For as long as I can remember back, basketball has always been my game of choice. I have spent more energy and hours than I care to count practicing skills and developing my body to be able to excel at the sport. Basketball taught me the spirit of athletic competition. Through the game, I have experienced some of my most treasured memories: playing 2 on 1 with my brother against Dad, in the driveway of my childhood home...countless summer afternoons practicing for our future NBA careers with my good friend, Ryan...giving everything I had to make the team at Angelina College...losing all possibility of competitive ball with a torn ACL...the countless NCAA games spent with my Dad, screaming at the TV for something or another...the list goes on.
...However, tonight at Fredonia Hill Baptist Church, I gained a new perspective on life through the game I've loved for so many years.
I've had the opportunity to begin working with the youth group at FHBC over the past several weeks. I've begun to forge friendships with some of the young men, and I am beginning to become a regular part of the ministry team for the middle and high school students. Tonight after our program, a bunch of the guys went to the gym to play some basketball. Of course, I went with them.
We did the normal shoot around and chat for a few minutes while we all warmed up, but once the game actually began...I noticed something very different inside me. My purpose and motivation tonight was very different from how it has been so many times before. I felt such an urge to edify and encourage these young men that they became my focus on the court. For the first time in my life on the hardwood, I had absolutely no desire to be, or be seen as, the best. Shooting, passing, scoring, rebounding...it didn't mean a thing. For the first time, all I was concerned with was making sure each of the young men on my team got as much action out there as possible.
My sole purpose was to minister to those young men through athletic competition. Facilitating their shooting, passing, etc. was my goal. That and a healthy dose of positive comments and encouragement was all that was needed.
It was such a unique and unprecedented experience for me tonight...to see God use the game I love as a wonderful tool for speaking truth into these young men under my supervision. The Lord used my attitude to help set a positive and fun tone for the game, instead of the hard and uber-competitive battle in turns into so many times when high school boys play sports.
The Lord is so good to me. I never thought that I'd be using basketball as a ministry tool.
Praise Him for all the different ways He blesses us...
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