Pass It On

For those that have known me 10 years or less it may be hard to imagine me being skinny but for most of my life I was rail thin.  Not only was I thin but I was also fast.  Growing up in the country I didn’t like wearing shoes.  Many times I would race to the mailbox in my bare feet and my skinny body could cut through the air with ease.  When I entered into Jr. High it was natural for me to go out for track.  I was made for it. 

At one of the home track meets during my 8^th grade year my mom overheard a comment by a gentleman nearby in regard to the next race.  He told another gentleman that he couldn’t wait until next year when this kid who was getting ready to race would be in high school.  I happened to be in that particular race and won pretty easily.  When my mom realized that he was talking about me she said something to her friend and discovered that he was the high school track coach.  Obviously he had seen me run before and couldn’t wait for me to run on his team next year.  That’s a pretty proud moment for a mom.

Fast forward one year to a home track meet as a freshman in high school.  It was our home invitational meet and I was running on the Varsity 4x400 relay where everyone runs a full lap.  Once again my mom was in the stands to cheer her skinny boy on.  I was the first leg of the race and after running 250 meters I would normally go through a mental routine making sure my breathing was steady and that I was pushing myself so I could give the next runner as good of a lead as I could give him.  It was around this time that my mom heard someone else in the stands yell out, “He doesn’t have a baton!”  While going through my mental checklist I came to that very realization.  I didn’t have a baton.  For a quick second I thought that maybe I was running the individual 400 meter race but I could clearly see the other runners lined up.  My next thought was that maybe I could pick up a stick along the track and hand that off instead of a baton.  No such luck.  I saw nothing along the track and as I rounded the corner my ‘stupid freshman’ nightmare was complete.  The starter official was waving me off of the track and our relay team was eliminated.  Despite all of my hard work I had nothing to hand off.  That was a not so proud mom moment.  “I don’t know whose kid that is.”

Last night my wife got the call that her grandmother had passed on.  It was just a few years ago that her grandfather on the other side of the family passed on as well.  In both instances I can’t help but think of the relay races that I was a part of over the course of those 7 years in track and relate it to what Paul says to the church in Corinth.

“Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand.  By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.

For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance…..”--1 Corinthians 15:1-3

As a recipient of the gospel, Paul wants to make sure he makes the hand off to the church.  The gospel is extremely important and he doesn’t want there to be any confusion about it.  This is ‘of first importance’. 

The list of things that Allen and Ruth passed on to others before passing on is a lengthy one.  (Right now in my head I’m hearing a Fraggle Rock song called ‘Pass It On’) The physical characteristics and the character traits are easy to spot in their kids and I’m sure that many of those things will be discussed when family gets together to remember and celebrate Ruth’s life.  But above all of those things are the gospel sort of things that Allen and her passed on to their kids and grandkids.  The Kingdom qualities that I saw exhibited in their lives are the things I pray for.  Since Allen passed away, I have regularly prayed for his gentleness to manifest itself in my life.  It’s something I deeply desire and need because I’m not a gentle person.  As I spend time thinking about Ruth I will do the same thing by choosing a Kingdom quality that stood out in her life which I desire to bear fruit in mine.  I’m not sure whether ‘sassy’ counts as a Kingdom quality but that’s what stands out when I think of her.     

What will you pass on before you pass on?  My shining moment as a freshman has provided numerous life lessons over the years.  When it comes to life, you don’t want to round the corner and realize that you have nothing to pass on of first importance.  When you are at the end of your race there are only a few things that are of first importance and handing off the gospel is at the top of the list.  There were people who needed me to do my part and I let them down.  On the flipside, it is a wonderful experience to hand off that baton knowing that I gave it my all.  And not only that, but the next runner has a good head start for their part of the race. 

Thank you Allen and Ruth for providing a good head start in life for your family and friends who got to watch you run your race for God’s glory. 

 

Here's the Fraggle Rock song from A Muppet Family Christmas.  Watching this movie is a Christmas tradition that is being passed on.

Pass It On

Disturbed by Jesus

In my last post I shared where Jesus’ story, in particular his death and resurrection, intersected with my story.  The fact that Jesus himself experienced suffering and death connected with me as a 7^th grader dealing with the death of a friend.  Things changed for me on that Good Friday and nothing will ever be the same again.  That was 22 years ago and if I could sum up those years in a single word it would be this:  Disturbed.

