Lessons From Soccer Game Conversations
Bear with me here guys, this might be a long read but it’s some valuable insight into my complicated mind and way of thinking. 
If you have known me for any length of time, you know good and well that I miss Oregon. I miss my hometown Rainier, I miss Portland being only an hour away, and I miss the great people I grew up with and formed relationships with.
Keep that in the back of your mind for a few, and let me segue to tonight, where I shot some video of the Southwest Missouri All-Stars soccer games at Cooper Sports Complex.
In between getting shots, I had prime opportunities to meet some folks and have some cordial conversations. One of the good people I met was a gentleman who worked for Cox Health (I apologize for not remembering his name), presumably the sports medicine clinic, and I related how one of my first forays into videography was filming a couple friends run onto the field during a girls’ playoff soccer game back in Rainier.
He then said that believe it or not, he actually knew where Rainier was and had been there a couple times, on the Columbia River to go salmon fishing. Incredible. At that moment, for some reason, I imagined myself watching one of the many soccer games I watched up on the upper fields behind Old Rainier Road. Thoughts of back home came flooding into my mind, and for a second I had a hard time concentrating on the job at hand.
Home. Rainier. The scenery. The people. It all came back to me right there, and my
mind was 1,400 miles west of Cooper Sports Complex at the time.
It then occurred to me that lately I’ve been thinking a lot about home — NO, I am not moving back anytime soon, that is for sure — and what all it offered.
On a grander scale, I cannot help but wonder if me missing home so much is a huge test from the Lord. I mean, look at my life — I have a great job, just joined a great church and am getting plugged in like no other, I’m getting my own apartment soon — these are all things I didn’t have in my most recent stint back home in Portland. Well, I had them for awhile, but they disappeared. If I have all this here in Missouri, and God is blessing me, then why do I miss home so much?
There is a direct correlation between my life over the past year and the children of Israel being led out of Egypt by the hand of the Lord. In both situations, God made a way where man said there was no way; both have been delivered from the hands of their enemies, both physical and spiritual; God Himself leads by day and by night with a very tangible presence.
Yet me missing home is like the Israelites complaining. Remember the story? After days and weeks of the same crappy manna, they asked to actually go back to Egypt. “We were in slavery but we had a wide variety of food to choose from, at least.” As if food is everything…psssshhhttt.
I think my biggest spiritual problem is focusing on the past. Yes, my past was good, but there are greater things in store for the future. I daily acknowledge and thank the Lord for providing me with the great things in my life, and even the trials that brought the great things about…but for some reason I can’t stop thinking about the past and how good it was. I know there’s something greater but I can’t keep my focus on that.
Thanks for bearing with me through this, but it’s just kinda interesting to see how small reminders of a place I love and hold dear brings such a powerful spiritual message, something I need to take to heart and just simply live my life, expect great things to come and live in the daily blessings of Jesus.
Come to think of it now, the past was great, but I never had steady female companionship.
Yeah, the best is definitely to come.
5 Comments, Comment or Ping
Laurel Fisher
Chris — If you are not already familiar with it, listen to Sara Groves’ song “Painting Pictures of Egypt” from her CD called “Conversations.” It’s one of the songs on my life soundtrack. Sounds like you’d like it, too…
Jun 28th, 2008
Chris
Thanks Laurel.
The past is incredibly hard to let go of, and the future is equally tough to firmly embrace.
However, I believe that the only way to solve that conundrum (and I’m not quite there yet) is to give both the past and future to the Lord, and the present will cause both to intersect and lay the groundwork for what is happening at this moment in time.
Jun 28th, 2008
Laurel Fisher
Chris — My favorite part in Sara’s song is where she writes, “But the places that used to fit me / Cannot hold the things I’ve learned / And those roads closed off to me / While my back was turned.”
Here’s a link so you can listen to the song (I think it will encourage you!):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUYAmVYnC-Y
*****
Painting Pictures Of Egypt
I don’t want to leave here
I don’t want to stay
It feels like pinching to me either way
The places I long for the most
Are the places where I’ve been
They are calling after me like a long lost friend
It’s not about losing faith
It’s not about trust
It’s all about comfortable
When you move so much
The place I was wasn’t perfect
But I had found a way to live
It wasn’t milk or honey
But then neither is this
CHORUS:
I’ve been painting pictures of Egypt
Leaving out what it lacked
The future seems so hard
And I want to go back
But the places that used to fit me
Cannot hold the things I’ve learned
And those roads closed off to me
While my back was turned
The past is so tangible
I know it by heart
Familiar things are never easy to discard
I was dying for some freedom
But now I hesitate to go
Caught between the promise
And the things I know
BRIDGE:
If it comes too quick
I may not recognize it
Is that the reason behind all this time and sand?
If it comes too quick
I may not appreciate it
Is that the reason behind all this time and sand?
*****
Jun 28th, 2008
Laurel Fisher
Chris — My favorite part in Sara’s song is where she writes, “But the places that used to fit me / Cannot hold the things I’ve learned / And those roads closed off to me / While my back was turned.”
Here’s a link so you can listen to the song (I think it will encourage you!):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUYAmVYnC-Y
*****
Painting Pictures Of Egypt
I don’t want to leave here
I don’t want to stay
It feels like pinching to me either way
The places I long for the most
Are the places where I’ve been
They are calling after me like a long lost friend
It’s not about losing faith
It’s not about trust
It’s all about comfortable
When you move so much
The place I was wasn’t perfect
But I had found a way to live
It wasn’t milk or honey
But then neither is this
CHORUS:
I’ve been painting pictures of Egypt
Leaving out what it lacked
The future seems so hard
And I want to go back
But the places that used to fit me
Cannot hold the things I’ve learned
And those roads closed off to me
While my back was turned
The past is so tangible
I know it by heart
Familiar things are never easy to discard
I was dying for some freedom
But now I hesitate to go
Caught between the promise
And the things I know
BRIDGE:
If it comes too quick
I may not recognize it
Is that the reason behind all this time and sand?
If it comes too quick
I may not appreciate it
Is that the reason behind all this time and sand?
*****
Jun 28th, 2008
Laurel Fisher
Whoops - I posted that last comment twice (and don’t know how to delete one).
Maybe it’s the season… I’ve really been missing MY family in KS lately. But I speak for a group of friends at JRA when I say, “I’m glad you’re here.”
I think that as people grow and change, for most of us, there are times when we long for the familiar because it is comfortable, like an old pair of sandals that have formed to your feet and are cool to the touch when your feet slide into them…
Cliche yes, but these have been good reminders for me: “If nothing changes, nothing changes.” And, “Change is inevitable; growth is optional.”
Jun 28th, 2008
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