Playing 4 Quarters

Honestly it is probably more hindsight than foresight, but one can often predict the outcome of a football game in the beginning of the third quarter.  The first series can tell you if a team is playing not to lose or playing to win.  It is often observed when an under-ranked or unranked team is beating a ranked team.  It has much to do with how the offense breaks the huddle or how a defense plays with equal resolve and intensity.  I don’t think it is intentional except when a basketball team decides to delay the game.  It is my personal observation that if that scheme begins too early it sucks the life out of a player and a team.  I think it has much to do with failure to recognize a basic flaw in mankind.  We easily grow too satisfied with ourselves.  I like a coach who takes the last thirty seconds of the first half and calls aggressive plays to score even if he is up by two touchdowns.  To me it communicates to players we are calling every play, playing every down as dissatisfied and resolved.  I recognize there are exceptions, I am just saying I like that gutsy resolve.

Not many hunters go to the deer stand without a gun or bow even if he is content with the season’s harvest.  I haven’t met many fishermen who do not tie a plug at the end of the line or bait their hook.  Purpose begs for intentionality, invites a daily, uncompromising resolve to live with the last series, the last shot, the last putt, the last breath, the last day and the last testimony in mind.  Regardless of the context or the enemy, if you were asked to choose life by denying Christ or death by professing Him before men, what is your game plan?  Are you playing to keep from losing, or are you playing to win?