WINSDAY WISDOM Session 4 THE WRONG DIRECTION (Part 1)

The Most Important Thing in Life

CHAPTER 4   THE WRONG DIRECTION (Part 1)

Years ago, I watched a high school player run the wrong way in a football game. It was both wild and weird. Funny and sad. An instant classic. If a similar event happened this year, the video would go viral and secure its spot in the ESPN Top Ten highlights. The home team was playing their archrival for the conference championship. Their offense had driven down to the twenty-yard line when everything went bonkers.

The quarterback scrambled to his left until a defensive player spun him around and stripped the football from his grasp. The loose ball sailed toward the middle of the line of scrimmage.

A sophomore guard, starting his first game of the season because of a teammate’s injury, whiffed on his block attempt and fell to the turf. As he stood upright, the football hit him right in the stomach, just a few yards away from a victorious touchdown and instant stardom.

All lineman dream of one opportunity to tote the rock, to rumble with the old pigskin, to win one for the Gipper.

Unfortunately, this bumbling and befuddled lineman was facing the wrong direction. Unfazed by the pressure-packed moment, he started running for the goal line eighty yards away. This is where things got WEIRD!

The next few minutes felt like forever in slow motion. The new center of attention ducked and dodged some players engaged in gridiron combat along the line of scrimmage. His nifty sidesteps freed him from the congestion as he quickly veered toward the sideline. This was his one shining moment!

As the wrong-way prodigy raced down the field, the chase was on. Players from both teams frantically followed in hot pursuit, most as confused as this wrong way runner. Two opposing defenders, who should have pushed the galloping runner onward to their goal line, attempted to tackle him. He stiff-armed one of them, while a teammate, who should have stopped him, made a tremendous block to free him from the opponent’s desperate grasp. Not even Superman could stop this powerful locomotive.

His formidable gluteus maximus muscles stormed down the sidelines. Blasts of air plummeted through his face mask. He went airborne over another diving defender.

Football fanatics recalled similar gridiron runners. Sweetness. The Galloping Ghost. The Bus. Crazy Legs. Night Train. The Kansas Comet. Prime Time.

The absence of instinctive moves and lack of outstanding peripheral vision did not deter this ballcarrier. They only sped him on his way in the wrong direction, reminiscent of other legendary names. Doofus. Nincompoop. Riegels. Marshall. Corrigan. My younger brother.

Roy Riegels infamously executed a sixty-five yards wrong way run in the Rose Bowl championship, often cited as the worst blunder in college football history.

Minnesota Viking, Jim Marshall, accomplished the feat in the NFL. He picked up a fumble and rumbled sixty-six yards to the wrong endzone, where he celebrated by spiking the football.

“Wrong Way” Corrigan was the pilot who flew his plane west out of New York headed to Los Angeles, but somehow landed in Dublin, Ireland.

My brother? Well, he shot the basketball at the wrong goal in a high school game. However, our family shame was somewhat overshadowed when an opposing player blocked the layup. You might have to pause and envision that for a moment. Brother tried to score two points for the wrong team and a wrong-team player went to great effort to not let that happen. Dumb and Dumber.

Back to the football game. Doofus and Nincompoop were still running the wrong way down the football field in anticipation of glory.

As our hero roared past the bench area, the coaches were yelling, waving, and shouting, “NO! NO! NO!”

The cheerleaders turned around to see him dashing for the end zone and started jumping up and down, screaming, “GO! GO! GO!”

Never underestimate the powerful influence of a cheerleader’s exhortation. This young lineman pranced his way across the wrong goal line. He began to dance, holding the football high like a trophy. His first hint of wrongdoing should have been the celebratory hugs from the guys wearing different colored jerseys. In the most-watched event of his athletic career, he scored for the opposing team.

However, that is not the end of this wrong-way jaunt story. The extremely bizarre events were about to soar into new heights of the paranormal.

The awkward celebration was interrupted when an equally confused member of the rival team tackled him in the end zone. The baffled referee ran toward the pile of players with both arms straight to the sky and signaled “TOUCHDOWN,” when in fact it was a safety scored for the opposing team.

Suddenly, befuddlement and bewilderment became teammates with pandemonium and mayhem. In that moment of confusion, everyone jumped up and down, some players in jubilation, some in disgust, the coaches throwing down clipboards and headsets in anguish. The cheerleaders leaped and hugged in celebration and then…unbelievably…the band struck up the school fight song!

It was sheer chaos! Some fans stood in shock; others halfheartedly clapped out of loyalty to the rousing music. As my beloved uncle often said, “I was aghast!”