Not quite what you were expecting?  Maybe you were expecting something on the brighter side like freedom, hope or joy.  Who wants to be disturbed? Nobody desires to be disturbed but if I were to be completely honest there has been nothing more helpful to my life than being disturbed.  In fact, it was one of the first things I experienced as a young follower of Christ.

Prior to my 7^th grade year I had been asked by a friend of my mom if I wanted to be involved in this thing called ‘Bible Quizzing’.  She was the coach and my older brother had been involved the year before (he is a year ahead of me in school) but I was not interested.  I had fallen in love with athletics and so my time was spent with basketball and track during the school year.  Prior to my 8^th grade year, but after my Good Friday experience, I was asked again if I wanted to be a part of Bible Quizzing.  I again said, “No.” because I had my own plans, my own agenda.  And that’s when it happened.  I was disturbed.  I let Jesus break into my life once and now he was up to it again.  How could I desire to know Christ but simultaneously have no desire to be a part of something that would get me reading scripture and help me get to know Christ better?  My plans needed to change in order to line up with what Christ desired for me and our relationship.

Years later I was disturbed while making college plans, but not all disturbances have to do with making big decisions or even making decisions at all.  There are beliefs that I would easily hold if it were not for Christ disturbing me.  For every verse that a person wants to put on a pedestal as the foundation for a particular belief there are 3 other verses that have me questioning what they’ve built.  As a middle child I would much rather agree with the majority and avoid controversy when it comes to a variety of topics but I constantly find myself disturbed.  I find myself wondering why I am disturbed with particular views and similarly wonder why they aren’t disturbed with it at all.  I am continually praying that I might be shaped more and more into Christlikeness and there is plenty that needs to be shaped.  There is much that HAS already been shaped.  And all along the way Jesus disturbs me.      

In the Old Testament we read about people on the move.  Abraham and his family went from place to place in tents.  Moses led people around in a desert.  God’s people were rarely stationary.  Who they were and what they knew about God was continually shaped by their experiences as they went along.  God never stopped disturbing them where they were.  That’s why living in a tent makes sense.  If you build your home out of stone on a firm foundation you may be tempted to stay there.  God may have moved on but you’re stuck where you are.  You’re not free to move. 

I am not the same person as I was 22 years ago and I pray that I will not be the same person 22 years from now.  I have had to move, spiritually speaking, in a variety of ways already and I don’t suspect that will change anytime soon.  Are you open to being disturbed by Jesus?  A good way to tell is whether you are living in a tent or not.  I hope that you don’t have everything nailed down and secured because if there’s one thing I know about Jesus it’s that you can’t keep him nailed down.  He is free to move and I hope that you, your life, your beliefs, are free to move with him.

Good News On Good Friday

When my wife was a little girl she had the opportunity to spend a few years in Africa as her parents were called to serve in the mission field. Over the past 10 years I have heard numerous stories (many of them more than 10 times apiece) about their time there but one of my favorites involves Lori’s grandpa. Lori’s grandparents weren’t about to let an ocean separate them from seeing their beloved grandchild grow up so they made arrangements to visit for an extended time. It was in their preparation for this journey that they discovered something funny. Lori’s grandpa had been celebrating his birthday on the wrong day for close to 60 years! Grandpa Joner was a twin and they just happened to be born on opposite sides of midnight. Unfortunately his sibling died at an early age and, somewhere along the way, the birth order of the twins got mixed up. Family members regularly comment, "What someone won’t do to have 2 birthdays!"

He’s not alone in birthday mixups. My dad was born in 1937 and is one of 13 kids. Trying to keep all of those birthdays in order was a bit of a challenge and along the way his got goofed up. While celebrating as a youngster on what he thought was his birthday his older sister came home to visit and was wondering why they were celebrating on that day. She insisted his birthday was earlier in the week and after checking the birth certificate the mistake was undeniable.

Most years I celebrate my 2^nd birthday on the wrong day. My first birthday is easy to remember because it is a ‘day that will live in infamy’. (December 7^th, 1978) I never get confused about that birthday. My 2^nd birthday (April 17^th, 1992) is always trickier for me to remember because I associate it almost exclusively with Good Friday. Most years it doesn’t fall on Good Friday but I prefer celebrating my birthday on this day because of what happened on the first Good Friday. So instead of doing a birthday post yesterday, I’m doing it today.

