On Super Bowl Sunday I preached a message relating life to
the four quarters of a football game. As
most fans know a football game is divided into 4 periods consisting of 15
minutes or ¼ of an hour. Each quarter in
the game can have a different strategy or momentum. It is possible to start well in the first
quarter and lose the game in the fourth quarter by not finishing well. Inversely a poor start can be overcome by
learning, correcting mistakes and improving over the course of each quarter and
finishing well. So, in the game of
football the final outcome is often never certain until final quarter. Therefore, it is important to do as well as
one can making the most of each quarter.
I related the importance and uncertainty of the four
quarters of a football game to the up and down periods of life. Moses speaks of this in Psalm 90: 10 where he
says, “Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures.”
If we divide those 80 years into four quarters we have the first quarter of our
life as birth -20. The second quarter
would be 21-40. Ages 41-60 would be the
third quarter giving us a fourth quarter of 61-80. Of course some go into overtime and live past
eighty. As you can imagine, especially
if you are a football fan, one can make many parallels in this analogy. I may have gone a little past noon with the
sermon that day.
I will be 60 in June.
According to my analogy (with the third quarter being ages 41-60), I am
in the last minutes of the 3rd quarter of my life (if I don’t get hit by a
truck later today). As a team concludes
the third quarter and prepares for the final quarter often they will gather to
remind themselves of the importance in finishing well. I have been extremely blessed in my previous
years. My first quarter got off to a
great start in a loving home where I was nurtured into the joy of God’s love by
parents who loved God, one another, their children, life and laughter. I grew up in a small southern town where most
of us knew each other, if not well we knew who we were to wave and give a
pleasant greeting. I got off to a great
start. My second quarter was fed by that
positive momentum. I followed God’s call
for my life, found a special gift for lifetime companionship. We married and raised two wonderful
girls. So I felt I had a comfortable
lead entering into the third quarter.
Life began chipping away as that big lead during the 3rd
quarter. I lost both parents,
experienced work difficulties and had medical issues that threatened to take me
out of the game. Miraculous major
surgeries allowed me to keep in the game.
As I conclude the third quarter I feel the momentum returning and look
forward to finishing well.
I don’t know where you are in life’s game. All can make our own personal analogy. Some experienced bad breaks at the opening
whistle starting off in a deficit and feel overwhelmed ‘playing to catch up’
every day. Even you felt the entire
game has been more struggle than fun, take heart you are still in the
game. All of us have memories those who
are no longer in the game as we had family or friends taken out in each
quarter. If you are reading this the
clock has not yet run out on you. There
is always time to rally. Unlike
football, we do not have a scoreboard in life that shows us the number of
minutes we have remaining. Psalm 90:12
says, “Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom.”
We are reminded in Scripture of the brevity of life (James 4:14), of the need
to take advantage of every opportunity (Eph. 5:15). So as we break this huddle let us realize
there is no time to lose. Play hard with passion until the final whistle, making the most of each day by living an abundant life loving God with all your heart, loving others as you love yourself. Live each day
as if it is the game breaker!
