Keep kicking

Well, the Super Bowl is over, and the Chiefs won. As I waited for the Chiefs to kick the game-winning field goal, I could not help but think back a couple of weeks to the Cowboys and Buccaneers game where Bret Maher missed an NFL-record four extra points. The Cowboys won the game despite Maher’s failures. As Harrison Butker was lining up the kick, I thought about those missed extra points.

I played football in high school and tried out for the Razorbacks in college. I was a kicker. I thought I was going to be the next Jan Stenerud, Ray Guy, Jim Bakken and Garo Yepremian all rolled into one. Well, as you probably already have figured out … it didn’t happen.

At practice the first day at the UofA, I got to meet the other guys that were trying out for the kicking job. There was one guy that seemed to stand out. He had a bit of arrogance about himself that I thought, “I’ll wipe that smile off his face.” His name was Steve Little. Google him if you don’t know who he is. Anyway, that is all history.

I can honestly say, “I never missed a field goal for the university.” (Of course, I never tried one.) I left after the third day of practice when I realized that I had no chance of ever getting on the field. I felt like such a failure.

I don’t know about you, but I know exactly how Bret Maher must have felt. I’ve been in situations where I let myself and the team down. There were times when I aspired to be the hero — when I tried to do something good — but failed. Not once, not twice, but more times than I care to enumerate over the course of a lifetime.

When you fail once, and promise to do better next time, most people give you the benefit of the doubt. When you fail a second time, their support loses some of its luster. When you fail a third or fourth time, you find most of your supporters have gone on to other things, and you’re pretty much on your own.

But you’ve got to keep kicking. You’ve got to keep trying. The mark of a failure is not failure; the mark of failure is refusal to get back up.

The prophet Micah said, “Do not gloat over me, my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will rise. Though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light.” (Micah 7:8)

Trying again a second time is hard enough; trying again a third, fourth, or fifth time can be lonely indeed. But in the darkness of failure, if we are willing to rise again, the Lord will be our light.

Sports reporters probably got in a few good jabs at Bret Maher after all those misses, but I doubt he had much to say about it. Most likely, he was back on the practice field the next day, preparing for his next opportunity.

A good example to follow, wouldn’t you say?

Peace, Skip

James “Skip” French is the pastor of Highland Christian Church located at 1500 Forest Hills Blvd. in Bella Vista. Opinions expressed are those of the author.