Closing The Loop

Closing the Loop

During the 2013 Discover BCS National Championship game, Eddie Lacy of the Alabama Crimson Tide made his way to the highlight reel by sending a defender on the Notre Dame defense to the ground. It was a spin move finished off with a stiff-arm that amazed all looking on. Alabama went on to win that game 42–14 in a rout of the number-one-ranked Fighting Irish.

Have you ever been stiff-armed? The stiff-arm is an amazing tool for running backs because it seems to give them an unfair advantage over the defense. As they break into the open field, many running backs shift the ball to the outside arm and extend the inside arm straight out into the face mask of a defensive player and shed him off.

We often communicate via the stiff-arm. We do it by not responding to a difficult person. What we need to understand is that in relationships, lack of communication is still a type of communication. It is a stiff-arm, often given when we don’t know how to deal with an annoying, difficult person. We stiff-arm others when we fail to reply to an e-mail, ignore a phone call, or avoid returning a text message.

Let’s remember the Golden Rule of Luke 6:31, which says, “Do to others as you would like them to do to you.” Certainly, no one is perfect in this, and there are times when we forget to close the loop. But when it is more of a pattern than a misstep, you might want to see if it is eroding your trustworthiness.

Do to others as you would like them to do to you.

Luke 6:31