Coach Wilson of the QB MENTOR had a post on his Facebook that just stopped me in my tracks for its simple and succinct wisdom. He was talking about the Carolina Panthers fell short of their goal to win Super Bowl 50, and how 31 other teams actually experienced the same sense of loss after their final game. In football, there is only one winner at the end of the day and the end of each season, every team is relegated to starting over to work toward the same goal the next season. There is only one parade in one city. This season it was in Denver.
Coach said "in life, there is much more value in the journey, than there is at the destination!"
I was stopped in my tracks. I have always understood that intuitively, and even experientially, but I have never heard it put so succinctly. As I reflected on my athletic career and my entire life I found that it rang true for every season. I can recall listening closely to so many famous athletes who won the ultimate championship of the super bowl or NBA finals, and hearing in their words that the achievement was great, but the real joy was in the journey with their team mates and brothers and in the common struggle to get to the top of the mountain. And the really savvy coaches, like Phil Jackson and Pat Riley from the NBA have even gone so far as to immediately challenge their teams the very next day after their championship to "win it again next year!" They realize that their players might experience a let down after a championship season, and so rather than let complacency or comfort set in, they set the tone and start the journey immediately! The journey has a duration, but the destination is momentary, and then we move on to another goal, another destination. Most of our lives are spent on a journey, and so realizing the joy and value of that is vital to happiness in life, no matter what your field or career.
I felt like I knew this athletically deep in my soul. Later that same week, I was at yoga and we had a new, first time instructor. She was nervous and uptight to be teaching her first class, but she did a great job anyway. As she got relaxed, she shared a nugget of wisdom that echoed Coach Wilson's truth by saying "in life, we are so often in such a hurry to get somewhere, where ever we are going, that we neglect to enjoy the ride along the way."
I call that the "BOSE EFFECT" where the Lord is trying to make me understand a point HE is making so HE sends the same message through multiple channels of my life. I didn’t miss this one, and have been able to apply to my every day with my little kiddos and their rides to school, or Ju Jitsu or gymnastics practices, or just running around the yard with them. This is the journey of my fatherhood in their everyday life, and it is just as important as the cross country trip I made to San Francisco to see Superbowl 50 with my oldest son Shawn! It’s the journey and we don’t want to miss out on all the joy along the way by focusing only on the destination.
Hope that makes sense, and you can slow down and enjoy your journey, and stop and "smell the roses" along the way in your life.
Amen and AMEN.