Thursday, November 5, 2009

Identity

Well for the past 3 months my life has absolutely been consumed by soccer. Actually for the past 4 years my life has been consumed with soccer.

For those of you who don't know, I play soccer for Moody Bible Institute. This past weekend was our regional tournament. Moody hasn't won the regional tournament since 2001, and this year was the best chance we had of winning it. We went 13-5 on the regular season, and we were very confident that we were going to go to the national tournament in Florida. That was our goal for the whole season.

The accomplishing of that goal came down to one game against Northland International University in the regional championship game. It was a hard fought game, but we ended up losing 1-0. When the game ended I could do nothing but cry. It was hard to believe that my college soccer career had come to an end, and we still hadn't gone to nationals.

Since then I have thought alot about my time on the team. The craziest thing to think about is that I am done. My soccer career is over as I know it. In previous years I had something to work toward after the season was over, because I always looked forward to the next season, but not this time. This time it is all over. There is no next season, and I can hardly wrap my mind around it.

This has led me to question myself. How much of my identity is really wrapped up in soccer, or being on a team? Evidently more than I thought. I didn't think it was going to be this hard.

This is just a great reminder that my identity should constantly be found in Christ, and nothing else. It seems that I have somewhat lost sight of that.

But what does it mean to find my identity in Christ?

It means that He is my motivation for everything I do. I thought this was completely true for soccer, but I don't think it was (Notice I said it was not completely true, because it was partially true).

I guess it is hard to really know where your identity lies until it is taken away.

Where is your identity found?

Its a good thing to really think about

2 comments:

TRB said...

And now my Soccer Mom identify is gone too!:) Oh well. I have my identity in Christ and the gifts of being a wife and mother - those will never go away! Good thoughts, Josh!

Anonymous said...

Great thoughts man. God has given you great talents in other areas too and I know you're going to use them for him. Who knows, maybe we'll be working together someday... haha. But for real, I think God made soccer a part of your life for a reason and now He's going to move you on to even bigger and better things. Good stuff man. See ya soon.