With the 2014 FIFA World Cup drawing to a close, I thought I’d finally reference the competition in a post. The international showcase has been, by all accounts, one of the most entertaining exhibitions of football (soccer… fútbol…) in recent memory. Worldwide interest is at an all-time high (well over three billion), and even people here in the USA are getting caught up in the drama.

My favorite appellation is, “The Beautiful Game.” As a child, growing up in the south of England, I was a fan of the London team West Ham United, and I was overjoyed when three of its stars (Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst, and Martin Peters) led England to victory in the 1966 World Cup final.

I could still recite the names of all 11 starters from memory. But what I can’t do is remember the game, because my parents scheduled that particular day for the beginning of our family vacation. We were driving through the mountains of Wales – no radio reception – while Geoff Hurst was scoring the World Cup Final’s only ever hat-trick, on the way to defeating West Germany 4-2.

PLAY PLAY PLAY! All I ever wanted to do as a kid was to play. Consequently I became very good. I represented Kent in high school; the newspaper called me “brilliant” before Harry Potter made the word a cliché; I was first team all-state while attending college in Florida; and playing professionally became a viable option.

The second best soccer compliment I ever received was in Pensacola, when I played recreational six-a-side for a team called, “The Knuckle-Headers” (yes, Moe, Larry, and Curly were prominently featured on our shirts!). One day, playing a team of transplants from Costa Rica, I overheard their captain warning his friends to “Watch out for Brazil…” He was pointing at me. His team nicknamed me “Brazil” based on my style of play.

It was a great compliment… until yesterday, that is! As I watched Germany clinically disassemble Brazil (7-1), I realized I’ve never before witnessed such a complete dismantling of a purportedly world-class team.

CONTAGION: Not only was Brazil’s performance impossibly bad, but the players playing poorly made the other players look awful too. In other words, defeat and discouragement spread from one player to another like a fast-replicating virus.

And that is the set-up for the best compliment I ever received as a soccer player, and it was a compliment I received frequently. “Derek makes us all look better; not only that but he makes us play better too.” The best part of my game, it turns out, was encouraging and equipping my teammates.

Brazil didn’t have even a little bit of that going on during their humiliating defeat in the semi-finals, and it cost them pretty-much everything.

ENCOURAGE: If I can draw any lessons, any parallels from the way I played soccer, then I want to be the kind of Jesus-follower who encourages and equips my brothers and sisters in Christ. Not only that, but I want to present the kind of witness to life that serves as an inspiration and as an invitation for those who are standing on the periphery, watching, and wondering about this life of being a disciple.

I am writing to you who share the same precious faith we have. This faith was given to you because of the justice and fairness of Jesus Christ, our God and Savior. May God give you more and more grace and peace as you grow in your knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord. By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires. In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.- 2 Peter 1:1-7

What he said – DEREK