Recently I was having a talk with a dear friend who is a pastor in Indiana… we were discussing life and ministry, and waxing philosophical… and during that, as he shared an illustration he had used in a sermon, we landed on a simple truth that good and right are not synonyms!
Let me explain what I mean from a hoops perspective… when I was 18 years old I was coaching my first team, a junior high team that was at a school that hadn’t won a junior high game in many years. The players on that team were for the most part very inexperienced, with only one or two guys that had actually played organized. I was making many of my decisions based upon long term goals, more so than short term scoreboard gains. The season was going pretty well as we opened up with a blowout victory over a rival conference school… BUT there was so much learning to do, and as a coach the job was about more than the won/loss column!
This was at a time when the 3-point line had been introduced to the game… and during a hard-fought game one of my guys let a 3 fly… swish… nothing but the bottom of the net! I’m sure our fans, and especially his family members, were going crazy… I’m equally sure they were going crazy in a bad way when I immediately benched him! (Which left us with just 4 players due to others fouling out earlier…) I’m sure I looked like an idiot to the fans… and one referee came over and questioned my decision. Remember I was a really young coach.
Yes, the shot was a good shot… BUT it wasn’t the right shot. You see I had told my team how many passes I wanted them to get in on each offensive set, and the 3 was taken after just one pass. It may sound like I was a control freak, but I knew my guys needed the work to grow as a team, and I happen to believe players should listen to their coaches!
In Genesis 2:9 the garden is described as “every tree… pleasant to the sight and good for food.” So is each tree good? Of course… but not each tree is right… as the “Tree of Knowledge” is mentioned as being part of that garden of trees… and we know that in verse 17 God clearly said it was not right to eat of that tree… you see it? GOOD and RIGHT are not the same thing!
Bottom line this week is that God is the Coach, and we should listen to Him even if we don’t feel like it… even if something to the contrary looks good… even if it is good… I love an old phrase I heard: Don’t let good be the enemy of the best!
Yes, in the game I was coaching the 3-pointer gave an initial gain, but it harmed the process of the team learning to trust the coach… of the team allowing the coach to teach them things that would help them grow as players.
What God says to do or not do is right! “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding…” (Proverbs 3:5)
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