Dropped Passes

I must admit, sports analogies get to me the quickest. Those are the ones that make sense in my mind. I was talking to a good friend of mine yesterday. We were talking about making mistakes and how other people dealing with situations can be disappointing. You can put yourself on whatever side of the analogy you see fit. You have one person we will use as the "ball". This person could have been part of the issue but not as big a factor, but basically the one with somewhat less responsibility. The other person we are going to use as the "wide receiver". This is who the play was geared around, it was his responsibility to see it executed as it should have been. Then we have the "Coach", who is none other than our Lord.

So its a big game, your team is on offense and the QB steps back and lets the ball go. That WR wants to make the catch, but instead of doing it exactly how he was supposed to, he makes a few changes that he thinks works better and he ends up dropping the ball. Now the Coach can do two things. One, bench the player since he made a mistake. Or two, put him right back in the game, because the Coach knows he has it in him. That WR can make those plays and protect and guard that ball like he is supposed to. He has a lot of talent and the Coach doesn't want to waste that. So what about that ball? Well, unfortunately, the ball doesn't have a lot of say at this point. Whether it was totally unfair to the ball, or maybe it was a bit slippery...at this point the decision of the next play rests in the hands of that WR. No matter how much time and practice was between that ball and WR, the ball has to sit on that field and see what the next play will be. That WR has a decision to make. Either he can allow his mistake to stop him from playing that game and wallow in his failure, thinking that running away from it will fix everything in the end, or he can realize he screwed up. He didn't follow the play exactly and cost a pretty important down, but get right back on the field and realize he can take ownership of that ball and that game.

I figure we can all put ourselves on both side of this analogy. If you're on the side of the WR by letting someone down, or making a big mistake...don't make a bigger mistake by how you respond to your failure. Don't let it get to you so badly that you step away from the game...our Coach knows we can succeed if we go by His game plan. And the ball...well, if ya got dropped haha, whether by your assistance or not, you have to learn to trust the Coach to work it out. I haven't ever seen a ball be able to control a WR in a game, and it won't happen in life either. Maybe you have to suffer through a "time-out" that has to get called for either that WR to shake himself and get with it, or for his replacement to get sent in.

:) Now mind you, we were cracking ourselves up with our analogies, and I have to give my buddy who is a football coach credit for this one...But when I paused to really think about it, the dumb little analogy seems to make a good bit of sense.