It's 9:39 in the a.m., and I have already had three songs stuck in my head this morning: "Open the Eyes of My Heart"... "Ace of Spades"... and "Long Line of Cars." My guess is that few people out there in bloggerland would have the same experience. Doesn't matter. Personal quirks are what make us all tick. Plus, "Long Line of Cars" by the group Cake is the only song relevant to this particular entry.
I stood at my bedroom window this morning for a few minutes watching a long line of cars coming off the Westpark Tollway onto Southwest Freeway. Between me and the long line of cars was a billboard for Crown Royal Whisky that reads, "You Shouldn't Have." I know it's supposed to be a Christmas advertisement, but I wondered as I stood there looking at the cars passing the billboard how many of the people in the cars were thinking the same thing about their lives: "I really shouldn't have."
I don't mind confessing to the whole wide world that from time-to-time I make bad choices. Most of them have to do with the demons in my own mind, thinking things I shouldn't. And even if you don't know the three songs listed above, O faithful bloggerland reader, it's probably a safe assumption on this writer's part that you also make bad choices.
And so goes life.
Last night I played racquetball on the challenge court with guys who play at tournament level. They kill me most of the time. But last night, my partner and I actually won two out of six games, which is a really big deal in my world. One of the games we won, however, was due to one of our opponents making a series of unforced errors.
In most sports, avoiding errors is key. Baseball, football, tennis, you name it. When you get to a certain level, you win by keeping errors to a minimum. In pro football, for example, coaches often say that the team who wins is the one who fumbles the ball the fewest amount of times.
When I step on to the racquetball court, I can win much of the time as long as I don't skip the ball. Skipping the ball is an unforced error. That may not mean much to most people, but suffice it to say that "skipping" the ball means the ball is dead. And if you skip the ball before it hits the front wall, it means one of two things: Either 1) you lose serve, or 2) you just gave the point to the other guy.
And so goes life.
Much of the sin we face day-to-day has a direct correlation to our own bad choices. No one makes us do it. We choose. As I get older, I believe more and more that the Christian life has a great deal to do with the Spirit of God working in our lives, and a great deal to do with keeping unforced errors to a minimum.
That's it.
