“Keep your head up!”

This was the discussion I had with a High School soccer team yesterday.

This is a critical lesson for those on the field, off the field and life in general.  It seems like at at times a nice little statement of consolation to someone who has just experienced a disappointment or set back in life, but it carries a much deeper weight of truth.

The application during a game is critical as it takes your focus off your personal action and puts it on to the big picture.  The direction of your head is the action that determines your scope of vision.  For an athlete on the field it becomes critical in order to see the options, what is coming against and what is available.  Many players as they become pressured tend to drop their head, which is an opposing teams tactic, thus limiting the possibilities.  If the player can resist this temptation, the field can actually open and more positive alternatives can open up. The same is true in life when challenges or obstacles come at you, avoid dropping your head and look beyond.  You may just find an opportunity opens beyond the opposition.

Disappointment after the play or on the side lines, can also cause our heads to drop.  This can cause a similar devastating affect as a mistake on the filed as it has an impact not just on yourself, but to those around you.  The dropping of the head in these situations create a snowball affect spreading negativity and discouragement to those around you. The end result of this is checking out of the game all together.

Words of Life that Matter

King David had many opportunities to drop his head, rejection (family, friends and country), wrong choices, and at times the grief of life itself.  Yet, in all of these situations he discovered something about where his measurements and identity came from.  His response to all of this could be best seen in Psalms 43:5,

Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.

The next time you feel your head dropping and shoulders stooping, remind yourself of whose opinion really matters.  Pick your head up, throw your shoulders back and take a fresh look at the hope of what is really in front of you. And, the joy of the Father’s opinion of you.

 

Blog “Handling Words of Life”

Podcast “Demoralize, Destabilize, Normalize – The Process of Change?”