August 29, 2022 - Does the coach have a short leash?

Have you ever played for a coach that keeps players on a “short leash’” waiting to yank them to the bench every time they do something wrong? That type of coach is typically not much fun to play for… it leaves players tight and more prone to make mistakes. As a coach I wanted to do things for the good of the team… 

When players simply messed up, I would often leave them on the floor to learn, or play through, their mistakes… and if I did yank them out of the game, it was simply to explain the plan better and then get them right back in to try again; yet, if the mistake was willful disregard to what I had instructed, I was more apt to yank on the leash and give them a seat next to me to talk about their willingness to follow the game plan… In other words, I believed that poor execution of a play or skill needed repeated opportunities to get it right… but poor understanding needed me to explain things better… and a poor attitude needed an attitude-adjustment… a change in the way they were thinking.

Bottom line was that I always hoped as a coach to get the players thinking right, knowing that was needed for them to play right. My goal was for the team to be better, but that required individuals to be better… BUT WHEN THE PLAYERS FAILED TO SEE MY HEART IN THE MATTER AS THE COACH, THEY TENDED TO TIGHTEN UP OR EVEN SHUT DOWN. (Unfortunately, I can remember some times I failed to follow my own principle and can still picture the hurt on the players’ faces… times when I needed to think differently!)

This all came to mind today as I thought about how people view God… some assuming He is just sitting in heaven waiting for us to mess up and yanks us out of the game… or some theological views that He is just waiting to kick us off the team... some looking at others in judgement and questioning why God is “looking the other way.” I’m not going to try in this short weekly devotional to write a theology treatise, but I am going to let the Playbook itself answer it…

Romans 2:3-4 And do you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things, and do the same, that you will escape the judgement of God? Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?

2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

The end goal seems to be thinking right… which leads to playing right…

[Definition: Metanoia (repentance) = a change of mind]

Aren’t you thankful for a God that is longsuffering and lets us play through some mistakes? I say/write it often but here it goes again: GOD IS ON YOUR SIDE!

August 22, 2022 - Avoid The Traps!

Evaluate where you are going and what you are doing…

I’ve written many many many times about former players and the one that has most certainly received the most attention has been a guy that was in middle school when he played high school ball for me… not just played, but dominated… Lil’ T (Tyler Lewis).

As a youngster he already just had this incredible mind for seeing the game… almost like it was in slow motion to him. I coached many guys that were more athletic… and some guys that were more skilled… but no one that saw the game like him.

I was reminded of him while reading the Proverbs today. I will get to the Proverb in just a moment, but first the memory that came to mind. It was actually after T had moved on to a different school and his team was playing a bit short-handed against a very solid… very athletic… pressure-oriented opponent. Some of the guys that went to watch this game with me were in high school and were talking much smack about how they would shut T down if they were playing… all the while I knew that T’s team is getting ready to play against much better defenders than the guys that were talking so much, and I told them so. (In fact, to the one that was talking the most, I finally stated, “How would you do that, you aren’t a good defender to start with?” I then told the boys with me, “Just watch…”)

T didn’t disappoint that day… against a higher rated team, that had stronger athletes than T and his teammates… we watched as the opponent simply could not take advantage of their pressure defense… why?... BECAUSE THEY COULD NEVER GET T IN ONE OF THEIR TRAPS!

You see Tyler simply was a step ahead always… making reads that kept him out of “danger” and freed his team up to play their game. Tyler’s team won that game to many peoples’ surprise, but not to the surprise of this old guy that knew what an incredible mind for the game T has!

In life we will face many opponents/obstacles that are bigger and badder than us… but the secret to success is not always in being better but in being smarter… evaluating or “making reads” about what is ahead. And for those of us that are believers, we know that God’s Playbook gives us warnings and directions that will help us avoid the opponent’s (enemy’s) traps!

Proverbs 22:3 A prudent man foresees evil and hides himself, but the simple pass on and are punished.

Are you just blindly “dribbling” through life, or are you making good reads to make the right plays?

August 15, 2022 - Absurd Game Scenarios

Scenario 1: Imagine with me a young man who worked hard on dunking… learning many spectacular dunks… hearing friends encourage him… and he enters a dunk competition… (to be continued…) 

Scenario 2: Imagine with me a young lady that has worked hard on her shooting and steps into a game and drains 5 straight 3-pointers… hearing the amazement of the onlookers… (to be continued…)

S1: So the dunk competition comes around and the young man steps out onto the court with great confidence… after all his friends and family had admired his work ethic and even cheered him on… yet when it comes time for his first round of dunks, he can’t even successfully complete that most basic slam… THE PROBLEM?

