The Next Ten Yards… Ten Yards at a Time!

I don’t often like to use football analogies for life because they have been used so often that they seem cliché. But today while watching my son’s team play ball I was struck by the similarities between the struggles of his team and my life.

Life is rarely a long bomb for the touch down, usually it is a daily give and take battle that happens ten yards at a time. We need to have the long range goal of winning the game, but it is done by focusing on the next ten yards. So many people get so wrapped up in how they will finish the game that they never can get to the next first down or worse yet they never start because the goal is too large. And then there are others who are so focused on the next ten yards that they lose site of why they are playing the game in the first place, and end up quitting. Life is a careful balance of knowing why you are playing, and focusing on the work required to win the game. If all we focus on is the end of the game, then when we have a setback or a turn over it can make the goal seem so far away that we just want to quit. But if you are intentional about winning the game and focused on the next ten yards then when you have a set back the goal isn’t that much further away, it is just a few more yards on top of the ten you are trying to get. And if you have a turn over and you are focused on the next ten yards, you aren’t worried about losing the game; you are focused on standing your ground and trying to get the ball back.

So when life looms large and seems insurmountable, (after you pray)… remember it is Gods job to make sure you get to the end zone… and it is your job to focus on getting the next ten yards.