"I jump into a sand pit for a living"
Loving our team mate as ourselves
Love your neighbour as yourself. Matthew 22:39"I was making a tackle in a situation, which is now deemed a last-man tackle where if I had made the tackle correctly I'd have made a goal-saving challenge to keep the team level as it was at the time.
"In the event I just missed the ball and caught the man. Not only did I concede a penalty, which then resulted in the other team scoring and in fact winning the game 1-0. But I was also the last man so it was a straight red card.
"I then felt I'd let the team down by being sent off and conceding the penalty which lost us a goal and lost us a game. So that's partly the frustrations and difficult positions you find yourself in on the football pitch where you've to make a split second decision. You have to hold your hand up and hold your head up although you accept the disappointment and frustration of letting your team-mates down.
"I knew I had made the tackle with the right intent. What is more, I had to make the tackle, because not to make it would have been letting my team-mates down if I thought I could genuinely have got the ball". Brian Irvine, Aberdeen and Scotland footballer.
When we are called to "love our team mate as ourselves" one aspect of this is serving them. We are to use our abilities to the full as an act of worship to the God who gave them to us and in the service of our "neighbours" in the squad. I should not be drawn first of all to my needs as a result of my performance in a match.
Rather, having given the best of my ability on the field for the glory of God, the consequence is that in loving my team mate as myself I will always be striving to rejoice when my team rejoices and weep when my team weeps, rather than instinctively considering the benefits of my performance - or someone else's failure - to my own reputation. This is often best tested in adversity!
Loving your team mates involves meeting your responsibilities to them. Brian Irvine would have loved to have finished his career in professional football without receiving a red card. A situation in that game put him in a difficult position and involved sacrificing his own reputation for the sake of the team.