A Lesson from a Football Player

One of my favorite things to do on a Saturday is to turn on the TV and watch some Gamecock football.  I have been a fan of University of South Carolina football since I was a little girl.  So, this past Saturday afternoon I was enjoying a good game between the Gamecocks and the University of Tennessee Volunteers.  At least until late in the second quarter, when Marcus Lattimore sustained a very serious injury. 

I don't know Marcus personally.  But people who do know him all speak very highly of him.  Marcus is well respected, not only for his talent on the football field, but even more for who he is off the field.  By all accounts, Marcus is an extremely talented athlete, but is also a very humble young man, a young man of integrity and great faith.  A young man who walks his talk......who lives out the Christianity he professes.

Marcus was recently elected a captain of the football team.  As captain, he spoke to the team prior to the game with Tennessee.  After a couple of tough weeks for the Gamecocks, he gave them some encouragement.  What he said to them is a good lesson for us all.  He said - and I'm paraphrasing - play every play as if it were the last one you'll ever play.

That's good advice. Certainly it's good advice if you're a football player.  But football is just a game.  That's hard to remember sometimes, isn't it?  Especially when week after week we see grown men being paid millions of dollars to play this game!  But football is just a game.  Life is for real.  And Marcus has given us good advice for life!

Yesterday the text for our Pastor's message was James 4:13-17 as we continued our journey through the Book of James.  James 4:14 begins this way......"yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow."

Certainly that was true for Marcus on Saturday.  I'm sure he didn't get up on Saturday expecting a season-ending injury on Saturday afternoon. 

But it's true for all of us, isn't it?  We don't know what life will be like tomorrow or the next day......or even later this day.  So we need to "play every play as if it were our last."  We need to live life in a way that matters.  We need not to put off what's important.  We need to be "all in".  We need to make our life count!  We need to give our best effort in everything we do!

What happened to Marcus on Saturday reinforces that lesson.  Football is just a game.  But life is real.  And we don't get a do-over.  So make it count.  That's the lesson from a very special young man on Saturday.

Best wishes, Marcus, for a speedy recovery!  And Happy 21st Birthday!

 

 

Only one life
So soon it will pass
Only what's done for Christ will last.......
So give to Jesus all your days
It's the only life that pays
When you recall
You have but one life.

 

(author unknown)