Tuesday night we drove south and east across the windy Illinois cornfields to watch our high school win in overtime to go “down state.”
I like winning, and I am so excited about our kids enjoying the honor of playing at state.
But, what excited me most was that they kept pressing. There was no quit in them. There were gale force winds causing other area teams to postpone tournament games. Uriel Perez, who scored both Stillman goals in a 2-1 victory, played with 17 stitches in his head from an injury received in the previous game. They trailed much of the game. There were heart wrenching moments when we missed goals by inches. But they kept pressing.
Shane Weber (pictured above) said to a reporter after the game:
“Me and Uriel were pounding them at them the whole game. I kept telling him ‘We’re going to get one. We’re going to get one,’”, Weber said. “When he finished it off, I just got the chills. We never gave up, and now we’re going to state.”
Pressing and pounding is what life requires. As one of the greatest authors in history, wrote in the Holy Bible,
Not that I have already obtained all of this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to take hold of the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:12-14).
We must always look to the Right goal and the Good News.
I love the analogy, Pastor Chris. And isn’t it so true how life’s experiences – whether it be in victory, in daily ol’ stuff, or in suffering – always point back to Christ?!
Pressing on… having hope… putting faith in Christ… and working your hardest (in accord with His will) – all good stuff, in the name of God the Father, Christ his Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Alleluia!
Thank you for the change of pace – including the sport of soccer. It is the real “football”.