The Rules

Are you a "missed the trees for the forest" type person or "missed the forest for the trees" type?  I tend to be bent toward the latter statement.  I will admit I often have to step back and realize that I'm consumed with rules instead of the big picture?

Last spring Isa and Aly decided to play soccer!  I almost fell out of my seat when Isa responded "yes" to the question.  A few years ago she didn't want to cheer because she would get "too sweaty".  As she was a seven- year old never watching sports in her life, I found this process intriguing and frustrating.  Because her team had all played before,  they knew the point of soccer which is  to put the ball in the other team's goal and to stop it from scoring in your own.  So their practices were about the rules,: off sides, corner kicks, positioning and such.  Isa was learning a lot, but was missing the big picture.  This was evident in her very first game.

Isabella at her first game - Spring 2013 

Isabella was on defense; the opposing team was coming down the field.  The girl with the ball dribbled through the mid-fielder, and she had two defensemen and a goalie left.  As Isa came up to meet her (what she should have done), she looked back and realized she was out of position.  At that moment she turned from the girl on the opposing team and ran back to her spot.  Happy!  She was obeying "the rules", she missed the point!  Yes, as Isa turned her back and ran to her proper position, the other team scored.

After the game it came to me.  I've done that very thing.  I've missed the big picture; the point of "the game" just because I was worried I was out of position.  As a christian, I've become so obsessed with what is right and wrong that I lose sight of the big picture.  The point, what's most important: I believe in life we are to love and be loved.  We have no greater example of this than Christ.

Instead of being overcome with details of right and wrong, can we remember that we are surrounded by a world which is desperately searching for love and acceptance.  The love and acceptance that is only found through Jesus.

For everything we know about God’s Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. - Galatians 5:14 The Message