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As I pulled up ESPN.com today I saw a headline about the
passing of baseball player Bill Buckner…
Buckner was a first baseman for the Boston Red Sox that
had an incredible career; it was a great read to see what his teammates had to
say about him… He was known for his great work ethic… his fierce
competitiveness… his phenomenal skill set (even winning a batting title one
year.) This guy was quite a player before his knees started failing him, which
leads to the headline that caught my eye…
“Remember the late Bill Buckner for the ballplayer, not
for the play”
Most baseball fans remember him more for a ball going through
his legs in game 6 of the 1986 World Series; considered to be one of the all-time
low-lights of major sports history. Buckner is remembered for an error… not
taking into account his bad knees he was playing on… and not taking into
account his phenomenal career around that error.
I could go on talking about the greatness of Buckner’s
career/abilities, but instead want to simply use this point to encourage each
of us to not be defined by individual plays but by consistent “careers.”
King David made some errors, yet was called “a man after
God’s own heart.” And of course we could make a long list of others in the
Bible that screwed up, only to recover and honor the Lord.
Bottom line this week: Not everything that describes me
defines me!
We tend to define people by individual issues they are
dealing with… forgetting a simple truth I recently heard a speaker make… he
basically said that we are all broken and shouldn’t be defined by that, but
instead by the incredible truth that Christ has covered our brokenness.
Give folks a break when they “commit an error”… don’t
discount their whole lives… God’s not through with them… why should you be?
Give yourself a break if you have “committed an error”… don’t
let it define you… there’s still a lot of “game left to play”!
When our “careers” are over, will folks define us by our
mistakes or by our faithfulness? (Thinking of an old Steve Greene song that
said, “may all who come behind us find us faithful.”) Will people remember the “player”
or the “play”?
Proverbs 20:6 Most men will proclaim each his own goodness,
but who can find a faithful man?
“Stay locked in on the game…”
What great words that were shared by the mom and fiancé of
an NBA player… one that is now dominating the series he is in… one that just
had a game where his coached called him a “wrecking ball” on the court… one
that even has players from the other team talking about how he seems to always
be in the right place at the right time…
Draymond Green is having a spectacular series, (and has been
spectacular throughout the playoffs.) The beauty of this is that he heard
criticism from his mom and fiancé, and then decided to actually look at himself
in the mirror. His conclusion: “I was doing more crying than playing… I’m sure
it was disgusting to watch, ‘cause I felt disgusting playing that way… I just
wanted to lock back in on the game… I also have some little ones at the house that’s
enjoying watching me play, I don’t necessarily want them to see that, so I decided
to be more mindful of it.”
There are numerous lessons we could take from Draymond’s
news conference… but I am going to take the most basic (and refreshing) one
that jumps out to me… in order to “lock in” to the game of life one must be
willing to look at oneself honestly!
Check out these verses:
Lamentations 3:40 Let us search out and examine our ways,
and turn back to the Lord.
Psalm 119:59 I thought about my ways, and turned my feet
to your testimonies.
Have you ever just messed up? Maybe it was that you
didn’t do what you were supposed to do… or simply did it wrong… or maybe just
did the wrong thing? Athletes deal with this all the time… sometimes it is just
not their night…
It seemed that way the other night in the NBA playoffs
when Steph Curry was held scoreless in the first half of his game… he was an
“0-for” (for non-athletes that means he hit zero of his shots.) It was a very
“un-Steph-like” performance… most would be tempted to dwell on this failure at
halftime, but Steph is a shooter, and shooters shoot! They must have a short
memory that always trust the next one is going in. Steph responded by scoring
33 points in the second half and leading his team to victory.
Bottom line is that for an athlete, one is defined by
past preparation… not by past failures. Steph has taken millions of shots over
his life to prepare for his stage… and refused to be defined by 5 missed shots
in a half.
Starting now preparing to succeed and do not be defined
by past mistakes, be refined by them. They can be a great education in what we
are doing wrong… maybe it was wrong technique… being in the wrong place…
whatever…
Isaiah 43:18-19 (The Message) “Forget about what has
happened; don’t keep going over old history. Be alert, be present, I’m about to
do something brand-new. I’m bursting out! Don’t you see it? There it is! I’m
making a road through the desert, rivers in the badlands.”
God is at work in your life… let Him take lead… don’t be
defined by who you were… be refined into the new you!
Philippians 1:6 (NKJV) Being confident of this very
thing, that He who begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of
Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:13-14 (NKJV) Brethren, I do not count
myself to have apprehended, but one thing I do, forgetting those things which
are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward
the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Keep going! Keep serving! (Even if mistakes have been
made!) Remember you must take the shot to score…
Great players have an ability to play with urgency, while
still playing with a calmness… they think clearly in spite of the circumstances…
they are not panicked but instead precise, trusting what they have learned and
prepared for…
One of my most often used quotes in coaching/ministering
came from John Wooden (and I’ve used it many times over the years in theses
weekly devotions): “Be quick but don’t hurry!” This can happen when one will “trust
the process.” That is a newer popular phrase that simply means we learn to
stick to the game plan…
We cannot trust the process if we are not fully aware of
it… for example, a player that doesn’t feel confident with the team plays will
tend to either miss making the right move… or could make the right move but at
the wrong time. When not sure of the
plays, the brain gets hurried or scrambled and mistakes are made…
This is true in life as well… things get hurried and we are
left having to make decisions under pressure. Scripture tells us we can be “players”
that understand that in spite of urgency we can be calm… that don’t panic but
are instead precise… “players” that trust what we have learned… PREPARATION
PRODUCES PRECISION (good decisions) and ELIMINATES PANIC!
Therein lies the issue… we have to have learned the “plays”
in order to be able to trust…
Philippians 4:6a Be anxious for nothing…
Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and
lean not on your own understanding ;
Psalm 119:32a I will run the course of Your commandments…
Psalm 23 reminds us that by knowing/trusting the Lord we
will lie down in green pastures… walk beside still waters… fear no evil… be comforted…
Sounds like a description of a great “player”… trusting
the process God has set for the “game” of life!
LEARN THE PLAYBOOK!
