January 27, 2020 - 24 Seconds

In the NBA there is a 24-second shot clock… a rule designed to speed up the rate of play. A team knows that it has 24 seconds from the time they take possession of the ball to get up a shot to the goal that at least touches the rim. Therefore, the team needs to use its time wisely.

(I love the word THEREFORE… it demands us to consider a cause and effect relationship on things… in other words, because one thing is true the response should be this… We are actually prepping for a lot of time on the road for The THEREFORE Tour… stay tuned for information on that.)

The 24-second clock came to mind as new erupted yesterday about the death of 9 people in a helicopter crash in CA, including NBA legend Kobe Bryant and his daughter. It has rocked people’s worlds… causing them to reflect on life… causing some to try to make sure they get relationships mended… etc. Kobe’s wore the number 24 and many teams last night took intentional 24-second violations in honor of him.

It was a beautiful gesture to honor him, but in mind went much deeper to remind us that life has a shot clock that will eventually run out, and we need to determine how to use the “clock” wisely to make things happen.

As we head the news, my daughter was doing a devotion; it used James 4:14 as text: …whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow.  For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.

Time is fleeting… THEREFORE, are you going to get off good shots in your life? The tragic loss of life in yesterday’s crash is causing a lot of reflection in people. Please pray for all of these families! Pray for those consoling them to know when to speak vs when to just hold them!

And finally, remember you are on the clock! Take good shots… get to the goal. (I am leaning toward a series of THEREFORE devotions over the next few weeks. I want to take time in our weekly huddle to remind us of truths that should transform us!)

January 20, 2020 - ONE

Playing favorites… all through my athletic career as a player and a coach I would hear those words. From the time I was playing Little League baseball for my dad and would hear that I only was playing because my dad was the coach (in spite of me having better stats than others and being a selected to all-stars every year)… to being told I was playing favorites when playing a small, young player (in spite of him being good enough to eventually be a McDonalds All America player and collegiate star…)

Bottom line is that coaches do play favorites… and their favorites generally are not based upon how one looks or who someone knows… but based upon the players that give the most effort and are committed to the team; and the reality is that those types of players generally turn out to also be the most skilled…

In life, we also run into people’s prejudices that are based upon how someone looks or who they happen to know… in honor of this MLK Jr Day I will share a quote from him: “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

I love that dream… even for the church… that we not characterize people by the amount of melanin they produce but by their value of being created in God’s image and then by their character…

I cared about all of my players!!! But yes, my favorites had the character of being a team player…

There is ONE God… there in ONE race (human)… and there is ONE hope (salvation through Jesus)…

Galatians 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you all are ONE in Christ Jesus.

[Side note: Jesus’s melanin production probably didn’t match most of us reading this devotion!]

January 13, 2020 - Why You Wanna "Be" Like That?

I believe I’ve written some about this concept/analogy before, but it came back to mind again yesterday while in church…

When coaching, one is faced with many decisions to help his team grow… not only in skills but in attitude as individuals and a team… Yes, you teach to try to win games, but it is also important how you win games…

Fans love a blowout win for their team. Yet, blowouts can be fools gold… part your team being good and/or part the other team being really bad. I’ve coached in a few games like that and had tough decisions to make; the reason is that the scoreboard is alluring… and can be deceiving!!!

Scoring is not the only “goal” of coaching a team. It also matters how the team scores; often times when scoring comes easy, bad habits get formed, such as lazy passes… not running sets properly… etc. Or on the other end of the floor, when the other team has trouble scoring, (a nice way to say, lacks the skills to score), it is easy to drop the hands and just be thinking about getting the ball to score again.

I’ve seen many teams running up the score in these circumstances with the fans going crazy, the players jumping up and down, and the coaches often beaming as their teams “look so good.” (When teams play this way, piling on the score, it causes the weaker opponents to ask, “Why you wanna be like that?”)

The problem is what this can do to a team when they face a stronger opponent, the bad habits it can develop. It gets the team more concerned with the scoreboard than doing things the right way. What happens when the opposing team is better at defending those lazy passes? What happens when the opponents can take advantage of your team’s hands being down on defense?

