The political season is finally over. (I know, it’s never ever really over.) But there’s another season that is heading toward its own conclusion. That’s football season. And to some, it’s even more important than politics.

Being a football fan, I’ve seen many a football game through the years, whether in person or on TV. And I found that most of the clichés used by sportscasters are true. Like, it ain’t over until it’s over. It’s an obvious statement if there ever was one. If you follow sports you know that it’s true. A team makes a great comeback at the end of the game, or blows a big lead that costs them the game. A lot can happen in the fourth quarter.

You can play great for the first three quarters of a game, but then become complacent or careless. The team has played hard. Now it’s time to let the clock run out and coast home with the victory. But sometimes it doesn’t work out that way. The opposition team keeps playing, the game becomes close, and the win is now in jeopardy.

But, on the other hand, it’s hard to come back and beat a team if you haven’t been giving your best effort for the first three quarters. Mistakes, turnovers, missed assignments and general lack of effort can put a team in a deep hole. They can be so far behind that even a superior effort in the final quarter will be too little, too late.

It’s also in the fourth quarter of a football game that you find out which team and players have better physical conditioning and mental toughness. You find out who worked harder in practice and conditioning sessions. Because the battle gets tough in the last quarter and those who are more prepared physically and mentally usually emerge the victors.

A recent phone conversation with a childhood friend made me think again once again about fourth quarters. We were talking about stuff we did as kids. Then it hit me, that was fifty years ago! If you do the math, I suppose you might say that I am in my own personal fourth quarter. (Boy, it seems like the first three quarters went by really fast.) As I look down the road, maybe I should look at the coming years like that football game fourth quarter.

It ain’t over until it’s over. I remember hearing Jack Welch, the former head of General Electric, say his most productive years in business was when he was in his sixties. I may not do as much, or as fast, as I used to. But I have experience. (Some good and, unfortunately, some bad.) That experience can lead me to be productive in ways I previously have not known. Like, maybe, writing a newspaper column. And in that fourth quarter, there may be an opportunity to make a comeback from missed opportunities and mistakes that occurred in my earlier quarters.

In my fourth quarter, I need to avoid becoming complacent and careless. I need to be careful and intentional, and not spend the next years just letting the clock run out and coasting home. Because a careless and complacent fourth quarter can, in some cases, put everything that was achieved during the first three quarters of your life in jeopardy. For those of you in your earlier quarters, it’s going to be hard to come back later if you have dug yourself a deep hole with carelessness, mistakes and a general lack of effort. So, quit digging!

Conditioning is going to be important during this last quarter. Some things are going to happen, no matter what condition I am in. But my physical, mental and spiritual conditioning will help and will, in some cases, help avoid some of those difficult times. By the way, for you folks who are in the earlier quarters, proper conditioning now (physical, mental and spiritual) will make your fourth quarter a much easier contest.

So I am entering my fourth quarter. Like the football teams that are battling this Fall, I want to be victorious at the end of my contest. What that will be, when that will be, and what it will look like, I don’t know. I read in a devotional the other day that the faith that continues to the end gives proof that it was genuine in the beginning. I suppose that‘s what the Apostle Paul meant when he wrote to Timothy, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” Sounds like a victory to me.

Mac McPhail
https://www.clintonnc.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/web1_general-pics-025-6.jpgMac McPhail

By Mac McPhail

Contributing columnist

Mac McPhail, raised in Sampson County, lives in Clinton and can be reached at [email protected]