Team Sports

Playing team sports can be one of life's great - and toughest - experiences. Picture Tommy - a 6 year old playing soccer for the first time. Tommy has to cooperate; learn to pass the ball; give up his ego if a team-mate has a better shot at the goal. Tommy has to learn to play defense and not just offense. I remember my son's soccer team at age 8 - their coach decided just to work on defense. As a parent I thought this was a lousy idea; I wanted to see my son score lots of goals!

As the season wore on, it was true, our team didn't score many goals - usually only one or two a game. But guess what happened to the opposing teams? They almost never scored any goals at all - and my son's team went undefeated the entire season.

What was the lesson (besides for me to support the coach and keep my mouth shut?) Maybe it was to encourage unselfish behavior; to work as a team; and not to look for one's own glory. It sounds a lot like a lesson Jesus taught us 2,000 years ago - to "love our neighbor as ourselves"; not to seek our own glory; to look out for the good of others. These are some great lessons we can learn - in soccer and in life, no matter what our age.