Have you ever noticed that when things get tough attitudes tend to deteriorate? Often people get more irritable and short-tempered when feeling pressure… when the water comes to a boil, people start to whistle and make noise… and we are typically most noisy to those closest to us.
In life and sport there is an old cliché: when the going gets tough the tough get going! This phrase/proverb is often attributed to famed football coach Knute Rockne (and elicits in this old lover of R&B music the sound of Billy Ocean in my head.)
It is on my mind due to watching how some of the basketball players I watched over the past few days in the NCAA tourney seemed to lack an understanding of playing with a sense of urgency when time was running out. In one game the game was tied with less than 10 seconds left and the star player of the team with the ball casually walked the ball down and ended up taking a horrible long three-pointer with defenders all over him… the shot wasn’t even close. In another game I noticed players on a team that was behind starting to try to preserve time by rolling the inbounds pass in to delay the start of the clock, only to see the guard pick the ball up while still deep in the backcourt and then walk the ball up… again no sense of urgency…
I am a proponent of making good choices in urgent situations… I often quote one of my heroes, John Wooden, who stated, “be quick but don’t hurry!” In other words, being under control is not a call to be nonchalant but a call to be clear of purpose in the midst of the chaos.
Well, we are in a time where we are hearing much about urgency and pressure… what is happening to the American economy/culture? What is going on in the Middle East? What does this mean in relation to end times?
As a coach (minister) it is easy to fall back on the urgency to score (get the ball down the court and in the basket… EVANGELIZE) and I believe a Biblical reasoning can be given… Jesus told us the “fields are white unto harvest" (John 4:35) thus indicating the urgency to EVANGELIZE has been there all along for us… John 9:4 records Jesus’s approach to His urgent times with Him stating, “I must work the works of Him who sent me while it is day…”
I think we will all agree in theory that EVANGELISM is an urgent matter. BUT I saw something while preparing today that really hit home based upon our TEAM PHILOSPHY.
1 Peter 4 addresses the urgency of the times:
7 But the end of all things is at hand; THEREFORE be serious and watchful in your prayers.
Serious and watchful carry the idea of being in one’s right mind… calm and collected in spirit… or in Wooden’s words “don’t hurry!”
Then it is interesting as the Apostle Peter is not led by the spirit to encourage the urgency of EVANGELISM (even though we know that is true and has been since the time of Christ) but instead is led to encourage the importance of TEAM! When the water comes to a boil what will those close to us hear?
8 And above all things have fervent love for one another, “for love will cover a multitude of sins.” 9 Be hospitable to one another without grumbling. 10 As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
“Above all things” how one ministers to and responds to TEAMMATES
is the urgent call of the hour. We are still trying to score BUT as a TEAM!
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