{"id":1542,"date":"2022-07-25T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-25T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/upliftingstar.com\/star1015denver\/2022\/07\/25\/lessons-from-the-beautiful-game\/"},"modified":"2022-07-25T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2022-07-25T06:00:00","slug":"lessons-from-the-beautiful-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/upliftingstar.com\/star1015denver\/2022\/07\/25\/lessons-from-the-beautiful-game\/","title":{"rendered":"This Is One Of The Most Valuable Lessons We Can Learn From “The Beautiful Game”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Next year, 16 North American cities will host the 2026 World Cup \u2013 the global soccer competition where nation competes against nation every 4 years. Included in the list is MetLife Stadium! Experiencing sport like this in our own backyard will be a once in a lifetime moment<\/strong> for soccer fans everywhere.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ll confess, I\u2019m a MASSIVE fan of \u201cthe beautiful game<\/a>\u201d, but I freely admit that for some, soccer may be an acquired taste<\/em>. Until you gain a deeper understanding of the athleticism and creativity<\/strong> required to excel at soccer, the truth that there are few rules, matches can end in ties or with no score, and the fact that it can look like just a bunch of guys chasing a kickball can leave skeptics scratching their heads over what the fuss is all about.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A diehard soccer fan can spout off parallels between the game and life all day long, but I won\u2019t do that to you \u2013 save for one. I think the most valuable lesson for you and me<\/strong> from this worldwide sport is buried in one of its oddities: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only the referee (not the clock) decides exactly when the match ends.<\/em><\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soccer is played in two 45 minutes halves, and in each half the clock never stops, even if the play pauses for an injury, etc. At the end of the 45 minutes, the referee estimates the amount of time that the play was paused, and adds that amount to the end of the regulation time, but the actual end of the match is ultimately decided solely by the referee<\/em>. This causes players in a close match to never lose hope, and to never stop playing their hardest<\/strong>, pushing to the very end because they\u2019re never entirely sure how much more time they have.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Starting to see the parallel yet? I\u2019m struck at how many times just in the last week I\u2019ve put off something important \u2013 eternally important \u2013 because I trusted I could do it \u201ctomorrow\u201d, when God\u2019s never actually guaranteed me that.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have a wise friend whose goal for his life is that when it all comes to an end on earth, he wants to die \u201cbroke and exhausted because he gave it all (in both actions and stuff) to Jesus.\u201d He lives every day of his life that way, and I want that to be my heart, and your heart, too<\/strong>. We\u2019re not promised tomorrow, or even another breath, so we both owe it to each other to play our hardest at the purpose we\u2019ve been made for until the VERY END, when the Referee blows the whistle and declares our match finished.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matthew 24:35-36<\/a> \u2013 Heaven and earth will disappear, but my words will never disappear. However, no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the father knows.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matt Stockman<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brand Director, STAR 99.1<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A diehard soccer fan can spout off parallels between the game and life all day long, but I won\u2019t do that to you \u2013 save for one. I think the most valuable lesson for you and me from this worldwide sport is buried in one of its oddities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":1543,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[24,28],"class_list":["post-1542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiration","tag-encouragement","tag-inspiration"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-13 23:41:40","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/upliftingstar.com\/star1015denver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/upliftingstar.com\/star1015denver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/upliftingstar.com\/star1015denver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upliftingstar.com\/star1015denver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upliftingstar.com\/star1015denver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/upliftingstar.com\/star1015denver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1542\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upliftingstar.com\/star1015denver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/upliftingstar.com\/star1015denver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upliftingstar.com\/star1015denver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upliftingstar.com\/star1015denver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}