GAME PLAN

By F. D. Adkins

As the teams are chosen, the battle is on, and I can’t help but laugh. We have played just about every sport as a family in the backyard, and no matter the sport, whoever is paired with me is certain to lose. Why? Because I cannot throw a ball, catch a ball, or hit a ball with a bat or a club, nor do I seem to have any reflexes or speedy reaction time. Running is the extent of my athletic ability. So, as we stand in the backyard, my son, my daughter, and my husband try to decide who will get stuck with Mom.

For today’s football game, my husband is the lucky one. He pulls me to the side, giving me the fine details of the play. I am supposed to run left, then back right, then left again, and that is when he will throw me the ball.

I lift my eyebrows with a blank stare.

“What?” he asks as if the plan he has just mapped out should be easy-peasy.

I lean in. “I just don’t see the point in all of the running back and forth when we both know I am not going to catch the ball.”

“Okay,” he drops his gaze, “would you rather throw the ball?”

I shake my head. “No, I can’t do that either.”

“Then, what do you suggest?”

I crack a smile. “Hand me the ball, and I will run.”

It works for the first play. The kids don’t expect me not to go out for a pass. I have made it past them before they realize I already have the ball, and I score a touchdown. It even works a second time. But then they catch on, and both have me tagged the second I have the ball in my hands.

***

As we were sitting at my daughter’s tennis match the other night, my husband was pointing out how one of the players on the other team was hitting the same shot down the line over and over. I began to think about how athletes strategize and form a game plan to outwit their opponent by watching past games, searching for any visible strengths or weaknesses or repetitious moves (in the same way that my kids picked up on my repetitive play in football).

From there, I pondered the opponent I face every day… the one who whispers in my ear that I’m not good enough… the one who tells me I’ll never be enough… the one who gets me so focused on my to-do list that I lose sight of the blessings around me… the one who distracts me with the past, so I won’t press on toward the finish line.

By studying the Bible, we know how the enemy works. Just as he made Eve focus on the one tree that she was not supposed to eat of instead of the plethora of trees she had been given to eat of, he wants to magnify our wants and blind us to the things God has given us. When he whispers in our ears, we know he is “… a liar, and the father of it” (John 8:44 KJV).  When we are on that mountaintop and then suddenly find ourselves crumpled in the valley, we know our “…adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8 KJV). And we know that our enemy likes to wear disguises and try to deceive us, “… for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14 KJV).

If we know how the enemy works, we can be on the offense. Before he whispers I am not good enough, I can lift my hands in praise, reciting Psalm 139:14, “I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well” (KJV). Instead of letting him blind me to my blessings, I can fall to my knees each morning and “In every thing give thanks…” (1 Thessalonians 5:18 KJV). When I find myself lying in the valley, I can be assured that I am not alone because God’s Word tells me, “…Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest” (Joshua 1:9 KJV).

Today, we will be attacked. But we know the enemy’s tactics, and we know the TRUTH. Let’s play offense. Let’s stay armed with the TRUTH.