This brought back many memories of my childhood. We lived on a cul-de-sac (just like we do now, only it was at the end of a longer street). There in front of our driveway, on the edge of the circle of grass in the cul-de-sac, my dad had set up a really nice basketball board. My brothers and I would play there for hours on end. We would identify ourselves as famous players. I was always Larry Bird.
Of course, when Michael Jordan joined the Bulls, I had to be him. After all, we did live in Chicago! I was a basketball fanatic (sort of like my son Elijah is now!). Just as the eighties belonged to the Celtics and Lakers, the nineties belonged to the Bulls.
I remember getting ready to watch Game One of the 1991 NBA finals. It was the first time the Bulls had made it to the championship series with Michael Jordan. (They would end up winning the championship that year as well as 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, and 1998! Phil Jackson was the coach that whole time, by the way.) Well, getting back to my story, we had just moved to Richmond, Virginia, a month earlier and here I was in our little town-home, getting ready to watch my beloved Bulls in their first NBA championship series. The tip-off was minutes away, when all of a sudden - BLIP! - the screen went blank. The picture tube on our old floor-model, the only TV we had - was toast! I jumped in the car and ran to the nearest appliance store and bought a $300 TV. I was back home in minutes, ready to watch the game. That move went totally against my frugal nature. After all, that was about all the money we had in reserve, and I just went out and spent it on a television set - in a matter of minutes! But that's how badly I wanted to watch the Bulls.
Fast forward to seventeen years later: June 5, 2008. The Celtics and Lakers are matched up for the first time in two decades! The Big Three are going up against Kobe and crew! What do I do? Turn off the TV after the first quarter and go to bed! Why? Not because I wasn't thoroughly enjoying the game, but because I knew I had to get up early the next morning, and there's no way I'd end up watching the whole thing anyway, so why not go to bed now? (It was shortly after 9:30 p.m.)
Knowing myself and what I used to be like, it's hard to believe that I went to bed like I did last night. Of course I woke up and was anxious to see if the Celtics won or not, but the fact was, I had reached a point in my life when I valued sleep over sports. The choice was entirely mine. I had no parents telling me to go to bed. I was simply tired and chose to go to bed instead of staying up to watch the game.
The funny thing is, I have no regrets. I'm glad the Celtics won, and I'm glad I got my shut-eye. I'm not sure what the lesson is in this! I'd like to think that I've simply matured and come to the realization that sports, while fun, are not the primary substance of life. If our lives revolve around sports, then we have lost the Center and our sense of what is really important. Yes, I'd like to think that this whole matter of my going to bed after the first quarter is an indication of the fact that "when I became a man, I put away childish things."
But part of me knows better than that. That's what I'd like to think. But it's probably only partially true at best. The fact is, I'm getting older, and I'm feeling a bit more tired at the end of each day. This is pretty sorry to say, considering that I haven't turned forty yet! Still, I don't rebound as quickly as I did at age twenty, or even thirty.
Regardless of how late we stay up, or whether we watch the game or read God's Word, the bottom-line is: "To everything there is a season, a time for ever purpose under heaven" - and certainly that includes a time to watch the game and a time to read God's Word, a time to play and a time to pray. And in the freeness of His grace, God "has made everything beautiful in its time" (Ecclesiastes 3:11). Our response to this reality ought to be the prayer of Moses, recorded in Psalm 90: "So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom."
Amen.
Go Celtics!
Dear Pastor Matt, I appreciated all that you had to say. I appreciated how you shared where you were at one point in your life, yet at this time in your life, you are at a different point. And how you got from one point to the other was the work of the Holy Spirit.
ReplyDeleteI think there is a lesson to be learned in your story. We are all some where in the scope of God's work in us, and hopefully, wherever we are in the future, will be at a more mature stage than where we are now. Yet I praise God for loving me where I'm at, even though I'm not as mature as I will be later.
I believe the lesson in how we judge others and ourselves at a given point in life. Pastor Matt, when you bought that TV set to watch the basketball game, someone could have judged your relationship with God. Someone could have questioned your priorities.
But I am grateful for the parable in Matthew 13:24-30, regarding the weeds planted amongst the wheat. For a season, wheat and weeds may appear to look similar, too similar to harvest early. The farmer chooses to wait until the appropriate time, lest he dispose of wheat with the weeds.
So as we observe the people around us, let us not be too quick to determine whether or not they are "weeds" or "wheat". Where someone is right now in their walk with Christ is where they are at, like the immature wheat. But later, as the Holy Spirit has a lifetime to work in their hearts, they will be more mature and ready to harvest for eternity.
It's fun to watch videos of old games between the Celtics and the Lakers, and remember some of their great battles. And I also remember watching Michael Jordan, and thinking about what a terrific basketball player he was.
ReplyDeleteAt some point, in the 90's, an argument started to develop about who the best basketball player ever was. Young people were sure that it had to be Michael Jordan - but their fathers were sure that it was either Bill Russell or Wilt Chamberlain. Nowadays, folks who have been watching basketball for a relatively short period of time are sure that Kobe Bryant is the better than Jordan was, and you don't even hear Russell or Chamberlain's names brought up in the discussion.
We all seem to have a tendency to want to make comparisons, and sometimes tie our own sense of worth to how these comparisons are going. A lot of times, this is very unhealthy and leads to a lot of stress and strife. Pastor Matt has been teaching us lately about Leah and Rachel from Genesis 30, and how they were trying to outdo each other in producing children. Even the disciples had an argument about who would be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Jesus told them that whoever humbles himself like a child is the greatest in the kindgom of heaven.
Since I've put some time thinking about who the greatest basketball player ever was, I spent sometime wondering about who the greatest in heaven would be. It could be somebody from the Bible - but then again, it could be some undistinguished person we've never heard of, who possibly gave his life to save his family or something. It seems to me that Moses and Job were humble guys. Then again, you read about people like John the Baptist, who basically spent his whole life preparing the way of the Lord, and your head starts spinning. Thankfully, we can leave all matters of judging to God's capable hands.
But, I still think that if Kevin McHale hadn't broke his foot in the the 1980's, the Celtics would have beaten the Lakers all three times they played.