August 8, 2011 - A Blessed Man

I love playing hoops! I love coaching hoops! I love preaching and teaching!

To those of you that know me you are now thinking, “Duh!” Yet stick with me. I am a blessed man to get to do things I love.

As a kid we often hear adults say things like, “If you put your mind to it you can be anything you want to be.” Well I don’t want to burst anyone’s bubble but this isn’t true!

As a trainer I often deal with unrealistic expectations. In sports there is a genetic ceiling on how fast someone can be or how high he can jump. No matter how hard he trains if the genetics don’t match the guy next to him he simply will not be faster or jump higher.

I am not saying this to ruin dreams; in fact far from it. I often tell players that the goal is to look in the mirror at the end of the day and simply know you did your best to become the best you are capable of becoming. (John Wooden’s definition of success) I warn them of the pain of regret that comes from not giving one’s all to pursue dreams.

Sometimes I get players that are almost assured of a lot of playing time if they go to a lower division college but instead choose the harder route that may mean bench time; yet they want to know they gave it a shot. Sometimes an athletic career is derailed by an injury. Etc.

Now to why this is on my mind…

A few days ago a 5th grader looked at me and said, “ Coach Todd, if you could do anything you wanted to do what would it be?” What a great opportunity to share with this kid!

I responded by saying, “Bobby, I would play hoops with guys like you and tell them about Jesus. This is what I chose to do.”

You see, it doesn’t matter how hard I train this 45 year old body, I am not going to play in the NBA. No, I cannot be anything I want to be; but I can be everything God wants me to be.

God wants me to:
• Love Him and to Love others as myself (See Luke 10:27)
• Pursue what is good not only for myself but also for everyone else (See 1 Thessalonians 5:15)
• Be salt and light in this world (See Matthew 5:13-14)
• And obviously the list could go on…

The point is that we should be pursuing God and pursuing people more than we are pursuing riches! Life is short make it count! Be all God wants you to be!