Pele called soccer "A Beautiful Game," and it is beautiful, but for more than just the feeling you get when you score a goal, make a save, or see your favorite star pulling off a bicycle kick. Soccer is a deeply developed game, and thriving on my school's team this year, strategy and philosophy of the game grew in me like an olive tree in Galilee. Looking through the bladder of the soccer ball analogously, perceive with me the truths that have come out of this ancient team sport of kicking a ball.
The first analogy apparent in the game is that of a body. A team is a group of player that come to play. At the beginning of the season, players for a team gather to practice, and before long, the different players' capacities and preferences become apparent. Some players naturally assume the position of goal-keeper. Others lag in the backfield for the scrimmage and begin to play defense. Then you have those tall, skinny forwards who start high and are scoring goals in minutes. After a practice or two, or at least several practices, you begin to see how some players are very fast, some have good ball-control, and others have powerful kicks or deadly shots; some are new to the game, others have been playing as long as they have been breathing. Regardless, they are all part of the team, and they all are necessary, even subs! Without good kickers, you cannot execute set-plays, without shrewd mid-fielders, the play cannot develop, without solid defenders the team cannot stay-in-the-game, without deceptive forwards goals cannot be scored, and without stalwart, perceptive goalkeepers a defense will likely not stay organized. Without subs, the team cannot stay fresh or have encouragement. Like the church, every gift is necessary. I have struggled with being jealous of the raw talent of forwards in scoring, or in big-kickers in sending perfect balls in free-kicks to their players, but God has given us different gifts not for the betterment of ourselves, but of the whole team, or of the whole church. In realizing my potential, I saw how I shouldn't strive to be the best player in the team, but the best player in my position. I could serve the team best not by being another position, but by being a solid, skilled, precise, intelligent outside-defender. There I thrived.
This is the wonderful thing about team chemistry: it is training in humility. Some players are better than others. If the school I went to was large and very selective, they would only have the best players. However, due to my school's size, most players have been gladly accepted, and the task has been to successfully incorporate different players of varied skill levels. In doing so, the great have learned how they need to humble themselves to work as a team, and the humble have seen how they can be great by finding a way to serve on the team. Like in the body of Christ, some believers are strong and old in the faith, others are younger, more naive and inexperienced, yet Christ calls us all to serve his church in unity. We all wear the same uniform, and the differences and abilities are looked over, like our sins, strengths and weakness become insignificant in the light of Christ's grace and sufficiency. Read I Corinthians 12.
An essential element of a soccer team is its coach. There is no team without a coach, and as Proverbs 29:18 says, "Where there is no prophetic vision, the people cast off restraint..." A team needs a a coach to stay strong, motivated focused, and purposeful. The coach is not just a role model and visionary, but more importantly an authority, and I have discovered how our teams effectiveness largely resulted upon our adherence to our coaches commands.
Obedience is necessary. "Children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right (Eph. 6:1)." For this context, one could say, "Players obey your coach in the Lord, for this is right." My coach would make it sound so simple: if we improved our passing, kept our shape, took less touches, had a better touch on the ball, etc. the game would be easier. We would win! It was true. Often all our pride would get in the way, to our own demise. And with that obedience, it would be more than remembering a simple command, but many commands, formations, strategies, set-plays, and tactics. To implement such aspects into our play, we needed discipline, the discipline of memory, and discipline of turning those ideas into kinetic energy with our muscles. What is the Christian life, but an exercise of discipline and obedience, "[Taking] every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience when your obedience is complete(2 Cor. 10:5-6)?" Christ is our coach, and he knows what is best for us. Will we listen and obey?
Not only was the discipline of memory important, but the discipline of forgetting is just as crucial. As hard as it could be to remember what coach had instructed us to do, it could be harder still to forget our mistakes and blunders, things like running into one of our own players, stabbing at a striker, and a goal being scored as a result, causing a free-kick near our box, missing easy goals, or getting an unjust yellow-card, blunders that happened throughout this past soccer season in our team. Focusing on my mistakes would often get me angry and cause me to lose my temper or play recklessly. Christ forgives us of our sins, and as he expects us to be obedient, so he also expects us to confess when we sin, and then forget it, as we have his assurance of forgiveness. One of our captains gave us a stirring speech before we went to beat our arch-rival on how God's gives us grace in second chances, second chances so that we learn from our mistakes. The discipline involved in soccer oozes with the things the Christian life embodies. Can us Christians be obedient when it is hard, such as when we are sure our way is better than our wive'fs, our employer's, our brother's, or our friend's? Can we keep our temper when we have a huge blunder, or someone fowls us, and is given no penalty?
Finally, I behold the principle of empowerment in soccer. Throughout my three years on the soccer team, I have found the value in learning from others, whether it has been spiritual encouragement from other players, or specific instruction in refining my skills. And as others have empowered me, I have strove to empower those, especially younger than me, through encouragement and kind critique.
Empowerment is one of the pillars of leadership I have learned about in leadership training. To best serve others, you have teach them to serve the other people that will come into their lives. Look at the church! There is a wide variety of participants, some younger, and some older. However, in thirty years, many will be dead, and most of the current staff will not be in leadership positions. How can the church continue to function, but by a faithful mentorship or otherwise investment into younger people from the older, wiser leadership, and a preparation of the young, energetic leadership, for the long, hard days ahead? What better way to persevere a soccer team than by empowering younger players to reach to their God-given potential, and seek to be valuable assets to a team which needs them to endure and prosper?
Serving on a soccer team at a collegiate level has been a privilege and blessing for me. I have grown in faith, discipline, knowledge of the game, skill, endurance, muscle, social skills, and humility. It isn't about me. It isn't about the strikers who score goals either. It is about the team finding the joy in playing together under the wise leadership of our competent coach. Humility paralyzes a strong man like a TASER. However, it refines him like a furnace to be the effective player than he can be, serving others for the good of of the team. It is a beautiful game, this game of soccer, but it is more beautiful when the church participates in the dance with their maker and coach, this harmony of gifts and talents for the edification of the body of Christ, a sweet aroma to our heavenly father.
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