I am an avid Dallas Cowboy’s football fan. During football season, there are many tell-tale signs that give me away. If you walk into my house, you will soon see my Cowboy’s Cave in which I have all manner of Cowboy’s memorabilia on every wall of the room. The walls in the room are painted silver and blue, with a Cowboy’s border dividing the colors. Outside my house will be my Cowboy’s flag, proudly displaying the team colors. On my vehicle will be a Cowboy’s trailer hitch cover, and Cowboy’s headrest covers. You will see me wearing Cowboy’s jerseys, shirts and tee-shirts all through the season. During the Christmas season, you will see a Christmas tree adorned in silver and blue.  I have been pulling for the Cowboys since 1963, and see no reason to change my allegiance. I consider myself a true fan, and not a fair-weather fan.

You can well imagine my excitement as I anticipated the big game between Dallas and Green Bay. It had all the markings of a classic struggle. Dallas, led by the rookie tandem of Dak Prescott and Ezekiel Elliot. This duo aided by the likes of Dez Bryant, Jason Witten, and Cole Beasley proved to be a formidable force during the regular season. Coupled with a powerful offensive line, this seemed to be the dream team Cowboy’s fans have been waiting for since the mid-90’s.

However, on the other side of the line of scrimmage was the Packers, led by the hottest quarterback in the NFL at this point in the season. Aaron Rogers has been playing lights out for the last several weeks. He had been picking apart every defensive secondary the Packers have faced in a couple of months. Yes, this was going to be a game for the ages.

Now, the purpose of this blog is not to give a play-by-play analysis of the game. Let it suffice to say at this point that the game proved to be all that it was expected to be, and more. In the aftermath of the game, after my heart stopped pounding and my pulse calmed, I began to analyze the game, and to give serious consideration to some obvious life lessons which I think we can glean from the analogy of a football game.

The game began with both teams showing the ability to move the ball, and score on their opening drives. Good start! However, the Cowboy’s offense seemed to be stifled for the next several possessions, while the high-powered Packer offense clicked off three straight touchdowns, taking a commanding lead. Much like life. There are those chapters of life in which we experience the adrenalin pumping excitement of everything exploding with success, but then everything quickly coming to a screeching halt. For a while, it might appear that everything is imploding, that we are going to get caught in the debris and rubble of the crumbling walls, and never be able to recover.

The Cowboys could have become demoralized, disillusioned, and paralyzed. Just as we can do in life. We may be experiencing great strides of success, and the future might look bright, when all of a sudden things take a drastic turn, and failure looms large on the horizon. We might think all is lost. We might be tempted to give up, cave in, walk away.

Or, we can assess the situation, make necessary changes, adapt and move on. In life, just as in football, there are successful scoring drives, and then there are devastating losses, such as a fumble, or an interception, or a missed field goal, etc. Yes, these are hurdles that we must deal with if we are to move past them and learn from them. But they don’t have to be an end in and of themselves. They are learning opportunities, teachable moments, in which we can glean much needed counsel on how to handle future episodes of failure and adversity.

In one sense the loss for the Cowboys was an end – it ended their season, it ended their dream of making it to the big game, and the possibility of once again being Super Bowl champs. But it is not the end. Cowboy’s fans are now looking with excitement and anticipation to next year, anxiously anticipating what the Prescott/Elliott tandem will be able to pull off with a year’s experience behind them.

And for those of us who have had a set-back of some sort, we, too, can look forward with excitement and anticipation as to what we might be able to learn from the set-back, and allow God by His amazing grace to work in our lives to use the experience for growth toward maturity. It is, by the way, His promise to work in all things for the good of those who love Him. So, fellow believers in Jesus Christ, take heart, and allow Him to continue to mold us into His image.

Thanks, Cowboys, for a great season, and for motivating me to learn lessons from the analogy of a football game.