An Inkling
The talk in the men’s locker
room yesterday was predictable: it was
all Monday Morning Quarterbacking. Everyone
had opinions about the Redskins’ painful loss on Sunday. “If only’s” were
flying right and left.
And it’s true that if a couple
of the suggested “if only’s” had been tried, R.G. III might not have gotten
hurt, or the Redskins might have won. Of
course we discovered these “if only’s” from the comfy seat of the Monday
Morning Quarterback…
It’s virtually unavoidable –
when we care about something, and it turns out differently than we wished, we
lapse into “if only’s.” And we do so not
just with sports, but in many arenas of life:
politics, purchases, investments, health, jobs, and relationships, to
name a few. “If only.”
“If only” doesn’t help anything. The words are irrelevant to those who can’t
go back and do it over. But “next time”
offers a possibility for wisdom. What
can we learn from yesterday as we move into tomorrow? The Redskins’ players and coaches can learn
something from what happened, and so can we – in many arenas.
That’s just good, basic wisdom
for moving forward in life. We who
follow Jesus have an additional reason to know that “if only” is
irrelevant: it’s the promise that
somehow, every time, the Lord works some good in all things for his people (see
Romans 8:28). That assurance lets us
enter the “next time” without a panic that we might blow it again. It puts the spring of resilient hope in our
step – a very good way to live.
And now on to the “next time”…
Keith
