Learnings from Being Back on the Field - Part 2

Yesterday I started a series of posts on what I learned from being back on the soccer field playing in a competitive game for the first time since college. Yesterday I wanted the ball; today, I look at part 2 - Don't Hog the Ball.

2. Don't Hog the Ball.

As much as I wanted the ball during the game, I certainly didn't want the ball all of the time. Soccer is a team sport. As a coach I am consistently telling my players that when you don't have the ball and it is in your area of the playing field move into a place that you can receive the ball. It is so much easier to move the soccer ball up the field when you do it as a team instead of just one person trying to do it all.

The team we played on Saturday had a guy on their team who was really, really good. His foot skills were incredible. He would get the ball and dribble and dribble and dribble. But he eventually would lose the ball because he rarely if ever passed the ball. As the game progressed I even heard his own players mocking him because they knew he was hogging the ball and not being a team player. He scored one of their goals but they didn't really celebrate the way that I thought they would, especially since they were down by four goals.

I want the ball, but I don't want to be a ball hog. I want to preach the best message I have ever preached in my life this weekend. But I know that without the people on my team there is no way that this weekend would be happening the way we are planning. The music, the arts, the technology, the food, the children's and students' ministries, the First Impressions, the ushers, the money counters, the childcare workers, the facility's team, on and on it goes. Our team of paid staff and volunteers have been praying and preparing for this weekend. I know God is going to work in the most incredible way in people's lives. I am one part of this awesome team.

Here's the deal, we are all doing this, not that anyone of us gets praised or recognized, so that God gets all the glory, honor, and praise - God will be renown in this region.