It’s football season and for us Cheeseheads, there’s excitement in the crisp, cool autumn air.  Our Green Bay Packers are off to a 5-0 start.  Things are looking up after a dismal summer of baseball doldrums in Wisconsin.

I admit that I don’t completely understand football.  Other sports seem to be more straight-forward.  For instance, golf — a little ball, a little hole.  Chase the little ball around until it goes in the little hole.  What’s so hard about that?

In baseball, there is a fairly small window across home plate where the pitch is predictably coming. The batter knows the ball is arriving somewhere between his knees and the letters on his jersey.  All he has to do is hit that ball when he sees it coming straight at him.  Easy schmeesy.

In basketball, everyone on the court knows where that ball is going — through a round hole 18″ in diameter and 10 feet off the ground.  Every single time.  Yawn.

But with football, there’s this thing called a moving target.  The quarterback must throw the ball to where the receiver is GOING to be.  Sure, they plan it all out when they huddle up before the play.  Hopefully, the guy runs his route as expected so he happens to be at exactly the same place as the incoming ball at exactly the right time, if the quarterback threw the ball at exactly the right speed.

That concept is a little beyond my grasp, obviously.  But some measure of truth did leak out into my soul.

I need to get in a huddle with God at the start of every day.  I need His Word to give me the game plan.  Then, I need to run the route in obedience rather then tearing around on the field expending lots of energy but never being in the right place at the right time.  I need to be open to receive whatever comes at me during the day and run with it.

Football is complicated.

That’s why it’s so impressive when teams make it look easy.

Following through on God’s commands is not that hard.

That’s why it’s so baffling when we make it look complicated.

“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”  Hebrews 12:1