April 17, 1992 is simultaneously the worst and most amazing day of my life. Three days earlier a classmate and friend took his own life and he was laid to rest on Good Friday. On Tuesday we had a track meet and the last event was the 4x200 relay which we were both on. Except for that meet. He was ineligible because of one of his grades. Instead of running the 3rd leg of the relay and handing off to me on the opposite side of the track he simply sat on the bench a few feet from me while I waited for someone else to do his leg of the race. I can’t remember what we talked about as he sat and I waited for the race to start but it probably had something to do with school break that started on Wednesday. A couple of hours later he was gone.

Following the funeral three days later I sat in my room alone with all of my unanswered questions. I had plenty of questions. Why did he do this? What could have stopped him from doing this? And on and on the questions went. When it dawned on me that it was Good Friday I asked one question that did not go unanswered. I thought, "This is the worst day of my life! What possibly could be good about THIS day?" I didn’t expect an answer because quite honestly I didn’t think there was an answer. The answer was simply this, "I know how you feel." This realization/revelation did not come about because I sat around pondering the Easter stories I heard growing up. Never before had a Sunday School teacher connected Jesus’ suffering with my suffering. Until that day the Easter story revolved around the good news of his resurrection and eternal life. But on this day the good news of Good Friday was crystal clear. I was not alone. God was no stranger to suffering and loss and death because of what happened on Good Friday. In that instant God was no stranger to me.  


 

The Uninvited: March Madness and the Church

Is your bracket filled out? My bracket is completed and looks nice until I have to start marking out my failed picks. My wife and I do a little bit of wagering on who can fill out the best bracket and this year was a little more exciting making our picks when the NCAA bracket was released. As I have mentioned before, my wife and I are celebrating 10 years of marriage this month and so we will be enjoying an Elite 8 game in Indianapolis as a fun way to celebrate. We are both fans of college basketball and both of our favorite teams (Duke and the University of Kentucky) happen to be in the Midwest Region which will be played in Indy. Hopefully one or both of us will get to see our teams play live for the first time!

The big first step for our teams was getting the invitation to the ‘big dance’ as it is so often called. Sports analysts often make comments about getting their dancing shoes ready or about whether Cinderella’s shoes will fit the particular team hoping to be in the tournament. Since Lori and I cheer for a couple of the top programs in the history of the game we rarely have to worry about getting an invitation. Each year there are teams on the ‘bubble’, unsure of whether they will get an invitation or not. Analysts give their list of the last 4 making it in and the last 4 who missed the dance altogether.

There are 351 Division 1 NCAA teams but only 68 get the chance to play in this tournament. There is, however, another tournament that the rejected teams have a chance to play in called the National Invitational Tournament, or just NIT. As you can probably already guess, even if you’re not a sports enthusiast, this isn’t the tournament that teams were hoping to play in at the end of the year and NIT gets a negative connotation added to it. Fans who want to let an opponent know they are a step down from ‘their beloved team’ need only chant ‘NIT, NIT, NIT’ to get in a cheap shot. Fans also have their own names for that tournament using the NIT initials. This is an excerpt from wikipedia:

"Because the post-season NIT consists of teams that failed to receive a berth in the NCAA Tournament, the NIT has been nicknamed the "Not Invited Tournament", "Never Important Tournament", "Nobody's Interested Tournament", "Needs Improvement Tournament", "No Important Team", "National Insignificant Tournament," or simply "Not In Tournament". It has also been called a tournament to see who the "69th best team" in the country is (since there are now 68 teams in the NCAA Tournament)."

Not Invited. Nobody’s Interested. Needs Improvement. You get the feeling. Have you been that team? Have you been that person who is left out? It hurts to be uninvited and unchosen. There is something special happening and you don’t get to be a part. I had this happen to me recently which is why the topic of being uninvited is on my mind in the context of March Madness and Easter.

Prior to the bracket being released, analysts critique the resume of teams on the bubble. They use criteria such as a teams Rating Percentage Index (RPI) so you know how tough of a schedule they had. They look at wins against ranked opponents, losses to bad opponents, non-conference schedule, and on down the line as they evaluate whether a team has earned an invitation. The apostle Paul gives us his tourney resume in Philippians 3:

If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.—Philippians 3:4-6


There is no question that this guy falls into the ‘Invited’ column if you’re looking for the most qualified Israelite, and by the looks of things he’s getting a #1 seed. In Genesis we see an invitation given to Abraham and his offspring to be God’s chosen people. Paul comes from a long line of invited people and his pedigree is spotless.

