A Game of Compassion

Odyssey's soccer team is one win away from the playoffs - the town's first shot at a championship in seventeen years - and star player Eric Myers is at the heart of it. Then he finds Mrs. Phillips, a cleaning lady, crying in the locker room: her husband has died, the bills have piled up, and her landlord is putting her out on Saturday with no money for movers. Eric promises to help her move - and to tell no one. But when a burst water pipe pushes the big game to that same Saturday, Eric tells Coach Bryant he can't play and refuses to say why. His teammates call him a traitor, one of them throws a punch, and even his grandparents are coming to town just to watch him play. Then Saturday morning brings a surprise: right behind Eric at Mrs. Phillips's door stand Whit, the coach, and the whole team, ready to move her out and still make it to the game. Sometimes, it turns out, all you have to do... is ask.

Found on Flights of Imagination Album 16 · 12 episodes

The run See every episode

0222 The Jesus Cloth When a scrap of cloth rumored to be from the robe of Jesus arrives at Whit's End, one whispered secret turns a quiet town's curiosity into a frenzy Whit can't contain.

0223 Real Time Trapped in a stalled elevator with a ticking clock, Whit and shock jock Bryan Dern must confront a bomber's revenge - and each other's beliefs - live on the air.

0224 Greater Love On the twentieth anniversary of his son's death, a grieving father comes face to face with the last person he ever expected to find at the boy's grave.

0225 Count it All Joy A frustrated girl who thinks her life is rotten tries to fix her string of bad days with a Bible verse - only to discover she's got it all wrong.

1 of 2 0226 An Adventure in Bethany Swamped by church busywork, Lucy takes an Imagination Station trip to first-century Bethany, where a famous household is about to teach her the difference between working for God and being with Him.

2 of 2 0227 An Adventure in Bethany When Jesus delays answering a desperate plea from Bethany, time-travelers Whit and Lucy must learn why the Master's timing - even when it seems too late - can be trusted.

0228 A Game of Compassion A star soccer player's secret promise to help a stranger puts him on a collision course with the biggest game of the season.

0229 The Marriage Feast When every noble in the kingdom snubs the prince's wedding, a king's invitation goes out to anyone who will come - but accepting it isn't as simple as showing up.

0230 Our Father A lonely boy with a runaway imagination goes looking for someone to fill his absent father's shoes - and nearly finds it in all the wrong places.

0231 Hallowed Be Thy Name When Whit unveils his new Bible-research computer at Whit's End, Connie discovers that God has far more names than she ever imagined - and that each one tells a story.

0232 Thy Kingdom Come While producing a radio dramatization of Jesus' parables about the kingdom of heaven, Whit and Connie try to reach Eugene, who has been avoiding everyone since a haunting experience in the Imagination Station.

0233 Thy Will Be Done When a free-speech newspaper job and a covert conversion campaign both test what it means to do God's will, Lucy and Connie learn that being God's agents isn't about clever schemes.

0234 Our Daily Bread When a devoted family man loses his job for the first time in his life, his family rallies to keep the household afloat - but what he really needs may not be a paycheck.

Featured characters

John Whittaker Hal Smith

Minor characters & crew 8 more roles

8 supporting roles

Brooke Myers Amber Arnold Eric Myers Joe Dammann Julie Myers Donna Christie Coach Bryant Brian Cummings Phil (b) Zachary McFarlane Carl Shawn Svoboda Mike (c) Chris Berg Mrs. Phillips Julia Kazarian

Made by

Chris Anthony Host Jeff White Writer Paul McCusker Director · Producer Dave Arnold Sound Designer · Producer Mark Drury Sound Designer Chuck Bolte Executive Producer

The story

Read the full synopsis 2 min

Odyssey's soccer team has just finished a hard practice, and the coach is fired up: if they win Friday's game against Connellsville, they go to the playoffs - the town's first shot at a championship in seventeen years. Star player Eric Myers skips the celebratory pizza run so he can study the other team's strategy, and while he lingers in the locker room he meets Mrs. Phillips, a cleaning lady working late. He notices she has been crying, and though she brushes him off at first, she finally admits the truth. Her husband died last year, the bills have piled up, and her landlord is making her move out on Saturday - but she has no family and no money for movers. Eric knows what it is like to struggle; his own father is in prison, and kind people in Odyssey once helped his family through their hardest days. He promises to help her move Saturday morning and to tell no one about her trouble.

Then everything goes wrong. A burst water pipe under Connellsville's field pushes the big game to Saturday afternoon, the very day Eric has promised away. Bound by his word, Eric tells Coach Bryant he cannot play, but he refuses to explain why. The coach is baffled and disappointed, Eric's teammates call him a traitor, and a locker-room argument with Mike ends with Eric taking a punch. Even his grandparents are coming to town just to watch him play. Only his mother accepts his choice, trusting that a promise is a promise. At Whit's End, Eric's little sister Brooke lets slip that he has a problem, and Whit - without prying - assures Eric that sacrificing something important to keep his word is the honorable thing.

Saturday morning, Eric shows up at Mrs. Phillips's door, ready to work. But Whit arrives right behind him with a surprise: Mrs. Phillips has been cleaning Whit's shop for months, and once he heard about Eric's mysterious conflict, he pieced the whole story together. Behind Whit stand Coach Bryant and the entire soccer team, ready to move everything in a couple of hours and still make it to the game. Mrs. Phillips confesses that her pride kept her from asking for help, and later, watching the team play together, she tells Whit that she is the one who has learned a lesson - people can be wonderfully kind when there are problems. Sometimes, Whit says, all you have to do is ask.