August 30, 2021 - Not Out of Timeouts

“With the seconds ticking away, Webber was lost and knew he was about to be trapped in the corner. He needed help, and he knew it. But no sweat, there were still 11 seconds remaining. Plenty of time. So, he called a timeout.

One problem: Michigan was out of timeouts.”

(ESPN)

This was in an article about the infamous timeout call that Chris Webber made, with his team trailing by two points… a time when the pressure mounted and Webber went to his instinct of getting to the huddle to find instruction, comfort, etc. The problem is that in sports you are not allowed unlimited timeouts!

According to an article on Wikipedia…  “In sports, a time-out or timeout is a halt in the play. This allows the coaches of either team to communicate with the team, e.g., to determine strategy or inspire morale, as well as to stop the game clock.”

All of that intro to remind us of what a GREAT TOOL a timeout is… an awesome opportunity to hear from the coach when we need rest… when we need encouragement… when we need a game plan… or even just to get comfort when things aren’t going our way.

Right now, life is REALLY HARD for many. Our church is finishing up a week-long prayer vigil where “teammates” committed to 1-hour slots of prayer… and honestly there is just a whole lot of pressure where many feel “trapped” and “need help.”

So, a simple reminder today… “The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth.” (Psalm 145)

CALL A TIMEOUT… WE ARE NEVER OUT OF TIMEOUTS!

August 23, 2021 - Quickly From Mountain Tops To Valleys

In the past I have written about athletes’ testimonies of how they felt jubilation upon winning, only to followed at quickly by depression… wondering about if the medals/trophies are all there is??? 

Recently there has been much talk of the mental state of athletes, with many admitting to their mental health struggles. We have seen Olympic champions bowing out of competition… tennis champions withdrawing from tournaments… etc.

Michael Phelps has won a record 23 gold medals in the Olympics, yet has shared that following the 2012 Olympics he became very depressed… to the point of being suicidal.

These are examples of athletes that have risen to the top… only to find themselves unfulfilled. They are not alone… they are facing questions that have plagued mankind… question of the meaning and purpose of life. Think about it, these athletes have literally had to give their lives to arrive at the podium… only to either retire or get back to the grind.

Solomon had similar observations about life. In fact, he stated in Ecclesiastes 2:22-23: For what has man for all his labor, and for the striving of his heart with which he has toiled under the sun? For all his days are sorrowful, and his work burdensome; even in the night his heart takes no rest. This is also vanity.

In the passage Solomon was realizing that in an of itself, all the hard work and accomplishments of his life would eventually be left to someone who had not put in the work… it seemed very hollow… to be “vanity.” (And that word has the idea of being worthless or futile… and the idea of being a vapor…)

For time’s sake let me get to his conclusions… 24 Nothing is better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and that his soul should enjoy good in his labor.

He is saying that if a man is going to work hard, then he should enjoy the fruits of his labor… I believe he is talking about a great sense of satisfaction and accomplishment… Yet, he gives another piece to this observation, that it is only truly lasting and meaningful when there is recognition of the source…

24b This also, I saw, was from the hand of God.

Throughout the book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon (the wisest man to live) concludes over and over again that life only has meaning when our focus/motivation is God! Here is a Players’ Prayer I penned years ago:

Lord, as I lace them up today, I pray that you will be honored through my attitude and actions. I pray that others will see a difference in me. I commit that no one will work harder than I do, because You deserve my best in all I do. I commit that I will respect others --- teammates, coaches, referees, opponents. Lord, be glorified! In Jesus’ name I play and pray, Amen!

August 16, 2021 - Dealing With Pressure

Over the many decades I have been a basketball player… coach… trainer… fan, I have witnessed many different styles and philosophies of play; and of course, over the many decades I have been a believer… teacher… missionary… minister, I have witnessed different styles and philosophies of living. 

The thing that came to mind for this week’s devo is the style/philosophy in which we face adversity. Many “players” attempt to deal with pressure by avoiding it… yet, I have always had a mentality that the best way to handle pressure is to attack it.

A common approach when I was younger was to always try to get into the “belly” of the defense… or the idea of taking the ball right at a shot blocker…

I remember playing in a 4v4 tourney years ago and facing a very stacked team with a 7-footer in the middle. The guy had played division 1 college ball and was home in the off-season from his overseas pro gig… I, on the other hand, was already greatly out of playing shape (unless looking like you have a basketball under your shirt is being in shape…) Basically, we had a group of guys that got into this tourney to simply have some fun and we ran into a team of guys that were young, athletic, and still competing at a very high level. I decided to set the tone for our team; knowing we were greatly outmanned, I decided the best approach for us was to simply “attack” …

I will tell you that we surprised them greatly and were tied with them at half… eventually dropping the game 114-100 (I think was the score.) How did I set the tone to “attack”? On my first touch, I took the ball down the baseline and went up to throw down a dunk on the 7-footer; he proceeded to throw my attempt into the seat (I still think he fouled me; and in all honesty, even if he wouldn’t have, I couldn’t dunk anymore at that point of my playing days), BUT I had let my team know we were not going to try to avoid adversity, but instead face it head on!

When I think about my playing days, I truly was a MUCH BETTER shooter when under pressure. In fact, some guys that played against me regularly would tell their teammates to lay off of me outside… basically the more the defender got into my space, the more focused I would become, resulting in better mechanics. When the game was on the line, I became a dynamite free throw shooter, as I tended to mentally lock in better.

