing
less than absolute perfection," he writes, "will also be delighted
with the first feeble, stumbling effort you make tomorrow to do the simplest
duty. As a great Christian writer (George MacDonald) pointed out, every
father is pleased at the baby's first attempt to walk: no father would
be satisfied with anything less than a firm, free, manly walk in a grown-up
son. In the same way, he said, 'God is easy to please, but hard to satisfy.'"
In the second chapter of Romans, verse four, the Apostle
Paul addresses this determination by God to lead us into His own version
of perfection, of brilliant soccer play. He's not just the Dad on the
sidelines; He's the Trainer and Coach as well. I like how this reads in
the paraphrase version called The Message.
"God is kind, but He's not soft. In kindness He
takes us firmly by the hand and leads us into a radical life change."
'God's kindness leads you toward repentance," says the NIV.
Listen, friend, I'm glad that God is patient with us
when we kick the ball out of bounds and miss a shot here and there. And
I'm thankful that sanctification really is the work of a lifetime. But
it goes both ways: the work of a lifetime IS sanctification. You can have
a newborn baby, and it can be a perfect baby that drools and coos. You
can have a two-year-old who sits on the curb and goes blither, blither.
And it can be a perfect two-year-old. But if someone is still doing that
at age 20, we get a bit uneasy. If someone is still drooling and cooing
at age 20, we know something is wrong. I'm thankful for this concept of
growth, as given by Jesus, because it just may be that there are some
of us still in the early stages of Christian growth!
And what do you do if 20 soccer seasons pass and you're still not playing
like Pelé? You're still stumbling out there on the field, failing
and falling and making mistakes. Well, I'll tell you the one thing you
DON'T do: you don't leave the Coach. You don't say to Him, "Your
timetable for my growth is terrible! I'd do better on my own!" .
. . and quit the team. Listen, staying with the Coach, having a relationship
with the Coach, is the only way you and I can ever hope to succeed. And
really, success and soccer wins are HIS responsibility, not ours. Our
job is to listen to His instructions and follow the team blueprint He
gives us, and to take the field when we're invited to.
We've used a favorite C. S. Lewis expression in this series: "Obeying
in a new, less-worried way." Let me give you a closing second opinion,
this one from Philip Yancey.
"Jesus proclaimed unmistakably," he writes, "that God's
law is so perfect and absolute that no one can achieve righteousness."
Even Pelé missed some shots and lost a World Cup in 1966. "Yet
God's grace is so great that we do not have to. By striving to prove how
much they deserve God's love, legalists miss the whole point of the gospel,
that it is a gift from God to people who don't deserve it." Now notice
this: "The solution to sin is not to impose an ever-stricter code
of behavior. It is to know God."
Yes, friend . . . knowing God. As our friends
at ESPN say, THAT is always the play of the day.
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