This was the Twilight Zone, Fifth Dimension, or some Matrix Nightmare. I stared at the outlandish scene, wondering, “What’s the matter with me? Am I crazy?”

THE GUY RAN THE WRONG WAY!

Right direction in life is more important than perfection. Which direction in life are you running? Are you carrying the most important thing in life, to love God and love others? Or are you wrapped up in yourself as you run toward the opposite goal line of self-centeredness?

Right direction is a key element to living for the most important thing in life. In this illustration from sports, the football player did not make the mistake of Airport Andy in the introductory chapter who departed without his ultimate purpose. Wrong-Way Danny retained tight possession of the football and carried it to his destination.

He intended to accomplish the right purpose, but he was mistaken about the right direction. No one cared if he sprinted eighty yards just for the exercise. The confusion occurred when the intent did not match the result.

There is a way which seems right to people, but the end is destruction (#1 Textbook). Unfortunately, we live in a society which cheers wildly for those headed down the wrong path to destruction. It seems and feels right at the time. Popularity and fun applaud every step. Even the so-called experts get it wrong.

In my account of the wrong way football player, the referees got confused and more things went wrong than just the misdirected runner crossing the wrong goal line. The first official signaled the wrong-way run to be a touchdown that scored six points for the home team. In reality, it was supposed to be ruled a safety that awarded two points to the visitors. A second referee correctly signaled safety. So, both school bands filled the air with competing fight songs.

Following the end zone confusion, the teams lined up for the kick-off from the forty-yard line which is the proper place if this had been a post-touchdown kick. As the would-be kicker approached the ball, an official blew his whistle and began flailing his arms. He reset the players to the twenty-yard line where the kick should occur after a safety. As my mom often said, “There are geese at every level.”

Somebody kick the ball from somewhere. Now, let’s go! No. Stop! Just as the ball was kicked, another whistle stopped the action. The kick-off was halted when a coach recognized that each team was lined up on the wrong end of the field. Both teams were going the wrong direction!

My mother often lectured her sons, “Just because everyone else is running to jump off the cliff does not mean that you should. At least, stop and think.”

Do not listen to this world’s counsel on how to run your life. The band might even strike up the school song to celebrate chasing the wind in the wrong direction. However, when the dust clears and the rules of the game are enforced, this wrong-way runner ends up with the nothingness of vanity.

Running the wrong direction in life is an undertaking of vanity that is completely and clearly proven to be foolish, futile, and a failure, resulting in major disappointment. 

Check your spiritual direction today. Winning in life is like winning a sports championship. You do not have to do everything correctly to succeed, but right direction matters immensely.

I was reminded about the ultimate importance of direction in life when I stood on the upper level of a large Oklahoma City mall watching my three-year-old son leaning his face into the railing overlooking the food court below. It was a safe place to be, much safer than taking him into the nearby store where my wife and daughter were shopping.

I wondered what he was thinking as he stared at all the people ordering, eating, and talking about the various things which make up the stories of our lives. I did not speculate on his thoughts exceptionally long, because he suddenly shouted at the top of his lungs.

“Follow Jesus! Follow Jesus! No turning back!”

I imagine some people choked on their sandwiches or strained their necks in search of the source of the bold declaration. It remains the best sermon I ever heard, brief and to the point.

Allow me to be brief and to the point.

DIRECTION MATTERS. FOLLOW JESUS.

Do not complicate this. God’s Dance of Love is a basic two-step: Love First. Love Most. You learn it by following Jesus’ lead. Get out the #1 Textbook and watch how Jesus loves people. Listen to Jesus’ words. Follow Him in that same direction.

If you are just loving others like everyone else in this self-centered culture does, then you are still headed in the wrong direction. Our culture is going in the wrong direction. Just because everyone else is running to jump off the cliff does not mean that you should. At least, stop and think.

That is all I ask. Do not become enamored with the cheers of the crowd or infatuated with the long lines. Stop and think! Check your spiritual bearings to see if you are following Jesus. If not, it only takes one breath and one step to turn in the right direction.

How you love God and others is about direction, not perfection.

“Follow Jesus. No turning back.” (#1 Textbook)

LOVE FOLLOWS JESUS FIRST. LOVE FOLLOWS JESUS MOST.

It all begins with right direction.

How do you follow Jesus’ example?

Learn how to sustain right direction. (next session)

Love Anchor 1: Remember the most important thing in life. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength; and love others as yourself.

Love Anchor 2: Love First. Love Most. God lives inside of you to lead you to others He intends to love through you.

Love Anchor 3: Study the #1 Textbook. Love for God and love for others lasts forever. The instructions and directions are in the book.

Love Anchor 4: Direction Matters. Life is about right direction, not perfection. Course corrections take just one step.