Basically, I am reminiscing about the “good ole days” because I see how so many people, including Bible teachers, act as thought the goal of the Christian life is comfort and avoiding pressure. I’m just not sure what Bible folks are reading, as I see that much of the ink used to write it was concerning how we face struggles, not how we avoid them. Therefore, even our prayer lives revolve around being rescued more than around how we can “get into the belly” of the pressure.

Yesterday at church I was reminded of Paul and Silas in jail, when the earthquake jarred open the cells and broke their chains… they determined they were not freed to run from, but freed to run to making a difference in people’s lives…

Romans 12 gives us a really cool picture of what our “team philosophy” should be… and in verse 12 it even tells us how to face pressure: “…persevering in tribulation…” (NASB2020)

That word “persevering” has the idea of remaining and enduring… doesn’t sound like the goal is remove it but to use it…

Pressure is simply opportunities to Go MAD (Make A Difference)!

August 9, 2021 - Leaders Learn (Title somewhat stolen from my dear friend Coach Todd James)

Today brought numerous reminders of the same basic truth that I want to share for this week… I was speaking at a teacher orientation for a Christian school on how a Biblical Worldview should change the campus culture… I have spoken on this before but loved digging further into some research 

In the classroom we wonder how the kids are receiving instruction…; In the workplace we discuss moral… if it is a good place to work…; and we could go on asking questions of any environment we find ourselves in… which in essence is asking if it is a good culture.

In the sports world we often hear about team culture… about what sets apart a program for excellence (or the adverse of where a program went wrong.) I always am interested in how the players view the coach…

There are many things we could jump into this week from these thoughts, but the main thing that has jumped out today (in things I have read… in discussions I have had with friends about places they are serving…, etc.) involves a challenge to leaders… BE LEARNERS!

My good friend Todd James sends out devotions and updates at different times in the week… he is a missionary that serves in, and utilizes a basketball platform in, Ireland… and he, like me, loves Coach Wooden. So, each week I get reminded through his messages of Wooden’s wisdom… and Wooden said, “When you're done learning you're done!” (And I think anyone would agree that he was an expert on developing a winning culture.)

As I talked to a friend a few minutes ago, I was sharing that a strong leader has to be honest about himself… learning what God says about him… and learning from what others see in him (things that may be a personal blind spot.)

As I talked to the staff at the Christian school today, I reminded them that even our discipline should be based upon learning about the student… the why is often more important than the what… in order discipline for growth… for reaching desired outcomes.

The other area I have been researching heavily the last few days involves our deep need for God and for others… which REQUIRES a deep need to learn more from the Word, and from taking an intentional interest in others. To steal Coach James’s headline today: LEADERS ARE LEARNERS!

Proverbs 12: 1 Whoever loves instruction/discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates correction is stupid.

August 2, 2021 - Beaten Black and Blue

My mind has been heavy on the idea of “training” today… as I had a 10+ hour drive, I had ample time to ponder this week’s devotion and many other things within our ministry. I was drawn back to the camp I did a couple of weeks ago (and the devotion I shared) that dealt with hard work and preparation (execution of the plans.) “Recruiting” (evangelism) and “Training” (discipleship) continue to be the pillars of what we do!

Yet in some ways, they seem opposed to one another… one is absolutely free, not the result of work on our part… the other is costly, hard, and requires discipline. I know that Jesus said His “yoke is easy” and that His “burden is light.” So how could I say that discipleship is hard?

First of all, understand that in Matthew 11, when Jesus made the easy/light statement, He was dealing with the incredible weight the pharisees had laid upon the people for them to be close to, or pleasing, God. (There were hundreds of laws to obey just to try to get right with God.) Jesus in turn said that in order to be “yoked”/attached to Him and pleasing to the Father, it would be “easy” and that the load would be “light.” Jesus was, I believe giving a glimpse of salvation that is “by grace through faith” and also referring to the fact that pleasing God didn’t require hundreds of laws, but in Jesus’s own words He would share a little later just “love God… love people.” (Matthew 22)

But what about the hard stuff? I thought about multiple passages that came to mind on the idea of training for maturity… throughout the New Testament we see references to this training process…

Hebrews 12:1 telling us to “lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us”

1 Corinthians 9:25 says that one that “competes… is temperate in all things” (exercises self-control)

2 Timothy 3:16-17 tells the value of the Scriptures in “training” and the goal of being “complete” (mature) and “equipped (furnished) for every good work”

Evangelism/Salvation (being on the team) is free and totally dependent upon placing one’s faith in the work of Jesus… Discipleship is the training process of growing and maturing to be used by God.

One other verse that jumped out at me was 1 Corinthians 9:27: But I discipline my body, and bring it into subjection…

Paul here uses an interesting choice of words… he is making a boxing reference in the passage and the word “discipline” has the idea in Greek of beating the body black and blue (picture the boxer having the trainer hitting him in the stomach between each sit-up) so that he is taking his body/life and “bringing it into subjection” which literally means making it a slave… THIS IS HOW PAUL DESCRIBES THE DISCIPLESHIP PROCESS... THAT IS MOTIVATED BY THE DESIRE TO HAVE NOTHING STAND IN THE WAY OF BEING ABLE TO SHARE THE GOSPEL WITH OTHERS!