Press on toward the goal . . the right goal.

I shot at the wrong goal.

When I was in Jr. High basketball I shot at the wrong goal. I can't tell you how it happened, thankfully the full memory has dimmed. I do remember that up until that moment I had played better than I had ever played before. Fortunately, I suppose, I missed the shot. We won the game comfortably. At least everyone else was comfortable. I was so embarassed I wanted to hide under the bleachers.

I took a huge amount of abuse from my team, all good natured. I didn't blame them. They even made me laugh about it. If it hadn't been me I would have done the same. But it passed quickly. In the world of jr. high you can always count on someone to screw up at least once a day. The news cycle was very short.

But my coach didn't even mention it. I brought it up the next day as I was cleaning the basketballs with a toothbrush. That's what basketball players did during P. E. during basketball season if we weren't studying. Those basketballs were cavity free.

Anyway, as I was toothbrushing the basketball I brought it up to my coach about shooting at the wrong goal. He barely acknowledged it. He said something about how I was playing well, for a guy with one leg. He was making fun of me about that. I had broken my leg at the end of football season (actually someone else gave me a lot of help). I had sort of lied about how quickly the doctor said I could come back and play basketball. (The day the cast came off. I'm pretty sure he didn't know about that lie) As a result, I limped up and down the court the rest of the season, waiting on spring for time to heal.

But I wasn't sure. I mean, after all, I had shot at the wrong goal. It was just poor shooting that kept me from hitting it. That was on my mind as coach called out the starters for the next game. He had not mentioned it, but surely he hadn't forgotten it. I mean, it was the wrong goal.

But he called out my name. Yelled at me during the game just like usual. Seemed like he had forgotten.

I think about that from time to time.

Turns out everybody shoots at the wrong goal once in a while. Parents, children, brothers, sisters, spouses, teachers, preachers, entertainers, congressmen, governors, presidential candidates, and anybody who does anything, makes mistakes, does the wrong thing.

There is only one way to avoid mistakes; that is to do nothing at all.

But the world has become a hard place. I did some quick figuring, and within forty years or so, most of America will be incarcerated if we keep going the way we are headed now. Okay, I made that up, but we have become an unforgiving culture.

The truth is, I don't much trust someone who hasn't messed up. Either they're lying, or not living.

We deny ourselves the benefit of some of our best thinkers, doers, and friends if we exclude those of us who have messed up, even badly sometimes.

Where would Jesus have been if he had looked for followers among the perfect? If he went by what they said, probably a bunch of Pharisees. If he went on what He knew to be the truth, He would have travelled alone.

But He didn't travel alone, and asked us not to either. Maybe that's so, when we're heading for the wrong goal, there'll be someone to turn us around.

And then maybe help us laugh a bit.

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