Soccer Moments

Last night was nostalgic. The lights. The humidity. The long stretch of sideline: parents in lawn chairs on one end, sophomores grouped in a chanting cluster on the other far end, separated in the middle by the video dad and the announcer doing his best at providing play-by-play over a small sound system. The Thai equivalent of a hot dog stand was the ice-cream guy who strapped a portable freezer to his motorbike, surrounded by the younger kids. The ref. The tense field play. Then finally, after a 2-2 tie, the shootout that would determine the fate of a season.

It took me back to my senior year in high school when all this was a weekly tradition that shaped me. I didn’t realize until towards the end of the game, that this was a juncture night. The final game to be played by a number of the players on the field who have sweated together, tourneyed internationally together, won and lost together, and grown from boys to men, for as long as a decade for some.

After all the official snaps were made, and the parents cheered, the team gathered on the far end of the field for their own time. I couldn’t help but walk in their direction. It was quiet. All the emotions were spent. Just silence. Soft voices. I find that it’s often in these moments that all the action, toil, athleticism and effort speak the loudest and most clearly. A moment where the essence and virtue of any human interconnectedness is seen more magically and clearly, moving beyond the mere sum: “So if there’s any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind … Have this mind among yourselves…” Phil 2

~Chris.