God Cheers

Go Zackary. Go Zackary. Go Zackary. Go Zackary. Come to McGucken Park most any Tuesday evening these days and you’ll see a crazed bald guy standing on the sideline of a soccer game yelling his lungs out. Go Zackary. And go he does. He’s a fleet footed little guy. Zackary hangs back from the wad of players who are competing for control of the ball until it eventually pops out. Zackary is there waiting. His coach says he is a strategically smart player. I think he looks at those flying feet and trembles. Anyway, he gets the ball and streaks toward the goal with the bald guy encouraging every step. Go Zackary. Inevitably he gets to the goal and loses control sending the ball to unpredictable places.

My heart sinks. I want him to score. I want him to be successful. So, I yell some more. Then the coach yells. Then the players yell. So why is Zackary smiling, with all this yelling going on. Because everybody is yelling, “Way to go Zackary.” “Good playing Zackary.” “Great shot Zackary.” We celebrate the good that he did without dwelling on the mistake.

Don’t you wish our adult life was more like that. Adults, we, make mistakes and more often than not we hear the stinging words of blame. Accusations fly and insults are muttered. “Fire the coach.” “She did that on purpose.” “He knew better.” Worst of all are our own condemning words. We are indeed our own worst judge. Recordings from years ago start playing in our heads that we aren’t valuable. We can’t succeed. We deserved what we got.

Thankfully, God is not like that. God is always with us cheering us on, “Go Howard. Go Mary. Go Steve. You can do it.” God desires our best, always. Mistakes? I make them. You make them. But God says to us, “You are forgiven.” Others may condemn. We may condemn ourselves. But we have a “cheerleader” that is always, always cheering us on. Go Terri. Go Mike. Go Jane. Way to go!

If God is for us, who is against us? – Romans 8