With the Football World Cup mere days away, the number of really impressive bits of marketing doing the rounds is overwhelming. When I’m visiting my Facebook page, I can’t scroll my mouse even a half-page down without spotting yet another big brand’s ad. And this time it’s not a hamburger or a soda and a call to friendship; it’s no product at all in fact, it’s just a lot of green, yellow and blue, with feathers, tanned bellies, views of Sugar Loaf Mountain and football. Football trick shots, football-spinning buskers, football champions disguised as old men on a street court, and then someone wearing expensive headphones and getting ready to play football. We lose the plot a bit, but we don’t mind; it’s not called the Beautiful Game for nothing, it’s World Cup year, and anyway, we love it!
The strange thing about football is that I can’t play it. I’m a rugby guy and have been my whole life. I’m pretty sporty to say the least, but I’m more ‘tackle you to the ground’ then shimmy and dribble and then bamboozle a defender. I understand it, I appreciate it, and I love to watch it.
Do you like football? Do you play it? Do you compare yourself to your favourite player and copy his playing style, perhaps even his hairstyle? What about folks out there just like me? You love watching the game but you can’t really play it well, or at all? Do you watch the Rooneys and the Onazis of this world and feel inadequate if you compare yourself to them?
Now I know you’re about ask: ‘So Brad, this is now a metaphor for what, exactly?’ Ok, you’ve got me! So this is what I was thinking, right: We look at people and they are prospering. They can do and achieve great things in their lives. They are making a good living and they drive a nice car, and you might not be. Do you admire their business prowess or congratulate them on their success? Just because they are able to do what you cannot, do you celebrate their success or do you get bitter? I’ve come to realize that my role in this life is different to yours and vice versa. I need to be content with my spiritual gifting, my ability to make money and how to use my skill set. God is my provider and it is to him that I am ‘connected’, not my wallet. We have been made by God with purpose in mind and some abilities just happen to be more celebrated than others. Some seen as more acceptable or desirable.
This has been on my mind a lot of late. So what does the Word of God say about these sorts of things? Paul’s words come to mind here, when he wrote to the Philippians. In chapter 4 verse 12 he wrote:
This hit me hard when my wife reminded me of the scripture last week. The Bible is easy to read, but not so easy to translate into the kind of action that gets momentum and moves us forward spiritually; but I’m working on it. I have to. And so do you, by the way! Don’t hang me out to dry!
So when you see Neymar, put one into the back of the net on home soil sometime this month, remind yourself that while he has the talent and skill you don’t, if you invited him over to your place, he probably wouldn’t have a clue how to do your job either, although I bet you’d like to see him try!