November 27, 2017 - Trust the Process!

Today I had a little powwow with my middle school girls’ basketball team. A couple of weeks ago we had our first regular season game and we have quite a few inexperienced gals… and we were playing on less than 2 weeks of practice; basically, I’m saying we played but I knew going in we weren’t necessarily ready.

The game plan going into that game was simply to go through the things we were learning in practices and not be dictated by the other team, or even the scoreboard of the game. Therefore, in that game I evaluated and observed in order to prepare for the season ahead. (We don’t play again until Dec 15.) There was a method and plan going in… even down to our exact substitution patterns for the game.

Today we returned to practice from our Thanksgiving break and I started implementing some more things that will form our identity as a team. I am specifically building a defense that fits our strengths… our offense will start to build on our strengths… etc.

The powwow was at the end of the practice and I simply told the girls to “trust the process!” Those are words coaches use often when building a program… it requires those involved to exercise patience… to stick with the plan… I told the girls that in spite of losing on the scoreboard a couple of weeks ago, I could see that we are going to be a really good team! (I even started painting a picture in their minds of who I envisioned them being on the defensive end… telling them that opposing teams will go to bed at night and start screaming when they close their eyes thinking our girls were coming at them!)

I have a plan!

To give credit where credit is due, tonight’s devotion was first spurred in my mind by a gentleman I heard speaking to some of our juniors and seniors at the school this morning. He was from Liberty University’s aviation program… I don’t remember his first name but can’t forget his last… it is Wing.

Mr. Wing shared some incredible truths about his time on the mission field, and shared a simple reminder from the Scriptures. He told the students that he was thankful for something he couldn’t see yet… he told them he trusts the plan and process of God… he told them that he was “confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will complete it unto the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1:6)

All of this build up for a reminder of a very basic truth: God is alive and well! God is at work! God’s plan is not dependent upon the “scoreboard” of life! God’s plan will prevail and we need to trust the process!

November 20, 2017 - I Was A Scorer That Passed... Not A Playmaker!

When I was a younger player (teen years) I was definitely more of a scorer than a passer… (old friends are screaming, “Amen!”, right now.) I’ll be honest, I prided myself on being able to get the ball in the hole; yet I also knew the game well enough to know that I was the size of a point guard…

…and a point guard is normally known for his passing abilities, not his scoring. That takes me to a tryout I had at a college in FL. During the scrimmage I made it a point to distribute the ball and show I could play the point; following the scrimmage the coach explained that he thought I was a good player but that he was looking for more of a scorer than a playmaker. My heart was crushed… I wanted to have him call my friends, so they could explain that I normally was not that generous with the ball.

That brings me to this week’s point… yesterday our pastor was preaching about how to “be rich”; note: not how to get rich but instead how to be rich. In comparison to most of the world, we each have an abundance of riches and the Scripture gives instruction and warning to those that are “rich.”

1 Timothy 6:17 Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty,… 18 Let them do good works, ready to give, willing to share,

The reason I shared the story of my tryout is this; just because I spent one scrimmage trying to be a passing playmaker, it didn’t mean that is what I was… I was simply a scorer that passed. Pastor Matt brought the point out yesterday that if your answer to if you are generous is, “Yeah, one time I…”, then you are not a generous person, you are simply a normally selfish person that gave. (Italics are my words, Matt was more tactful than that.)

We are called to not just give, but to be generous!

Here is an excerpt from one of the daily student devotions I write for our school:

2 Corinthians 9: 11 …while you are enriched in everything for all liberality, which causes thanksgiving through us to God.

God has given liberally to us! We are blessed to have food, shelter, clothing, heat/air, clean water, transportation, etc. I know that even here at the school we are very diverse economically; (I don’t have a big house and a boat… but I am super thankful I have friends that do.) But in the global scheme of things, we are all filthy rich and not quite so diverse…

Notice that the verse in 2 Corinthians says we are “enriched… for all liberality.”

Now hear it from The Message paraphrase: He gives you something you can then give away,

Application: What does a thankful man look like? He looks like a generous man!

Check out how Psalm 112:9a describes a good man (which is quoted in 2 Corinthians 9):

He has dispersed abroad, he has given to the poor…

Here is that thought in The Message:

He throws caution to the winds, giving to the needy in reckless abandon.

The last part of 2 Corinthians 9:11 states that when we are liberal in giving it “causes thanksgiving in us to God.” To me that means we actually experience thanksgiving, not just celebrate it!

Happy Thanksgiving stems from Happy Giving!