thoughts on the news of the day: overtime

hmmm…..

            Last night the Rangers baseball team won in extra innings.  The Texas team beat the Detroit Tigers in a game that lasted eleven innings instead of the usual nine.  When football or basketball teams play more than the allotted time because of a tie game, it is called overtime.  Eventually one team scores more than the other and wins.

            When my daughter was little and played team basketball the youngsters would from time to time lose a game.  But the coach would always say, “No, girls, we didn’t lose, we just ran out of time!”

            I remember when I was in seminary; we had deadlines for papers and other projects. Invariably a student or two would ask for an extension on the deadline.  The professor would usually begrudgingly allow the additional time.  I always wondered why they did that.  Imagine if a preacher came to a congregation on Sunday morning and asked for an extension on a sermon.  “Come back tomorrow,” the preacher  might say.  “My baby was sick” or “I had the flu.”  Somehow I don’t think that would work very well.

            Unfortunately, there are many times in life when we don’t get overtime.  The company you work for has mass layoffs – but you ask for overtime – say six months to find another job.  Or the doctor says the cancer has spread and you only have nine months, what about overtime then? 

            Mostly we just have to play this game of life and hope that in the end, we all come out winners.

            hmmm…..