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a powerfully uncomfortable reality hit tonight. stuff happens.
i know there are a lot of people who feel that we (i…all of us…whoever) have an overblown love of sorts. can’t say that i disagree with that assessment. no matter. i love sports.
i love the drama. i love the competition and how it brings out the best (and sometimes the worst) in all of us…players, coaches, spectators, parents…all of us.
i love how sports can teach values and life skills like: teamwork and comradery and personal discipline and trust and perseverance and patience and focus and effort and goals and team bus full of others.
as i look back over my 48 years of involvement in sports, i think the most profound purpose that my participation has served has been to teach me how to deal with disappointment. somebody always loses. more than that, the unpredictability of the games we play is always near.
we work. we practice. we plan. we strategize. we prepare. we pour ourselves into hours and hours of training. we dream. we anticipate. we push ourselves and discipline ourselves and give ourselves wholeheartedly to the prize.
and in a freak moment, it can all be lost. our dreams can evaporate in a surreal, twisted turn of events. the trophy is gone. visions and aspirations and ambitions crash. and we are left to deal with it.
i didn’t really care who won or lost the national championship game last night. neither texas nor alabama are high on my list of favorite teams. until my beloved san diego state aztecs make it to the big game, you’ll never see me put on any team colors.
though i didn’t wear burnt orange, i definitely cheered for colt mccoy. not as a player, but as a young man whose dream was shattered. would texas have won with him as the quarterback? i don’t think so. i think alabama was always the better team. but nevermind. that was not the storyline for me.
once a dad…always a dad. my heart ached for colt. i was sad for him. for his dad. for his mom. the whole game, i sat and remembered what it was like to watch a son lose his dream or fall short of a goal. it just hurts.
but i trust the game has been a good teacher. along with a good mom and dad. and the faithfulness of a god who never abandons…especially when everything crumbles.
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