Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Team Rudolph

  Anyone who has seen me play traditional sports gets an idea of my capabilities very quickly. I am not Micheal Jordan, Lionel Messi, Troy Polamalu or Mario Lemu. Yes, these are all names I know. My point is that I don't tend to exactly shine when the ball gets thrown my way. Typically I dodge and hope there is minimal damage.While personally I know that my abilities lie elsewhere, these demonstrations of skill tend to make my fellow players wary in passing me the ball.... ever. Today I played with the Washington Street Church of Christ at a sports day. These people, even the ones who do not play competitively, play these games far more often than I do. I went with my cousin, and for the last few games of basketball, no one passed us the ball to the point that it became comical. We called ourselves Team Rudolph because, well, for clarification click this link.

  Sometimes it proverbially kills me to try to endure hours of team sports when no one will trust me with the ball, but at the same time it is a humbling experience and a lot of good can come out of not being the beast in a sport. Victors write the news and the history books, and I think often the guy who is cleaning stalls or striking it out on the basketball court overhears a lot of the victorious chatter. I like Iron Man 3 for a few reasons. First, the villain is cunning. More, the villain come out of nowhere. He begins a broke computer techie with big plans and eventually evolves into a villainous mastermind. The only reason the villain becomes a villain at all is because the good guy turns his back on him. Because the good guy failed to take an interest in what the villain had to say, the villain ended up ruthlessly demolishing both lives and property.
  My point in all this is to demonstrate the potency of faith in a fellow human and that fellow human's reaction to a lack of trust from others. If I'm on a basketball court and no one passes me the ball because I'm not a good player, I take it in stride because hey, it's just a game; but it makes me wonder how I would handle it if no one passed me a ball in the basketball court of life. Would I choose an aggressive path to yank the ball from their grasp, with not regard to the sanctity of their situation? Or, would I choose to wait patiently for the ball while doing nothing?

  As a Christian, it's important to keep practicing while I'm waiting for the ball to be passed. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bb7TSGptd3Y  This song, "While I am Waiting" by John Waller talks about "waiting" in our Christian lives. It's a powerful song, especially for young people. As a friend wrote:
"We often talk about our futuristic selves and wow! we're so patient, outgoing, hospitable, generous, and evangelistic. But if we aren't utilizing today to mold our hearts and abilities, time will creep up on us and we'll still be waiting on our new and improved futuristic selves to appear. God only gives us a day at a time -- it's up to us to make the most of it."


  I'll just close with that (: 

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