The coach could not, of course, accept the loss as anything but a loss. There is no such thing as a moral victory. His job is to produce wins, his success is measured in wins, he cannot coach his players to do anything else but win. I get that.
But I cannot help but see there a danger that modern sports reflects on our society, an us-vs.-them win-at-all-costs trash-talking rivalry-driven mentality which has escaped the playing field and is starting to dominate everything from our politics to our churches. I’m talking about a way of looking at life, as if it could be boiled down in the end to a win-loss record. As if.
I say this as a sports fan, but also as a person who seeks faith: there is more to life than winning.
And I think that anyone who has actually lived a life should know that.
Life is rich and complex. It has victories, sure, but losses as well. The great and self-destructive myth is an undefeated life. Not that perfection isn’t a worthy goal – Jesus called his disciples to be perfect “as your heavenly Father is perfect!” (Matthew 5:48). But who ever is? No, we are all the sum of some wins and some losses, and of all kinds of moments that are somewhere in between.
For surely the majority of our experience does not easily count itself as win or loss. I think that most of our days are some of both, our accomplishments neither complete success nor utter defeat. I find life to be a constant tango of steps forward and back, and that the whole of me is no more determined by the good things which I’ve done than by the bad. In fact, I think it’s a tie.
I think that may be ok.
For this is the real devil here – the presumption that we must either conquer or be conquered, that unless we defeat all comers we have no value, that each loss is a permanent shame. Here is a godly desire to do well now twisted by sin into anger, enmity, and many kinds of violence, against self and others, so we are no longer striving to be like our heavenly father, but seeking after a much harsher kind of lord. Such is a real loss.
Can we not raise a generation that knows how to lose? Too many of our children cannot accept loss with grace, cannot learn from it and grow from it, cannot rejoice for their conqueror and find, finally, the joy of the game itself. Too many cannot win graciously, cannot carry the day and bring others with, too many do not know the meaning of mercy and humility. Sports should be a tool for raising a better people – competitors who thrive whether they win or lose.
We surely need more of that outside the sporting field. Perhaps we could start by teaching more of it on the field.
On the stadium in Lincoln are carved the words, “Not the victory but the action; Not the goal but the game; In the deed the glory.” Those words have been on that stadium longer than the 300 game sellout streak, they have seen championships come and go with losing seasons interspersed, and have overlooked countless millions of fans and players alike with their eternal wisdom. They are why players shake hands before and after the game, why fans cheer for the opposing team at the end of the day, why we come there at all. Not to win, but just to play. Because football, not unlike life, is just a game.
Sometimes you lose. And that’s ok.
You see, the victory has already been won. What we do here and now, every good work, every hard-fought victory, is but a vague shadow of that eternal triumph. And in that promise is our opportunity to play better at the game simply for the sake of playing better, while it lasts, to know joy and hope and face each challenge with grit and grace.
Surely that is the better reason to play at all.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
A "Leap" Into The Abyss
“To restore the sense of unity and purpose that American had in the days following 9/11”
That’s how one commentator described the intent of last weekend’s gathering in Washington, DC, at the instigation of Fox News host Glenn Beck. While my skepticism with Mr. Beck is at least partly due to his inability to spell his name correctly (the second “n” is superfluous, to my thinking), it is mostly due to his complete ignorance about the word “unity.”
Much of the noise around this event – and the preceding “Tea Party” gatherings, too - seems to echo a “hands off” kind of value system, as in hands off my money or hands off my guns. The prevailing mood of the crowd seems to be a shared anger over not getting their way, of having things taken from them by force, of evil leaders who would “share their wealth” (evidently even of those who have none to share.) It bespeaks a fear of intrusion and demands from which they ought to, by their very definition of America, be free.
Is that our perfect and patriotic vision of America? Fighting because we don’t want to have to share our toys?
This is so NOT what brought us together in the days following 9/11. It was a sense of responsibility and sacrifice for others, of firemen and policemen rushing into mortal danger to save lives regardless of their own safety, of citizens gladly and hopefully giving their time and opening up their wallets to aid victims of the tragedies, or people of all politics and philosophies setting aside their distrust and disapproval to work and cry and pray together.
9/11 reminded us that we HAD to stick together and care for each other, with no thought of price, that we could not afford the cost of hate. Sadly, it seems that the lesson did not stick.
We love unity in theory, but never in practice. In practice, in truth, unity demands shared space, a giving up for the other, a valuable forfeit of self to ensure peace. It is a basic fact that in a diverse society, living together means that no one gets all the stuff they want or gets their way all the time. It is true in families and it is true in nations. The more I demand that the world accommodate my own wants/needs/desires, the less unity I can expect.
