I am a big soccer fan, and this past weekend I had a blast watching as many matches of the UEFA EURO CUP as I could. I hadn't realized how much I've missed watching soccer during the pandemic! As my 10 year old Christian and I were growing frustrated because as much as Italy was dominating the match against Turkey, they weren't scoring.....all of a sudden they did! Watching that match really made me think of how similar life is to a soccer match. During the 90 minutes the match is on, the players try to get the ball in from all angles. There are countless trials and errors. There are hundreds of "strategies" attempted. The players never quit mid-game saying, "this is too hard, and is not going my way". Instead, they keep trying and trying, even if it means doing things they've already done that didn't work before. They know that as long as the whistle is not blown, there's still time to score. All of a sudden, out of a play that didn't seem much, the ball found someone in the right place at the right time, GOAAAAAAAL! In life, we have to do the same thing, despite the failed attempts, the frustrations, the difficulties, how crazy an idea sounds, we have to keep trying to achieve our GOALS no matter what. There's no way to score if we are on the field without trying, spend our time complaining without playing or what's worse if we leave it altogether before the match is over.
Little did I know that the following match I was going to see, was going to provide me with even a bigger reflection. It had been a pretty exciting match between Finland and Denmark, when in minute 43' the best Danish Player, 29-year-old Christian Ericksen unexpectedly fell face-forward suffering a cardiac arrest on Live Television. The images were really disturbing, a young athlete in top shape dealing with such an unexpected situation in front of millions of people watching it on TV. He was eventually resuscitated and thankfully remains in stable condition. I can't, however, avoid thinking about what would have happened, if the same situation arrived at him after the match, in his hotel room where he would probably would have been alone and no one could have assisted him? The fact that this happened to him in a soccer field, while playing an international match, meant that there were several doctors right there able to get to him right away.
Ironically enough and amidst the tragic circumstance, this event is also proof that while we can't really control how things happen, there's a greater force that can indeed place us in the right place at the right time. Ours is the responsibility to be aware and ready for it.
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