But what about the rest of us? What about us Gentiles (non-Jews) with no pedigree whatsoever? What about the uninvited?

I don’t want to jump ahead past Easter. It’s easy to do and there are many, like my wife, who prefer to do just that. Skip past the solemn Good Friday service so we can celebrate resurrection morning. I get that. No one wants to remember what it was like to be uninvited prior to the invitation that comes through Jesus Christ. Two thousand years ago a huge proportion of today’s church folk would have been the ones on the outside. We would have been the uninvited. The early church started with a bunch of Jewish followers of Christ trying to figure out what to do about these previously uninvited Gentiles that were coming to faith in Christ. There were some that thought Gentiles needed to get circumcised and give up bacon so they would better fit the profile of an invited Jew. "If you want to be ‘in’ the church then you have to go through these hoops." There were others, like Paul, who opposed putting barriers in the way of unbelieving Gentiles. He even opposed Peter to his face! (Galatians 2:11-14)

Peter, the Rock, had trouble figuring out how to interact with people who had previously been uninvited and unclean and so he found himself acting one way with his invited buddies and another with his newly invited buddies. It was awkward to say the least. Circumcision conversations generally are. Despite the difficulties, the early church managed to plow on through toward unity in the power of the Spirit.

We still have a few weeks until Easter and reconnecting with church history means reconnecting with what it means to be uninvited. That’s where the story for a majority of us starts. We were not God’s people. He was not our God. And along comes Jesus proclaiming good news to the uninvited.

Bless the Lord O My Throat.....

Here in a couple weeks my wife and I will be celebrating 10 years of marriage. Over the course of our marriage I have ruined countless songs by changing the original words in my attempt to be funny or flirty. And so, when a song that I have altered comes on the radio or is being sung in church, my wife immediately looks at me and shakes her head with a smirk on her face.

Anybody else do this sort of thing? There are plenty of people who make horrible mistakes because it may be difficult to pick up on the actual lyrics when listening to a song on the radio. I recently saw an episode of The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon where he shared failed lyrics to popular songs and it got me reflecting on my adaptations. While most of mine are intended to be funny or flirty there is one lyrical change that I do for the ‘soul’ purpose of it being helpful imagery as I sing.

The lyrical switch that I make is to sing the word ‘throat’ in place of the word ‘soul’. One of the more popular and recurring songs in worship services for the past year has been Matt Redman’s "10,000 Reasons". This song is a perfect place for such an exchange of words because it conveys one of the specific purposes of a throat and soul.

Bless the Lord, O my throat

O my throat

Worship His holy name

Sing like never before

O my throat

I’ll worship Your holy name

　

Our throat is an important organ of communication. While our throat is not the only way in which we communicate with others it is by all means the first one that we use as little babies crying out. And while our throat is the organ that we use to cry out in our need it is simultaneously the organ by which we receive the very things that we need. Our throat cries out and our throat is the way in which our bodies receive what it needs. This dual purpose of crying out and being filled are two purposes we see connected to an Old Testament understanding of a human ‘soul’. Time and again in scripture we see our souls, our throats, as the vessels crying out to God in our emptiness and singing praise to the God who fills these earthen vessels.

We are thirsty and cry out through our throat. 
As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, my God.--Psalm 42:1

My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.--Psalm 84:2

It is the Lord who fills, refreshes and strengthens this throat.
The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
he refreshes my soul.--Psalm 23:1-3

 
Yes, my soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from him.--Psalm 62:5


Our throats sing praise to the Lord who filled us.
Praise the Lord, my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
Praise the Lord, my soul,
and forget not all his benefits—
who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,
who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s--Psalm 103:1-5


Praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord, my soul.
I will praise the Lord all my life;
I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.--Psalm 146:1-2

 
My heart, O God, is steadfast; I will sing and make music with all my soul.--Psalm 108:1

　
What I find most interesting about the use of the word ‘soul’ in the Old Testament is how consistently it is used in the context of weakness and frailty. The soul is in anguish. It is downtrodden and thirsty. It is weary and sorrowful. That is the state of our souls apart from the God who fills us. The sorry and weak nature of our souls is the reason we cry out to God in our emptiness. All praise be to the God who hears those cries and fills us, but he doesn’t just fill us to the brim. He fills us to the point of overflowing and it is out of the abundance of God’s grace that our cries of anguish turn into cries of praise.

