We’re in Raleigh this weekend. LightGirl has a couple of hockey games down here. We spent Friday night with LightHusband’s brother and his family.
The first hockey game was Saturday night. It was in an old rink that had wooden seats and a low ceiling. This was simultaneously delightful and disturbing. The wooden seats were wonderful. If you’ve ever been to an ice rink and sat on the metal bleachers … well … just imagine how much more comfortable wood might be in an environment devoted to keeping a large sheet of ice frozen. The low ceiling did two things. Well … perhaps three. It made for fantastic lighting for LightHusband’s photography! It kept the cold air near to the ice. It kept the cold air near to the spectators. Ahhh … it’s that last that was discomfiting.
Due to a series of strange events, CoachWonderWoman could not be with her team this weekend. She is having a much deserved weekend with her husband. So the girls are being lead by the very capable coach of the U19 team. I met him briefly before the game last night. He seems very nice and has the girls’ best interests at heart. He also seemed to be coaching with the same philosophy that CoachWonderWoman has. They did well. But it was obvious that something was awry. They weren’t quite playing as a team. They weren’t looking for each other in the manner that they often do.
It struck me as I sat in the stands. Most of the other teams we face have male coaches. Their coach is a woman. They know how to sort out her voice from all the other voices easily. It comes naturally. And, they are used to her voice calling to them. They practice with the U19 team and usually they filter CoachU19’s voice out and Coach WonderWoman’s in. Their norm is to NOT listen to him. Not because his advice is bad, wrong or misleading, but because normally it’s not meant for them. Now, in the heat of a game they were having to re-filter which voice to listen to.
Later on, I thought more about that. I thought about how that analogy effects all of us. How do we filter the voices we listen to? Do we know when to change the filter? How do we know when to re-filter in the heat of a moment? What voices are we listening to? Do they have our best interests at heart? More importantly (for those of us who believe in God) how do we filter out the loud voices to hear His still small voice? Do we recognize it when we hear it? Or have we changed coaches so often we no longer know who or what we’re listening to?
