Sunday, 14 June 2009- South Africa is on fire; cars zoom by trailing red, blue and green, Joburgers smile at each other. You can hear our anthem hummed at the supermarket, punctuated with vuvuzela blasts. We are the host nation!
Monday, 15 June 2009- Joburg is gloomy. Our hearts flutter with the forlorn flags. Vuvuzelas whisper the reality: Bafana will never make it.
Thursday, 18 June 2009- Yes, there is hope. 2-0!
After Bafana’s dismal showing against Iraq, there was a flurry of told-you-so’s. We all knew our team was sub-standard and were disappointed, but not surprised at their weak leg-work. Today, the die-hard patriots are warning against writing SA soccer off prematurely. Saturday night will tell who’s right, when our national team takes on one of soccer’s giants.
Just hours before the whistle, we’ll be at Shul, reading the secret of winning that match. More importantly, we’ll read the secret of winning the matches we play daily in our lives.
G-d took the Jews out of Egypt with the promise of a land. Every promise He had made to us, he kept. He guaranteed that He would take us out of Egypt, get us across the sea and miraculously care for us in the desert. He delivered every time.
To enter the Promised Land, He wanted the people to work out how they could succeed. G-d resisted playing Guide and allowed them to try figure it out. It should have been their crowning moment. They should have understood that He wasn’t abandoning them, only maturing them. But, they missed it. Rather than believing in themselves as their Maker did, they doubted.
They considered the goal, to take over a land occupied by pagans and transform it into a haven of holiness and hesitated. Impossible!
As soon as they declared the mission impossible, it became impossible. They could no longer enter that land and, instead, died in the desert. Only their children, who were naive enough to believe in miracles, went on to create the miracle of the Promised Land.
Bafana may or may not make it through to the semis., but if they see themselves as winners they stand a chance.
We have an advantage, G-d has assured us of success in our spiritual endeavors. If we only trust that we can succeed, we will.
1 comment:
Thank you, Rabbi..
you have no idea how much i needed that :)
then again, its simply no coincidence that this weeks parsha would've been about exactly that at exactly this time ;o)
sometimes, we need someone just to point it out whats right infront of our eyes.. thank you!
Have a wonderful Shabbos!
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