Unshackled Moments ~ September 14 ~ The Crowd Went Wild

I love football. My poor wife, who is not a huge football fan, is very understanding of my passion, or as she puts it, my obsession, with all things gridiron. I do my best to enjoy the sport without imposing on her or making her a football widow, because as much as I love football, I love her much more. After all, she is my treasure and football is but a game. There are plenty of things more important. That said, to those who play and the fans, football is serious. Saturday night I stayed up to watch the end of the LSU Mississippi State game. I am a LSU fan, and the game was way too close to just turn off and wait till morning to find out what happened. It literally came down to the last 2 seconds. One young man bore the weight of the game on his shoulders. If he could kick a field goal from over 50 yards his team, Miss St., would win. If he missed LSU would win. Everything rode on that one kick. Thousands of people watched from the stands and more on television and online from all over. Some were praying that he made it. Others were hoping and praying he missed or that the kick was blocked. The kicker had nothing to do with the situation. It wasn't his fault in any way that his team found themselves down by two points with two seconds left in the game. A delay of game penalty pushed the kick even further back from the "he can probably make it" range to the "living on a prayer" distance he faced. Also not his fault. Yet although he had no responsibility in getting them in that spot, it was on him to get them out of it. He trained and practiced and joined the team for moments such as this. A whistle blew a fraction a second before the snap and a kick that went wide of the mark. LSU had called a time out, and although he missed, he would have a second chance. The failure became a practice kick. The snap came a second time. He stepped into position and kicked......wide the other way. He missed. LSU fans like me, rejoiced. Mississippi State fans grieved, groaned and griped. I can only imagine how the kicker's team mates felt to get so close to victory only to watch all hopes fade as the football drifted to the right of the goal posts. And the poor kicker himself? I have no idea if he felt more determined to practice more, or if he felt he failed everyone, or maybe he got angry, declared the situation wasn't his fault and blamed the quarterback and the delay of game penalty. I don't know. What I do know is that it made me think of the fact that there are times when we do what's right, when we are where we are supposed to be, doing what we are supposed to do and thanks to others' choices and or mistakes we find ourselves under pressure to do the near impossible to make things right. More times than not, we fall short. There's a reason near impossible is near impossible and not normal. It's hard not to get angry or feel guilty, to feel like a failure and fear rejection. But Jesus is there when we succeed and when we fall short. His arms are open to us and His love and mercy are new every morning. He gives grace and new chances and forgiveness as often as needed. He is our biggest fan, and He doesn't give up on us when we let the crowd down.