The Zone

As I walked toward the line, time felt as though it stood still. The grass was still wet from the morning dew. The November sun blazed despite the chill of winter approaching. The crowd was on the edge of their seats. But none of that mattered. We were caught in a moment; the most important moment of the game; maybe even of our young lives. It was the moment of waiting. In that single moment, you look your opponent in the eye knowing that he can't yet touch you, you scan the field in wonder; all the while looking past your line, past the defense, knowing that your goal is the end-zone. You take a deep breath and hold it. It's excitement mixed with fear. This is what we call the Zone. In a few short moments, memories would be made and dreams would we shattered; maybe for you; maybe for them. But right now you wait. You move forward with anticipation, but you don't mess with the Zone. Move too soon, and it's a penalty. Move too late, and it's a penalty. So we wait patiently. We move together as a team.

Now in reality, this moment lasts no more that 5 seconds, but in those 5 seconds you learn all you need to know about what's coming. You wait so that you can move forward. Not recklessly, but with guided steps. All the practice and all the preparation have prepared you for the play, but with this moment all the pieces fall into place and you're ready. Or...you can allow the fear to take control. We all know that once the play starts, anything can happen: a fumble, an interception or, even worse, an injury. In that moment, the fear of things going wrong might become a self-fulfilling prophecy. But in the end, you still have to hike the ball.

Life is full of those moments. An orchestra member experiences it just before the conductor's first downbeat. A public speaker experiences it just before they utter their first word. It happens just before someone begins their first day at a new job. And it also happens when each of us is faced with a choice to do the right thing or the wrong thing: to obey God or to ignore Him.

In the Bible, Jesus tells the story of 3 guys who are entrusted with a certain amount of money by their boss. One guys is entrusted with 5 bags of money, another 2 bags, and another 1. Their boss goes away for a while expecting that his employees will invest this money in profitable ways. I expect that each of those guys experienced one of those moments as they anticipated what they would do with their money. It would have been natural to be afraid; to worry that they would mess up and lose their boss's money. They had a decision to make of whether to take a risk or allow the fear to take control.

With anticipation, 2 of the guys invested their money and they both doubled it. The other guy, however, allowed the fear to take control of him. Rather than risking losing his boss's money and possibly his job, he simply did nothing. He was afraid to hike the ball. Now he didn't lose any money in doing nothing. What he lost was an opportunity. An opportunity to do something great; even an opportunity to fail and learn from his mistake. Anything would have been better than doing nothing.

When we're faced with the challenges of life, God expects that we will embrace the moments before we act. We certainly can't act out of impulse and recklessly rush into things. We have to allow our preparation to sink in and move forward with guided steps. We have to wait. God is with us in those moments. All of our prayer; all of our Bible study; every Sunday school class, youth group or worship service comes back and we are given an opportunity to succeed or to fail; both of which are acceptable to God. What's not acceptable is to be so afraid that we do nothing.

It would be the last play of my high school career. I was in the Zone. I embraced it. All of my practice and preparation had led me to this moment and I was ready. The ball was hiked and like a whirlwind we were off. I dropped straight back, scanning the field for an open receiver. Time was running out and then I saw him. He was wide open 5 yards from the endzone. Without hesitation I let the ball go. I could feel my heart beat with anticipation as I waited for him to catch the ball and scamper into the endzone for the winning score. As the ball was about to reach its target, the defensive player jumped in front of the ball...interception. We lost by 3 points. You see, the moments don't always produce success on the other side. In the end, sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. I learned something valuable that day; to embrace my failures as much as my successes. Romans 8:28 tells us that "God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose." This includes our successes and failures. But we have to be willing to hike the ball.