Humility Pills

Because two weeks ago was very uniquely hard and because the volume of work at school had been overwhelmingly high, I was so grateful to get away for a day last week. It was extremely fulfilling and satisfying to do the familiar and just hang out with Papa God. In the end, I came home refreshed and ready to take on the work I left. I also began to understand a bit more about prayer and its power as I read a bit about Frank Laubach. He's one of the notable contemplative figures of his time. His life made me even more aware of who I am not and the ways I could do better with my prayer life. In the end, I experimented as he did, and prayed to see how the Lord answered my prayers. I got surprising results. His example of answered prayers was for his arm to be in the Lord's control during a tennis game, and then he won. After that, when he prayed for his opponent's arm to be in the Lord's control, the player did better. I thought it was worth a try to see how the Lord answered my prayers said in a similar vein.

Eli 's varsity team had their own tournament.
They placed third (like Ethan's team). Eli
played extremely well to end his soccer
season. The picture above was taken just
after Eng went over to congratulate him.

During Ethan's soccer tournament last Friday, my prayer was for the Lord to bless his legs and for the goalie to be blessed, also. When the games were done, Ethan's conclusion was that he "sucked" as a player. He missed a goal when he managed to get passed the other team's goalie. He was the only one there and it was an empty goal but instead of kicking the ball in, he kicked the ball over the goal post. Ethan is a pretty good player and that would have typically been an easy winner for him. Yet, he failed. Then, as the game ended with a tie in spite two overtime plays, they did a shootout. Each team sent players to kick the ball in the goal with the goalie there to stop it from going in. Ethan was one of those chosen. In the tension and excitement, his kick was blocked by the goalie, to his chagrin and dismay. They lost their game because of that and also because their goalie failed to stop the goals kicked his way during the shootout. On the ride home, Ethan wouldn't even let me buy him a smoothie - usually a sure way of brightening up his day! So to my initial confusion, I wondered how the Lord answered my prayer. How could that have been a blessing? Seriously? Was it? I specifically prayed for both players to be blessed and they both "messed up"? I didn't get it.

In my asking God what that was about, I was reminded of the tournament before when Ethan scored the winning goal and played extremely well. At that time, their goalie was flawless, also. Another teammate won the MVP award but one parent commented that Ethan should have gotten it. He probably could have. He's only twelve years old but was already playing for the U16 school team. But, the point I'm making is that Ethan and the goalie already had their "high" moments. What could another one just like that do for their character development? Surely, they had more to gain in being humbled?

I began to see that it was good for Ethan to learn how it felt to fail and not do well. I realized that he would automatically feel compassion for those who'd possibly miss their shootout kicks. Knowing what it feels like to fail, he'd know exactly how to encourage others. In this respect, wasn't it more of a blessing to lose? As for their goalie, my husband pointed out that in the past, he bordered on being "cocky" so the humbling was a good pill to take as well. The reality is, we could all use a bit of humility.

Thank you, Lord, for your wisdom in allowing us to have experiences where we are sometimes forced to take "humility pills". You know exactly what we need so we can become better people. I praise you for your wisdom, love, and compassion.