I’m not saying the scoreboard doesn’t matter… just that it doesn’t tell the whole story. The emphasis needs to be on how the team is playing in spite of the scoreboard. As a coach, I wanted to see my team playing beautiful basketball… when winning or losing.

Let’s move this into what this means off the court… Often I hear preaching/teaching that is just looking to the “scoreboard” to motivate the “team.” This happens in a couple of ways:

1. Teaching that only looks toward “heaven” and neglects that salvation, being born again, also relates to our daily living… an old phrase I heard is teaching that gets us so heavenly minded that we are no earthly good.

2. Teaching that insinuates we will always be “up big on the scoreboard” and ignores that life is full of trials and tribulations… that doesn’t allow for how we handle the tough times… prosperity teaching.

I don’t want to turn this into an entire sermon, so I will stick with the verse that jumped out at me yesterday. It is found in the “Beatitudes” in Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount. The term “beatitude” carries the idea of blessed or happy living… literally “a state of utmost bliss.” I have a little different take on the word… I think it is Jesus telling us “how to be (play) attitudes” that lead to happiness…

So basically He taught us that whatever life brings (strong or weak opponents… ahead big, in a tight game, or behind), we need to focus on “playing right”… focusing on doing things the right way… avoiding bad habits… If we want to be happy… content… satisfied…

Matthew 5:6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled (satisfied.)

My coach translation and the bottom line: Although the scoreboard teaches us some things, make sure we are focused on playing the right way in spite of the circumstances… and then we experience the joy and peace that salvation brings… not just in the afterlife, but in the here and now.

Have a beautiful life my friends!

January 6, 2020 - Resolved To Get Better

Well here we are at the start of a new season (year); a time to reflect on last season and determine how to make this new one the best yet…

I’ve made reference many times in these weekly devotions to my friend Jason Otter. Jason is the best basketball trainer I have ever seen; he has an amazing ability to correct movement… to make players efficient by not only eliminating wrong movement, but also eliminating wasted movement.

As I was preaching yesterday in FL, I followed suit with having a bit of a New Year’s Resolutions type of message… and basically resolutions are where we typically make promises to be better “players.” What was very typical yesterday is that I found many adults that no longer make resolutions, because the older one gets, the more we recognize how seldom we follow through with the resolutions. When it boils down to it most are not resolute about their plans, more just hopeful or wishful thoughts.

The definition of “resolution” is “the firm decision to do or not do something.” (Oxford Dictionary)

As I taught on the subject yesterday, I started, in typical fashion, with the message of how we get on God’s team in the first place… the message of “by grace through faith”! And with that I admitted that many accuse me, and others that teach the freeness of salvation, of giving people a license to sin. I then stole a bunch of points from my dear friend Grant Hawley (executive director of the Free Grace Alliance.) Grant wrote an article entitled “God hates sin BECAUSE He loves the sinner.”

Grant stated that when people ask what prevents a person, saved only by just believing in what Christ has done, from just going out and living like the devil? I LOVE Grant’s response: “Why on earth would you want to do that?”

1.       Sin is an evil tyrant that seeks to bring you into slavery (Rom 7) [wretched man]

2.       Sin makes people miserable and destroys everything it touches (Romans 6:21-23)

3.       Sin, at the very least, dissipates (wastes) your life away leaving you feeling empty (Eph 5:18)

Notice that Grant, like Jason does with basketball training, states that we should do away with the wrong habits… not just the things “against the rules,” but things that are a waste. He is basically saying if a believer wants joy and peace, he needs to live a spiritually efficient life.

Yet the title of his article is where the real truth lies… it is my encouragement for you this week and this year… it is the thing I want us to be resolute about…

I don’t think that ultimately the answer is making a check list of what I will or won’t do… BUT instead resolving to trust God! When we understand that He warns about thing BECAUSE He loves us… and recognize that living in the way He tells us we should live is simply a matter of trusting this truth… we will then find victory and its results of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, etc.

2020 Resolution: Holiness [Be holy because He is holy! (1 Pet 1:13-16)]

How is holiness attained? Romans 1:17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as It is written, “the just shall live by faith.” COMMIT TO TRUSTING GOD, not just for your justification but also for your sanctification! It is a guaranteed path to being a “better player”!