Next game

The end of the 1954 Football World Cup had an unexpected outcome: Hungary, the most powerful team, lost to Germany 3-2. SEPP HERBERGER was the German coach.

He had gathered the German players in the towns and villages, given the German economic post-war problems, and created a winning team. His was the famous sentence heard at the end of each game, "The most difficult game is the next."

In life, all the big achievements are made step by step. Nobody arrives at the summit by magic, but after having learned how to persevere.

There is a plan in our life, goals that we should reach, and they are only reached by advancing slowly. This is exactly the same in our spiritual life: the most difficult game is the next.

We are not accustomed to thinking in real terms. It seems that we walk with our heads in the clouds and that we only pay attention to momentous events when, in fact, growth in the Christian life depends on our knowing the will of God and obeying it, day by day.

Look for that which God expects from us, in all things and do it, without fuss and noise, but peacefully. Fix your eyes on Jesus, our goal and our King.

We must concentrate on what we do: remember that just as in sport there are good and bad pitches and we must win on them all.

Maybe the next effort is the most important. Maybe the next temptation is the most difficult. Maybe soon we will have difficulties in our studies or work; maybe emotional problems or stress. But we can know that we are going to conquer them.

We are used to winning on any field. We are used to knowing that the most difficult game is the next.

We don't worry so much about knowing what is far ahead in the future. It is not our problem to know what will happen in two years, or three, or four.

That is a matter for God. We simply concentrate on our next step. And that is not a fatalist approach. God knows our future, and it is a glorious future.

The Bible tells us of the beautiful inheritance that he has given us. Nobody is happier than we are, because nobody can feel true security about their future if they are far from God.

What God has prepared for each one of us is something unique. He tells us, simply play the next game. . . nothing more.