To Play Like Never Before

What if you arrived for the team tryout and the head coach said, You’re already on the team. Just have fun.?

How would you play?

Would you just go through the motions?

Would you look down your nose at the others?

Would you look at the others and wonder why, among all these, you were chosen?

Would you refuse to believe the coach and feel an even greater pressure to prove yourself?

Or, now with a burden lifted, would you play like never before?

That is the invitation of the Christian life.

Thank you, Coach.

Failure isn’t fatal

It’s fortunate.

It tells us

we have reached the point

where we can no longer continue without change,

without a new approach,

a new learning.

We have reached the limit of

our current ability.

It gives us a measure

of where we are today, and

how far we’ve come.

It is a limit without limiting,

a boundary without bounding.

To the extent we can see beyond our point of failure,

it shows us what we can be,

what we might be,

if we commit ourselves to

being better,

by doing better,

because we know better is out there

calling to us.

It doesn’t taunt or tease.

It bows our head in defeat

showing us

the line

we stand on

is the starting line.

Where measure has no meaning

• Toss or save
• Full or empty
• In-fashion or out
• New or old
• Useful or useless

How we are people of the dichotomy. One or the other, thanks. Don’t both me with the muddle in the middle. Just get rid of it! My goodness, the safe shredding industry has taken root over night, to help us feel better about our waste.

But what about want? And what about age and injury and illness? What do we do with those? They’re not quite used up but so inconvenient.

Re-purpose. Can we talk about this? It was good for this; now it’s good for that. The common denominator: good. The operative word: for. Now that takes some creativity. Good is what we are. Good for is what we will be, what we’re becoming. There’s a reason there’s no such word as gooder. Because we were created with a purpose, completely supplied with the raw materials.

A popular expression in my line of work is: “Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach.” There’s that dichotomy again: can or can’t. The young are very sure they can, until they discover they can’t and need help. The old cannot until asked for their wisdom, and they supply the young so they can again. From can — to can’t — to can again. Can it be that simple? — dashes and arrows connecting our dichotomy? One shows the other how to be. We’re not used up, we’re used for.

It’s not a vicious cycle that spins and dizzies, but a plentiful path that supplies as we go along. Complete at any point on the perimeter because quantity, volume, and age are nonsensical. Measure has no meaning. We are completed by the connection, continuously.