Nor can unity be defined by anger. Some cohesion, among a few same-thinking people, is not unity. Which makes me doubt that this gathering, or any other like it, seeks unity. It makes me certain that it is not intended to honor the days following 9/11, but to cash in on them for some other, ugly and dark purpose.
Can we have a godly sense of unity in America? (or anywhere else, for that matter?) Not until we take His word to heart:
On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect; whereas our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it. 1 Corinthians 12:22-26
Paul words are clear. We cannot have unity while some of our members suffer. We cannot have unity while the gap between the poor and the wealthy in our society grows and grows with each passing year. We cannot have unity while some of our members cannot get health care that they need. We cannot have unity while it is acceptable to lift up symbols of racial hatred in our public discourse. We cannot have unity while some of our members are suffering and the rest refuse their responsibility to end it.
We cannot have unity as long as we refuse to pay its price. On 9/11, we glimpsed the horrific face of disunity, and while some faced up to their responsibility in those important days, mostly we missed our opportunity to do something about it. That we continue to suffer still leads me to this last conclusion …
I am not of the habit of writing words like this, but I find them unavoidable. This anger is a manifestation of wrath and sin among us, which will consume us, until we improve (at whatever cost) the lives of the weaker and inferior and less respectable among us. I am not an apocalyptic, but I find these events a sure sign of the brokenness and mortality and finitude which is this world. It calls us to long for the green shoots of the world to come and spring up among us and whisper to us that this is not all we are or all we can be.
Unity, I think, is less of a work than a prayer, a gift, a grace. May God grant that it may be. And soon.
That’s how one commentator described the intent of last weekend’s gathering in Washington, DC, at the instigation of Fox News host Glenn Beck. While my skepticism with Mr. Beck is at least partly due to his inability to spell his name correctly (the second “n” is superfluous, to my thinking), it is mostly due to his complete ignorance about the word “unity.”
Much of the noise around this event – and the preceding “Tea Party” gatherings, too - seems to echo a “hands off” kind of value system, as in hands off my money or hands off my guns. The prevailing mood of the crowd seems to be a shared anger over not getting their way, of having things taken from them by force, of evil leaders who would “share their wealth” (evidently even of those who have none to share.) It bespeaks a fear of intrusion and demands from which they ought to, by their very definition of America, be free.
Is that our perfect and patriotic vision of America? Fighting because we don’t want to have to share our toys?
This is so NOT what brought us together in the days following 9/11. It was a sense of responsibility and sacrifice for others, of firemen and policemen rushing into mortal danger to save lives regardless of their own safety, of citizens gladly and hopefully giving their time and opening up their wallets to aid victims of the tragedies, or people of all politics and philosophies setting aside their distrust and disapproval to work and cry and pray together.
9/11 reminded us that we HAD to stick together and care for each other, with no thought of price, that we could not afford the cost of hate. Sadly, it seems that the lesson did not stick.
We love unity in theory, but never in practice. In practice, in truth, unity demands shared space, a giving up for the other, a valuable forfeit of self to ensure peace. It is a basic fact that in a diverse society, living together means that no one gets all the stuff they want or gets their way all the time. It is true in families and it is true in nations. The more I demand that the world accommodate my own wants/needs/desires, the less unity I can expect.
Nor can unity be defined by anger. Some cohesion, among a few same-thinking people, is not unity. Which makes me doubt that this gathering, or any other like it, seeks unity. It makes me certain that it is not intended to honor the days following 9/11, but to cash in on them for some other, ugly and dark purpose.
Can we have a godly sense of unity in America? (or anywhere else, for that matter?) Not until we take His word to heart:
On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect; whereas our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it. 1 Corinthians 12:22-26
Paul words are clear. We cannot have unity while some of our members suffer. We cannot have unity while the gap between the poor and the wealthy in our society grows and grows with each passing year. We cannot have unity while some of our members cannot get health care that they need. We cannot have unity while it is acceptable to lift up symbols of racial hatred in our public discourse. We cannot have unity while some of our members are suffering and the rest refuse their responsibility to end it.
We cannot have unity as long as we refuse to pay its price. On 9/11, we glimpsed the horrific face of disunity, and while some faced up to their responsibility in those important days, mostly we missed our opportunity to do something about it. That we continue to suffer still leads me to this last conclusion …
I am not of the habit of writing words like this, but I find them unavoidable. This anger is a manifestation of wrath and sin among us, which will consume us, until we improve (at whatever cost) the lives of the weaker and inferior and less respectable among us. I am not an apocalyptic, but I find these events a sure sign of the brokenness and mortality and finitude which is this world. It calls us to long for the green shoots of the world to come and spring up among us and whisper to us that this is not all we are or all we can be.
Unity, I think, is less of a work than a prayer, a gift, a grace. May God grant that it may be. And soon.
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