When Ecuador and Curaçao played out a scoreless draw at the FIFA World Cup last week, both teams walked away with exactly the same result: one point.
Yet for one nation, it felt like an opportunity missed. For the other, it was a moment of history. For Curaçao, the smallest nation to qualify for the FIFA World Cup, the 0-0 draw secured the country’s first ever point on the biggest stage.
While Ecuador may have been thinking about the two points they left behind, Curaçao had every reason to celebrate the one they had gained.
It got me thinking about how often our happiness depends less on our circumstances and more on our perspective. In sport, two teams can experience the exact same result in completely different ways. The same is true in life.
If I were to ask almost anyone at almost any moment, “Where would you rather be right now?” the answer would usually be somewhere other than where they are. At work, we want to be on holidays. On holidays, we worry about work.
Single people want to be married. Married people sometimes miss the freedom of being single. Students want to graduate. Workers dream of retirement. We are constantly looking ahead, looking back, or looking elsewhere. Rarely are we simply present.
The irony is that God can only be encountered in the present moment. We cannot love him yesterday, and we cannot serve him tomorrow. We can only do those things now. That is why I found the Curaçao story so refreshing.
Even before their historic draw with Ecuador, there was evidence of this mindset.
In their opening match, they suffered a heavy 7-1 defeat to Germany. Most teams would have walked away focused solely on the seven goals conceded. Yet Curaçao also scored their first-ever World Cup goal. Of course, they would have preferred a different result. Nobody enjoys losing by six goals.
But there is a difference between recognising disappointment and allowing disappointment to blind us to every blessing that remains. Too often, we do the latter.
We become so focused on the promotion we haven’t received, the house we don’t own, the relationship we wish we had, or the future we imagine for ourselves, that we fail to recognise the gifts God has already placed before us.
That does not mean Christians should lack ambition. There is nothing wrong with pursuing goals or striving to improve. But there is a danger in spending so much time wishing we were somewhere else that we miss what God is doing where we are.
The players from Curaçao may not advance deep into this World Cup. They may not lift the trophy. But in a sporting world obsessed with the next result, they offered a valuable reminder.
Sometimes the secret to joy is not getting somewhere else. Sometimes it is recognising the gift of where you already are.
