Oh, the pains and joys of being a Longhorn

Last week's game (Texas vs Okla State) just about did me in. It is one thing to play hard, but it is something else to play up to the last 6 seconds.

My poor dogs were so freaked out. The hate it when I am upset. As hard as I try, I can not get them to do something funny like set up straight and peak their ears when they hear hook 'em horns. After the game, I was done. I pretty much just went to bed. So I was dreading this week's game against another undefeated powerhouse, Texas Tech. At least the game was in the evening so it would not be so awful to go straight to bed afterwards. I even asked for prayer for myself in facing this week's game, which my Sunday School department, and anyone else that I told, thought was hilarious. But you know prayer is a powerful thing. This week, I was finishing the research and compilation of my Sunday School lesson just as the big game was starting. I was pulling in some supporting character attribute passages that were not directly related to the lesson. I could hardly believe my eyes when I read this verse in of all places, Ephesians , from THE MESSAGE.

'This is no afternoon athletic contest that we'll walk away from and forget in a couple of hours. This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels.' Eph. 6:12

That pretty much brought things into perspective for me on what is important in life. And gave me a different outlook on the game. I tried to tell myself that it wasn't really an omen, since our game was in the evening, not in the afternoon. Okay, I know that is stretching it, but we are talking about remaining number 1 in the nation. But I couldn't help but think is is a sign.

The pressure on me for us to keep up our number one status week after week has been tremendous, I can;t imagine what it has felt like for Colt McCoy or Mac Brown. I am grateful that we have a quarterback that places so much of his faith in God.

So I had a different view of the game. It was still trying to watch. There was one point where my dog, Blue, came to me and lifted his paw out to me. I always think he saying, I am here, what can I do to make you feel better, when he does that. And even though last week, I didn't believe it could be worse than playing down to the last 6 seconds, who knew that we would play to the last second this week.

When all is said and done, who could feel bad about the game? We played tough with some major talent injured. We didn't give up and came back against all odds. And we had some real freshmen defending against the winning touchdown, who were there. Great freshmen can only give you hope for the future. And we lost to a great team from Texas, who needs the recognition.

God answers prayer, just sometime not quite the way you expect.