You’re being trained to be great, now go see how good you can get.
Steve Young, 1994 Winning SuperBowl QB
Well, the SuperBowl is upon us again.
A thought dawned on me as I watched the 1994 49ers SuperBowl win by NFL films - part of all the preceding SuperBowl memories before the current one. A question came to mind: why do grown men, with multi-million dollar contracts put so much work, so much resources to play for a plastic trophy?
Sports in it's truest essence is about life, and Steve Young's quote summarized it with, "You're trained to be great, now good see how good you can get."
It's certainly not about the money because pro-athletes already have it, and it's not even about fame because it's finite in it's duration.
It's about the stories, events, and struggles of lives lived against odds and triumphing over it. Life is exciting if there's an opponent to your goal. A refinement of all the stages leading to vanquishing that obstacle: to plant that flag shouting to the world you've made it.
As an audience, we love to see the story unfold of someone fighting against the weight and burden of a struggle to a goal. When that goal is realized a discovery is made: you have what it takes to be great.
But life is more than sports; life beckons greatness in each individual. What plan of greatness does God have for us? For me? For you?
When we fail to dream, aspire - we are regulated to ordinary boring lives. The greater danger is accepting that a normalcy and giving up on dreams.
Will our children dream to be astronauts? CEOs? William Wilberforces? Mother Teresa?
I cannot help to think as an adult somewhere we lost our ability to dream. That beautiful child-like heart to be naive to the naysayers that say, "It cannot be done." We too quickly accept our lot in life; that person is lost. That disease is fatal. He will never change. It's too late.
Amazing that our God who created us in His heart never loses the beautiful quality of seeing greatness in us. He could have started over a long time, but He sees beauty possible once again. The impure - pure. The loser - a winner. The unloved - loved.
It is a godliness to dream and believe what Christ said, "With men things are impossible, but with God all things are possible."