Life and Frisbee

Frisbee inventor Walter Frederick Morrison

I played Frisbee last night. No, this is not a declaration of something unusual or rare but it sets the scene of my comments. While pondering some of the plays that were made or attempted, my mind has been formulating some thoughts that might be worthwhile to others.

Playing a good game of Frisbee is my goal on nights like last night. I try to pick up tips and improve my game, step by step. A few weeks ago I was talking to some friends about team loyalty and how to adjust when you get swapped for another player. One of my struggles was switching my "allegiance" and playing well with my new team. Then one friend mentioned that working towards playing a good game can happen regardless of who you are playing with. This brought to my mind that I was spending too much time thinking about what I had done wrong (real or imagined), instead of focusing on improving the rest of the game.

I started to examine my thought process during a game. One of the driving forces to play well was to be a wanted and valuable team member. When I dropped the Frisbee or threw it poorly, my drive diminished because I started thinking about how bad I was playing instead of trying to improve my catches and throws. The more I thought about my potential to over-think my failure, I realized that life has some similarities to a Frisbee game.

Since that lunch discussion and my "analysis", I have realized that all lot of us dwell too much on the past. If you were playing a Frisbee game and someone threw you a wild Frisbee, you probably wouldn't start griping for the next 5 plays, about that thrower and how bad they were. You would start guarding someone and hope to get the Frisbee back into your team's possession. So, why do we gripe about how someone hurt us 10 years ago or how we would be different if a specific event hadn't occurred in our lives? Or even dwelling on what we thought would be pleasant things that didn't happen when we thought they should?

The reality is this: the past is important, because it is true. But, complaining, griping, and slandering people as part of your past accomplishes nothing today, except discord and discontent. In Psalm 139:16 it says:

     "[God's] eyes have seen my unformed substance;
     And in [His] book were all written
     The days that were ordained for me,
     When as yet there was not one of them."

Do you acknowledge His sovereignty? Will you accept where He took you and the things that He allowed in your life? Or will you complain and miss the next five "Frisbees" that are being thrown your way?