S2: Or what about the young lady that had worked so hard… her supporters are maybe amazed at her skill set… but she looks up to the scoreboard to find her team is behind 15-0… THE PROBLEM?

THE PROBLEM?: it is not a problem of effort or of sincerity… it is a problem of truth… what I didn’t tell in the stories…

S1: the young man had been practicing on an 8’ goal instead of a 10’ goal… and those around him were more interested in his effort than in TRUTH…

S2: much like scene 1, the problem comes down to TRUTH… the fans were so interested in just being encouragers and supporters that they failed to point out she was shooting at the wrong goal 

I write and preach often about the importance of being encouragers… and especially highlight being full of GRACE… YET, GRACE should never be delivered separate of TRUTH… they must go hand in hand! In fact, that is how our Savior is described… “full of GRACE and TRUTH.” (John 1:14) Likewise, TRUTH should always be spoken “in LOVE!” (Ephesians 4:15) GRACE, LOVE, & TRUTH should always be in harmony with one another…

The absurd scenarios I gave are a result of very regular conversations I find myself in…  where folks tend to be either so GRACE / LOVE motivated that they fail to share TRUTH… or so TRUTH motivated that they fail to deliver it with GRACE / LOVE.

The TRUTH is that God was very hard on sin… willing to allow His Son to die for it… and that hard TRUTH was motivated by incredible LOVE! (Romans 5:8)

Ephesians 1:13 In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of TRUTH, the gospel of your salvation…

It seems nice to just be loving and grace-full, but the most loving and grace-full thing we can do is share the truth! After all, it is the TRUTH that sets men free! (John 8:32)

August 8, 2022 - Gaining Perspective

I have admitted in the past that as a player I didn’t enjoy watching game film… the reason was my pride; I didn’t like watching my mistakes… I didn’t like seeing that maybe I wasn’t as good as I thought I was… and sometimes failed to realize that the game film may show I wasn’t as bad as I thought I was when we had lost… 

In reality there are great benefits to looking back… but it is dangerous to dwell there on the positive or the negative! Thinking too highly or too lowly of oneself will lead to poor play today!

Dwelling too much on self takes the focus off of the team…

Romans 12:3 For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly…

Romans 12:5 so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.

Let’s focus on the we not the me… not spending too much time on past accomplishments or failures… just enough time to gain perspective to make a difference for the team today.

Remember that the rear-view mirror should be way smaller than the windshield and only used for perspective!

August 1, 2022 - Bad Players Are Harder To Play Against (Spiritually Clumsy)

When I was still playing hoops on a regular basis, and especially when I had some athleticism still where I could get some air between my sneakers and the floor, I found it much easier to play against good players than bad. That may sound strange but the reality was that good players were good typically because they had an understanding of the game, maybe good athleticism and skill sets… adversely bad players typically don’t understand the game as well or are possibly just a step slower or even clumsy, leading to them often being out of position… creating at times fouls that appear to be malicious and may cause injuries, when in fact they are just a result of players that are late getting to their spots…

In life, I would suggest that more people get emotionally hurt unintentionally than intentionally. Yes, there are some mean folks out there but more often than not, “injuries” take place when an inexperienced (my nice way of saying immature… socially and/or spiritually) person fails to communicate OR miscommunicates OR simply doesn’t take into account the other person’s feelings, motives, character, etc.

A much needed coaching admonition this week… the Playbook gives us clear directives over and over to “consider one another”… and it gives very direct instructions about how we should communicate:

LET YOUR SPEECH ALWAYS BE WITH GRACE, SEASONED WITH SALT, THAT YOU MAY KNOW HOW YOU OUGHT TO ANSWER ONE ANOTHER. (Colossians 4:6)

Do you see that simple truth? We OUGHT to be GRACE-full in how we communicate to others. That demands of us to not value personal pride over unity… to not demand fairness… GRACE is not fair! It eliminates a get-even mentality.

I believe that we need to get “in better shape” spiritually so we are not un-GRACE-full in how we deal with others… Spiritually clumsy people are hard to deal with and cause “injuries” with being in the wrong position… late to their spots… etc.