November 23, 2015 - In Basketball Size Matters!

In the game of basketball size matters… and that is why college coaches and commentators all love to discuss the height and length of players (or adversely the lack thereof…) It was very glaring as I watched my favorite player yesterday. Tyler Lewis does not have the physical presence to impress opponents, commentators, or fans… yet is a starting division 1 point guard. All reports on him at some point mention his lack of size and an assumption that he cannot play defense.

 

In yesterday’s game against Miami he was facing a very long and athletic team with an opposing guard that got hot. Every time the opponent hit a shot over Tyler the commentators mentioned that Tyler is simply too small to guard him; yet every time the kid hit a shot over other players the commentators praised what a great scorer and big game player the kid is…

(Funny insert, as I type this I am watching a game and the commentators are talking about how much length the team has that just got a steal…)

So back to Tyler’s situation… According to the commentators when the Miami player scored on Tyler it was because Tyler is too small; when the same player scored on other players it was because of how good the player is???? Tyler ended up being taken out (and honestly wasn’t having a great offensive game) but I thought he was staying in good defensive position; the other kid just hit shots. And yes, at Tyler’s size there will be times that bigger players can just shoot over him even when he is in good position. Size does make a difference.

What was really funny to me was one time that the Miami kid drove in for a lay-up the commentator made the remark that “Lewis needs help; he can’t hold this kid.” You may wonder why that is funny to me? Well, Tyler was on the bench at the time and still got blamed for it… 

I’m not worried about Tyler! He has “faced giants” all of his life and he will respond like a champ!

But it is a great physical picture of a truth we all face… there are giants in the land! We all face “giants” that are trying to destroy us in our spiritual game of life. The enemy puts things before us to try to intimidate us or even take us out…

I’m reading a book called Facing Goliath by JP Jones. The tag on the title is “How A Man Overcomes His Giants To Follow Christ.” Obviously the text he is basing his book off of it the story of David vs Goliath. He points out some very important things…

1.       The Israelites were “dismayed and terrified”! (1 Samuel 17:11)

2.       When Goliath started toward David that David “ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him!” (vs 48)

Jones gets into some specific “Goliaths” that men face in life. They are things such as fear, pride, doubt, etc. So far it is a really good read. And this week’s devo is not to deal with a specific “Goliath” but to encourage you that you can face it!

Yes the “Goliath” is big… bigger than you or me. Our response can  be like the Israelites where we shrink in fear or like David’s where we overcome. One of my favorite stories in the book is Jones recounting a conversation with his daughter. She had watched a scary movie and was scared to go to bed for fear of nightmares. Jones had her read the story of David and Goliath and then started asking her some questions…

Ashton: They were afraid to fight.

JP: Do you know why?

Ashton: Goliath looked too big.

 

JP: Were the Israelites looking at God, or were they looking at Goliath?

Ashton: They were looking at Goliath.

JP: What about David? Who did he look at?

Ashton: He looked at God.

 

I’m not sure what you are facing as you read this. It may be big and size does matter; but I know that God is bigger!!!