On the Team
Would Port Power win more matches if Bruce were on the team?
Or is there another team to be on?
 My football team is doing poorly. Last year they took out the premiership; this year they barely made it into the top eight.
Excuse me, did someone say it’s only a game? I prefer to see it as a sociological study in life.
Every time their games are televised I try to watch them or videotape them for another time. They don’t get to be on television much where I am because I live in a state that follows another football code. When I complain about this the locals simply reckon I should follow the right code, get a life or shift back to Mexico (their attempt at humour suggesting I shift south to Victoria), and ignore me.
When the game is on, my tradition goes something like this: Place team beanie on head, warn she who loves me that I will be occupied for a couple of hours, and have enough necessary supplies on hand to make it through the match.
She comes back to check on me every now and again, particularly when she hears the groans from the couch. That’s the couch, not the coach—although he’s probably groaning, too.
It’s tough when you start out feeling that this could be the match that will turn them back to their winning ways, only to be disappointed—again.
And then I think about God’s team, and what it’s like when His team seems to be taking a beating—which it does, at times. The scorecard can look like Lions 5, Christians 1. (Not the Brisbane Lions, real lions like in the Roman Colosseum.)
But for God this is no game. This really is about life, and life forever—for us. Better, God is a winner. That’s a promise!
There’s a major difference between my football team and God’s team. My football team wants my couch potato support (they’d prefer my paid-up support), but they don’t want me to play on the team. I accept that—although that dampness on the page at this point comes from a tear.
God wants everybody on His team and He’s already heading for the winner’s circle. He won’t lose the final conflict. He’s waiting, though, for others to join the team (see 2 Peter 3:9) so they can share in the prize.
That’s something much more certain than my football team winning—at least until next year.
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Bruce Manners (left) is senior pastor of
the Avondale College church.