All in Due Season
It’s that time of the year. Anyone affiliated with sports knows well the games, the schedules, the coaching, the family time gained or lost. And, in the meantime— the little girl slept.
The game had been close as she tumbled her way down the court. When the pack jumbles up, falling a time or two isn’t so bad. In fact, it would be the norm. Up the little one got with the shot, tying the game. Overtime came round twice and her free throw put them in the W column.
It was a hometown tourney, so back to the house the little girl went. Heading over to the fireplace for warmth she did go. As she laid down upon the floor all blanketed up, her body began to shake. The realization that something was off was now on display as she began to doze off. “Could she be sick,” asked grandma long distance as the details erupted? I was assured she was not, but perhaps merely pumped up emotionally. However, minutes later, the text arrived, “Wait—she might be. I just took her temp.”
Today, it was a temp causing the slow down. But tomorrow, little sporters will learn that if they cannot give what it takes, perhaps it’s the body which may need a reset via some rest. Easy it is to gear-up, and giddy-up, but the slowing down is also of great value.
Mama left the house to continue as coach for the little one’s teammates while daddy stayed back to hold back the one who wanted to keep on going. Honoring the immediate need took priority as the little girl slept on.
FOMO is real, this Fear Of Missing Out. It’s a family matter and passing on how to handle it, matters. It matters when we slow and when we gear up. It matters when we lay down, and when we rise up. It matters when one learns to listen to the physical beat of the heart— contrasting it to the heartbeat of emotions directing the desires.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 rotates round to yet another generation as the wisdom within is real.
“To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven; … a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; ...”
In the lives of sporters there is a time to play, and a time to rest. There is a time to win, and a time to lose. There is a time when it is about you, and time when it is better that it is not about you. There is a time to keep moving in the sport, and a time to move on from it. You see, there is a time to not only listen to His heart, but to heed that which is being whispered into yours. He’s an allseason player. And for everything under heaven, there is not only a time, but a purpose. Amen.
