September 30, 2019 - You Gotta Want The Ball!

One of the things I love is doing basketball clinics for young players… I love breaking down the FUNdaMENTALs of the game to their most basic form. This includes simple truths like showing how to use the fingertips to control the ball when dribbling… using proper form shooting… etc.


One area I really enjoy teaching is passing. I break down the position of the hands… how to snap the thumbs down to get backspin and zip on the ball… even where the ball should bounce and where your teammate should catch it on a bounce pass. There is a real art to doing it right, and a huge emphasis is made to repeat these things, so they become second nature…


You may wonder why I bring up teaching passing when there are more exciting things for the kids in the clinics to work on; and let’s be honest, most people are more concerned with getting the ball thrown toe them than throwing it to someone else… and a big part of teaching passing during my clinics includes how to receive a pass. That is where we are going to camp in this devotion… being the receiver of a pass.


In my many years of playing ball, coaching teams, and even some stints teaching PE, I have heard many times complaints like, “they never pass me the ball!” So, we teach not only the mechanics of how to catch the ball, but how to stand when not having the ball… communicate that you want it!


Picture with me the kid in PE that is out on the court standing up straight with arms to the side… looking bored or frustrated. Bottom line is that no one is going to pass to that kid… not because he is not liked… not because the others are intentionally thinking about keeping the ball from him… BUT simply because the kid doesn’t look like he wants the ball. So, we teach staying in an athletic stance with hands up, showing one’s teammate that you are ready and want the ball. We even tell them it is ok to yell, “ball, ball, ball!” This let’s the teammates know you are an option.


This is something I have touched on in past devotions, if you are a person that feels like the church or your friends are not meeting your needs (don’t care), it may be because they simply don’t know about them. BUT I am going to flip the script on this week’s devotion…


Galatians 6:2 Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.


I am flipping the script by this: Let the “ball” represent a heavy weight upon someone instead of representing something that is good. The reality is that often when hurting, people don’t feel comfortable sharing it; it makes them too vulnerable… it’s risky. The word for “burden” literally means a heaviness or trouble; I’m thinking a person under that kind of weight is too busy trying to survive than to share it with others.


Almost every Christian I talk to expresses a willingness to serve… to meet needs; and yes, although it is important to know about those needs. I am encouraging us to communicate our willingness to take the weight of the ball off our teammates... to seek out those needs. We need to be visible (in posture and voice) to our “teammates” that we are there for them to serve them and help them.


“Ball, ball, ball… I’m here to carry that for you!” Many hurting people need to know we are there and available to help, not to judge them. (Read the verses surrounding Galatians 6:2 and you will see the admonition to do this humbly and lovingly.) Don’t just be willing to serve, actively pursue serving others!


Bottom line: You gotta want the ball!

September 23, 2019 - “Playing tired = poor performance!”

This week’s ponderings are the result of discussions I had this weekend with one of our InBounds coaches… and to be fully transparent, my personal and present state of mind… trying to rush and get things in…


As a coach it is imperative that you “read” where your players heads are at… it is easy to get frustrated when a player is making uncharacteristic mistakes in a game or practice… or maybe he is not dealing with his teammates or even the coaching staff well… or maybe he simply seems out of it.


I believe the number one reason players “get stupid” is fatigue. The simple rule is that “Playing tired = poor performance!”


This is true in all areas of life… I try to remind teachers of this when students are acting out… or parents… and I even remind kids/students/players that their leaders are human and subject to the same rule. (Spend time with an infant and you will see this in its purest form… I took my granddaughters to Alabama this weekend to surprise Lisa’s parents. The oldest of the two is just a year and 4 months. She did AWESOME, even on the long 8-hour road trip (each direction); awesome, except when she would start getting sleepy… and then we were all very aware that she no longer wanted to be in her car seat.)


Honestly it didn’t take my granddaughter crying to remind me of this truth… I had been corresponding with my co-laborer Coach Trenton Green, he has recently completed his time with InBounds as an intern and is faithfully serving in ministry back in his home state of Alabama. A group of young people he works with were faced with issues this past week as they realized that they were worn out… Trenton contacted me to ask me what I thought, yet before I could try to give some guidance Trenton started sending Scripture to me and simply asking, “would this be good to share with my friends?” (So, in essence he is helping write this week’s devotion.) Check out these Biblical reminders… (I’m going to use The Message paraphrase because it gives great description to why Trenton mentioned these verses.)


Mark 6:30-31 The apostles then rendezvoused with Jesus and reported on all that they had done and taught. Jesus said, “Come off by yourselves; let’s take a break and get a little rest.” For there was constant coming and going. They didn’t even have time to eat.

(Trenton’s commentary he sent me, “Once they rested, they were able to serve accordingly.”)


Psalm 127:2 It’s useless to rise early and go to bed late and work your fingers to the bone. Don’t you know He enjoys giving rest to those He loves?


As I was driving through the afternoon and evening, I was trying to think about what I was going to write on tonight… I was planning for trying to do something that is good… yet I said I would be transparent… the longer I drove the more irritable and negative my thoughts turned. This tired old man was ready to say forget about this week’s devotion. (We’ve been doing these every Monday since the beginning of 2002… and fatigue started distorting my thoughts! Then as my granddaughter got a bit “crazy” and I thought about how I was a bit “crazy,” I remembered the conversations I had been having with Trenton about fatigue making us “play stupid”!


Get rest my friends!!!