As I write this week, I must confess I am a bit overwhelmed as I prep for a HUGE trip… It is not uncommon for me to get a bit amped up when our trips approach as I simply am trying to make sure everything is lined up… that I am fully prepared. (In spite of the realization that being prepared is often a illusion… thus our number one rule of missions: Be dogmatically committed to flexibility!)+-
But the bottom line is that I’m getting off the bench and in the game!
I think I have shared this story in the past, but I remember many years ago when I was coaching a 5th/6th grade girls team so I could spend more time around my daughter… during the first game of the year I turned to a young lady to put her in the game and her eyes immediately welled up with tears… she was nervous and felt unsure of the preparation we had put in. Shortly after that, a friend of hers who was also a first year player, looked at her and stated, “I’ll go in if you will go in.” The young lady went in and ended up loving basketball and playing all the way through her high school career! I wasn’t angry as a coach at the initial refusal as I understood I was dealing with a 5th grader that simply needed to gain confidence. (In fact, one of the reasons I was putting her in the game was to instill some confidence.)
That is a positive story of “refusing the coach’s direction”; on a negative side, in the 1994 NBA playoffs, the Chicago Bulls’ Scottie Pippen was given direction from Coach Jackson in the final seconds of a playoff game against the New York Knicks. Scottie did not like the role he was given in the play, (probably because he wasn’t called on to be the hero), and he refused to take the floor. The player that was designed to take the winning shot did so successfully and in the immediate aftermath, it didn’t appear that Pippen’s refusal hurt the team… BUT IT DID!
Stories are even shared of a player crying afterwards in his frustration. The Bulls offense was designed in a way to be reliant upon all the parts, so when any part was missing the results were negative to the team. Jackson was interviewed about the incident after the game and he stated, “Everything we stood for had gone. In one moment, everything had changed.”
Christianity is a team-sport! God has designed for us to work together as one… as a body… as a team.
So what role is God calling you to play? Are you lacking confidence, thus staying on the bench?… Are you unhappy with that role and ignoring it? I will tell you this, if the Coach (God) is calling you to do it, then He knows you have something the team needs or there is something you need in your growth as a “player.
How has God gifted you? He intends for you to be in the game, not on the bench! Is He calling you to be the one taking a shot? Is he calling you to set up someone to take a shot? (Much of a team offense is dependent upon players willing to set up the score! In ministry this can be done by those willing to do the behind the scenes things… or maybe those willing to schedule the opportunities… or maybe when God calls folks to financially support a work…)
WE ARE NOT ON GOD’S TEAM TO BE BENCH WARMERS!
As each one of you has received a gift, minister it to
one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. (1 Peter 4:10)
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