Monday; November 20

Have you ever wondered why they play the game? With all the analytics available to sports teams today, they can feed facts and figures into a computer and come up with the projected outcome. So, why do we spend all the time and money to gather a crowd, broadcast the competition and cheer on our team to victory (or defeat)? The answer is because games don’t always go as scripted. While statistics might give us probabilities, the reality of things isn’t decided until the completion of the actual event. Circumstances change … some teams play over their head and others underachieve … injury, illness, social conditions come and go. Sure, we can play out something given a set of criteria, but competition isn’t based on computer model.

As I thought about sports, I was led to a similar conclusion about life. Have you ever limited your activities because you thought the odds were against you? Did you ever belittle someone else’s chances because you could see before they even started that there was no way they could succeed? It is easy to premeasure potential success (or failure) and say, “why try” – but the answer is that life isn’t based on a formula, it is full of variables. Why try? Because you just never know.

If you ever need an inspiration for going ahead and trying something that was a long shot, just look at the 1st Century Christian church. This group of dissidents from an unpopular religion that came about in an outlying area headed by a Ruler who had been rejected by His own people was bound to fail – but they didn’t. In fact, the Christian movement is one of the greatest success stories in the history of humanity.

The next time someone tells us we’ll never make it, let’s not respond with “why try”, let’s launch out with an optimistic, “why not”!

Think About It!

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