Bless the Lord

O my throat

And all that is within me

Bless his holy name

Baby Steps into the Light

One of the more popular games for kids to play is ‘Hide and Seek’. You don’t need any equipment like traditional sports and you really don't need many other kids in order to play. One of the best, and scariest, times to play is when it is dark outside. The number of places to hide increases significantly when it is dark and the ‘seeker’ is limited in their ability to find you. My favorite experience playing ‘Hide and Seek’ was when I was at a retreat with a group of teens and we were staying in a decent sized lodge. With the windows completely covered and with it being nighttime outside, the inside of the lodge was completely dark. My trick as a seeker was to be extremely quiet and listen for someone breathing or make fart noises and see if anyone laughed. My guess is that many of you have some fun and funny experiences playing this game as well. I also imagine that many of you, like myself, have also experienced the not so funny version of this game.

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, "Where are you?"—Genesis 3:8-9

The game that we play, even as adults, is nothing new. Our instinctive response when we’ve done something wrong is to hide. Whether we, ourselves, are hiding or we are just hiding the evidence of what we’ve done, there is a natural tendency to hide. And just like our childhood game, the best place to hide is in the dark. We keep the doors and windows to our lives closed in order that we may have an element of secrecy to our inner workings. The least little crack in our exterior can be pierced by light in a way that makes us vulnerable and so we are vigilant in our efforts to keep things in the dark.

Chances are, if you were a part of a youth group in the 90’s you are pretty familiar with the DC Talk song I’m going to mention. While "Jesus Freak" was the favorite of many of my peers, I was attracted to "In the Light". I went from "I wanna be like Mike" as a basketball junkee to "I wanna be in the light" as a follower of Christ. In 1995, when this song was released, I had been trying to figure out this Christianity thing for about 2 ½ years and this song spoke to the inner desire of my heart to be more like Christ. In order to be more like him, I needed light to be shed on my life in a way that revealed everything I had been hiding. The things in the darkness were not like him in the least. Almost 20 years later this song still resonates with me for a couple reasons. First, I still desire to be more like Christ. Second, I still have to deal with darkness.

According to Matt Chandler, pastor of The Village Church in Dallas, to be 99% known is to be unknown. The 1% of our lives that is in darkness, the 1% that is hiding, is what makes all the difference in our lives. I would imagine that many of us are hiding much more than 1% of our lives from the view of others and whatever that percentage is for you, it’s time to drag it into the light. Here’s why:

That 1% or more is keeping you from the realization that you are truly loved. There’s a reason why people hide things from others. It’s the sense that they wouldn’t love me if they knew what I’ve been through. They wouldn’t love me if they knew what I’ve done. They wouldn’t love me if they knew the 1% I'm hiding. And so, people go through life 99% known with the heavy burden of thinking that they wouldn’t be loved if they were 100% known. The options get boiled down to being unknown and loved or known and unloved. The possibility of being fully known and fully loved seems unrealistic but that’s exactly what we see in scripture. 

But now that you know God—or rather are known by God—how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable forces? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again? –Galatians 4:9

Even when we were living in darkness, in hiding, God knew everything about us. In our own silly and childlike way, we thought we could hide from God. Like Adam and Eve hiding in the bushes, we think that God really doesn’t know where we are. The message of the cross is that God knows us and God loves us. 

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.—Romans 5:8

Our sin is not hidden from his sight and yet it did not keep Him from loving us. Paul’s appeal to the Galatian church is that it would not instinctively go back into slavery, into hiding. Their lives had been brought out into the light where they can be free, so why would they want to enter back into a life where they are enslaved to all of the things that go along with living in darkness? I’ll reference another DC Talk song from the same album: What if I Stumble? Each and every time we stumble there is a temptation to return to a life of hiding. It’s awkward to stumble in the daylight. People see us fall and it can be uncomfortable and defeating. The bigger the fall, the bigger the desire is to hide it.

Stepping into the light isn’t easy. Trust me. I’ve spent the good part of 3 years taking baby steps (What About Bob?) in my own life with my 1%. (It’s probably closer to 15%) With each step that I take in the direction of being known, the next step is a bit easier. Being known isn’t as scary as it used to be or as scary as I thought it would be. I am so thankful for the providential relationships, as Andy Stanley would refer to them, in my life. They are the folks that God has placed in my life at the time when I needed them. They were the loving and supportive people who sat through my first awkward baby steps into the light. Who are those people in your life and how can you start to take those steps into the light with them? If you are in the light, stay there. No matter how bad you stumble, trying to hide is unhelpful. In the darkness you will stumble again and again, but in the light you will see more clearly the obstacles in your path so that you can keep in step with the Spirit.

Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. –Galatians 5:25

　

Coaching Lessons

For those of you that participated in high school athletics, I hope that you never had ‘that parent’ at your game.  Every athlete knows the parent I’m talking about. The parent that is yelling at the referee…..and the coach……and their kid. Pretty much, the parent wanting their voice to be heard. I didn’t have ‘that parent’ because my parents didn’t think it was their job to do anything aside from cheer for me. It was my coach’s responsibility to yell out directions and it was my responsibility to try and follow them as best I could. A majority of the time coaches have to yell simply to be heard because of the immense noise during a game. Fill a gym with opposing fans and there is quite an obstacle for a player trying to hear his coach and so it’s important for a player to know his coach’s voice. His voice needs to stand out or you may be led astray and confused by the wrong voice. The time spent in practice prior to the games and the crowds allows a player to become familiar with his coach. The guiding and directive voice heard for a couple hours a day, 4 or 5 days a week, has a way of standing out from the crowd and turning down the volume of the ‘that parent’ and the fans.

Last week was the start of the basketball season for the kids I work with. One thing I regularly remind the kids during practice is that if they’re not looking me they’re not listening to me. This has a twofold purpose. First, it lets me see that they are indeed paying attention to me and not distracted by something or simply letting their mind wander. I need to know that they are listening. While they may argue that they don’t have to see me in order hear me, the fact of the matter is that they do. The second purpose for them looking at me when I’m talking is that they get to see what I’m doing. I’m a pretty demonstrative person, which is necessary when coaching almost any sport. When explaining something like ‘setting a screen for your teammate’ I am not just saying what they need to do. I talk with my hands and feet just as much as with my mouth. While talking I am showing them how to do it. While running through an offensive rotation, I don’t want them setting a screen on an imaginary defender so I stand in as an example. This allows me to see that each one is setting an appropriate screen or give them guidance if something needs to be improved upon.

Isn’t that what we see Jesus doing? His ministry did not consist of simply telling us what we need to do. Jesus didn’t tell us to pray for those who persecute us and then leave us wondering what that looks like. Instead, we see Jesus on the cross praying that his Father would forgive his persecutors because they don’t know what they’re doing. What he taught and how he lived provides us with a complete lesson necessary for us to become like him.

Over the 6 years that I played organized basketball, from 7^th-12^th grade, I had 4 different coaches. While the basics of basketball didn’t change with each new coach, there were some philosophical or systemic differences that affected which type of offense or defense we played. What we did, or attempted to do, on the court was a reflection of what our coach taught in practice. What I find funny is that there are many aspects of what I do now as a coach that is a reflection of how I was coached. I may not remember which specific coach taught me particular things but I do know that I didn’t come up with them on my own. I resemble my coaches in what I say and do with my kids on the court.

What we say and do in this world, as believers, is a reflection of our Coach. I know that there were many times, especially early on as a player, that I wasn’t a good reflection of my coach because I was young and very inexperienced. Now, as a coach myself, I know at the onset of another season that this new group of kids will look nothing like me at first. There is a lot of coaching to do, but my hope is that by the end of the season they will have developed as individuals and as a team. Maybe they will even look a bit like me when all is said and done!

"When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice."—John 10:4

When it comes to our Christian walk, do we know our coach’s voice? Does it stand out in the midst of competing voices because we are deeply familiar with it or is it drowned out by the noise of the crowd? A shepherd and his sheep are familiar with each other because of the time they spend together. In order to be familiar with the voice of our Coach we need to be together.

"..wisdom is proved right by her deeds."—Jesus (Matthew 11:19)

When it comes to practice (Yes, Allen Iverson, I’m talking about practice.) are we giving our full attention to the Coach? Are we watching as well as listening? While it is easy to put a special level of importance on the ‘Red Letters’ (Jesus’ words) in the gospels, they ultimately find their value in what Jesus does.

"But Grow in the Grace and Knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen."—2 Peter 3:18

And lastly, how much do we look like our Coach? Fortunately, as Christians, we don’t have a new coach every so many years. The goals and objectives are not moving targets and so each year we have the opportunity to continue growing in the same direction. That is, growing in Christlikeness.