France won the World Cup, and my 5-year-old son cried. Not just cried, but sobbed.
In our house, football (soccer) is serious. When the World Cup arrives, our lives revolve around 30 days of watching games in a tournament that happens only once every four years.
For Simon, this year’s tournament brought with it some deep realizations—truths that he may not necessarily associate with soccer forever, but that he’s unlikely to ever forget.
Realization 1: Sometimes past achievements aren’t enough.
With a deep German heritage, we are strong supporters of the German national team—Die Mannschaft as they are known in Germany. Winners in the last tournament, still ranked the best team in the world, and with a host of star players, it was expected that the Germans would advance far into the tournament, perhaps even win again.
But three disappointing games later and the Germans were headed home. It was clear to Simon—as well as the rest of us—that past achievements can mean nothing. There’s always an underdog or two ready to take the champion down.
Simon may not totally get this yet, but in football—as in life—we need to keep pressing on to do the best work we can for God’s glory. God doesn’t call us to contentment to the point of becoming lazy. As Christians, He calls us to the hard daily work of living a growing faith.
Realization 2: Sometimes your favorite team gets beat by a better team.
With Germany out, Simon turned to England to fill the gap. Thanks to good family friend Adele, Simon donned a full England uniform for almost the rest of the tournament…until they also lost, this time in the semifinals. Simon sat stunned at the final whistle, confident that his team, which started strong, had petered out.
“They really lost?” Yes, because Croatia was just by far the better team. He couldn’t argue with this either, but suddenly this rooting for a team thing had taken another rotten turn.
Biblically, we know God doesn’t choose sides, it’s us who choose, but honestly, England losing to Simon is like every dream we’ve ever had only for God to put up a wall or pull the plug. We want to know why did that happen when we wanted it so much. And the fact is, we’re rarely given a why, just new direction to keep us moving in the right direction.
Lesson 3: Sometimes the better team loses.
So giving it one last chance, Simon pinned his World Cup hopes on Croatia, who for the first time ever made a World Cup final. Playing France, who won the tournament in 1998 as an underdog, Croatia, now the underdog, had played some of the best football all tournament, coming from behind multiple times to win fast-paced games.
No disrespect to the French, but stacked with star players, they always seemed to do just enough to advance during this tournament. And to us, it seemed that Croatia played a better game with more possession and more shots on goal than France in the final. Yet at the end of the game, France was victorious, and Simon broke down in tears.
“The better team didn’t win,” he cried. Not today, and not always.
God reminds us through Job that even when these times occur—and they will—He’s still got it all under control. And at five or even 105, that can still be a hard lesson to swallow.
For Simon, some outside play and an Otter Pop before dinner made it better. But I sense that this World Cup and its lessons will stick with Simon forever and make him the stronger for it.
