September 7, 2015 - When You See An Opening... Hit It!

Happy Labor Day… I love celebrating those that have shown the work ethic to get the job done!

One of my biggest pet peeves as a coach (or fan or teammate…) is to watch a player that is more concerned with showing off than he is in simply getting the job done.  When a team has put forth time and effort to prepare for a game the singular focus of the players should be accomplishing the objective.

I’m picturing the basketball player that dances around on the wing showing his ball handling skills and misses the open lane to the basket… when the bottom line is that a player should use the fewest dribbles needed to get to the basket… anything more is wasted time. It is great to have skills to use when they are needed to create an opening, but when there is an opening hit it!

Simply put I love players that keep their heads in the game and do work!

As a member of God’s team I hate thinking about all the opportunities we waste to share the Gospel or meet the needs of others. We are way too lax in our approach to “the game.” I think a few things contribute to this:

1.       I think we often think that our Christian duty is more centered on what we avoid (what we don’t do) more than focusing on what we should be doing… it is like players focusing on not losing more than on aggressively trying to win… (See 1 Corinthians 15:58… we should be “always abounding in the work…”)

2.       I think we often get caught up trying to show off how much we know and forget to show that we care… Many believers are more than willing to debate politics, theological stances, ethics, etc., but ignore the opportunities to show love or even simply share the Gospel message… (1 Corinthians 15:3-4 says that to Paul the delivery of the Gospel was of “first importance”…)

3.       I think we often try to fool others and even fool ourselves by using our “spirituality” as an excuse… we see a need or an opportunity and hide behind the need to go pray about it instead of simply meeting it. It is like the basketball player that sees an opening and instead of getting to the basket looks over to ask his coach if he wants him to score… Bottom line here is that we need to start doing what we were trained to do: love (serve) people and look to share the Gospel! (See James 4:17)

It is time for us to start “playing to win!” We need to stop wasting time and start actively doing what God has called us to do! I love the way this idea is worded in the Message…

Ephesians 5:11 “Don’t waste your time on useless work, mere busywork…” Then later in verse 17 it reminds us to “make sure you understand what the Master wants.” It is implied that we need to know so we will be ready to go into action when an opening arises.