One of my favorite things to see on the basketball court
is an alley-oop dunk… that time when the players are in their normal set…
making solid passes they have worked on in practice… and then it happens: the player
with the ball and one of his teammates both see an opening that everyone else
is unaware of…
Picture the point guard being outside of the 3-point line
and he just lofts a high pass out of the blue (seemingly with no target…) and then
there appears another player appearing from out of the blue… flying high above
the normal play on the court to catch it and throw it down… AND THE CROWD
ERRUPTS!
Some players just have a way of seeing things…
possibilities… that others cannot see. As a coach I at times defended passes
that flew out of bounds with seemingly no target… because I realized the guy
making the pass saw something his teammate didn’t see. In that case it appears
as a turnover on the passer… but, the problem was the teammate not cutting
where he was supposed to.
I listened to a message yesterday that dealt with the “Feeding
of the 5000” account found in Scripture: John 6:5 Then Jesus lifted up His eyes,
and seeing a great, multitude coming toward Him, He said to Philip, “Where
shall we buy bread, that these may eat?”
Jesus and the disciples saw a ministry/life dilemma… a
need that had the lane clogged up with no apparent open passes… Philip saw a
monetary restriction as feeding the multitude would cost more than they had (he
saw the budget)… Andrew saw a boy with a little bit of food, but saw the
insufficiency of what was on hand (he saw the bank account)… the disciples had
sight, but no vision!
Jesus saw the possibilities and knew that the Father
would provide when we follow the vision of ministry… follow His will. And we
know the story, they fed the multitude until they were full, and even had
enough left over to fill 12 baskets with the fragments.
As a coach, I teach for us to make good passes to open
teammates, the way we had planned; but we also need to allow for court vision
that sees possibilities beyond the norm. What vision has God given you in
ministry? If it is truly from Him… in line with His will… that pass is open!
(And if it fails, it may be because your teammates failed to have the same
vision…)
I will confess that this week’s devotion comes from a
very personal place of seeing a vision of a need being met for our ministry…
being ready to make the pass in order to convert… but also realizing we need
teammates that cut to the right place. I am going to be throwing up an
alley-oop trusting there is a slam dunk on the other end!
But I want the same for you! Tell us about your vision…
let’s see how we can help you convert it…
Helen Keller said, “It’s a terrible thing to see, and
have no vision!”
“Basketball is my favorite sport, I like the way they
dribble up and down the court… I like slam dunks, take it to the hoop, and my
favorite play is the alley-oop…” (Kurtis Blow)
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