Full Court Press

Article by Malcolm Caldwell from The New Yorker:

When Vivek Ranadivé decided to coach his daughter Anjali’s basketball team, he settled on two principles. The first was that he would never raise his voice. This was National Junior Basketball—the Little League of basketball. The team was made up mostly of twelve-year-olds, and twelve-year-olds, he knew from experience, did not respond well to shouting. He would conduct business on the basketball court, he decided, the same way he conducted business at his software firm. He would speak calmly and softly, and convince the girls of the wisdom of his approach with appeals to reason and common sense.
The second principle was more important. Ranadivé was puzzled by the way Americans played basketball. He is from Mumbai. He grew up with cricket and soccer. He would never forget the first time he saw a basketball game. He thought it was mindless. Team A would score and then immediately retreat to its own end of the court. Team B would inbound the ball and dribble it into Team A’s end, where Team A was patiently waiting. Then the process would reverse itself. A basketball court was ninety-four feet long. But most of the time a team defended only about twenty-four feet of that, conceding the other seventy feet. Occasionally, teams would play a full-court press—that is, they would contest their opponent’s attempt to advance the ball up the court. But they would do it for only a few minutes at a time. It was as if there were a kind of conspiracy in the basketball world about the way the game ought to be played, and Ranadivé thought that that conspiracy had the effect of widening the gap between good teams and weak teams. Good teams, after all, had players who were tall and could dribble and shoot well; they could crisply execute their carefully prepared plays in their opponent’s end. Why, then, did weak teams play in a way that made it easy for good teams to do the very things that made them so good?
Ranadivé looked at his girls. Morgan and Julia were serious basketball players. But Nicky, Angela, Dani, Holly, Annika, and his own daughter, Anjali, had never played the game before. They weren’t all that tall. They couldn’t shoot. They weren’t particularly adept at dribbling. They were not the sort who played pickup games at the playground every evening. Most of them were, as Ranadivé says, “little blond girls” from Menlo Park and Redwood City, the heart of Silicon Valley. These were the daughters of computer programmers and people with graduate degrees. They worked on science projects, and read books, and went on ski vacations with their parents, and dreamed about growing up to be marine biologists. Ranadivé knew that if they played the conventional way—if they let their opponents dribble the ball up the court without opposition—they would almost certainly lose to the girls for whom basketball was a passion. Ranadivé came to America as a seventeen-year-old, with fifty dollars in his pocket. He was not one to accept losing easily. His second principle, then, was that his team would play a real full-court press, every game, all the time. The team ended up at the national championships. “It was really random,” Anjali Ranadivé said. “I mean, my father had never played basketball before.”Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/05/11/090511fa_fact_gladwell?yrail#ixzz0YLJO3pdN

How much more productice if life was approached as a full court press? We cannot give up any ground in life. It might keep away the frustrated shouts!

Joy

Joy can be a real challenge at Christmas. Ironically it is a season where joy should be a part of our life. We sing “joy to the world” but feel depressed. Christmas is the season where we pursue joy. We fill the parking lots of malls, we pack bars and clubs with friends, and we exchange gifts at Christmas parties all in the name of joy.
Many of us are finding it harder this Christmas to express joy. The economy has left a dark cloud over many of our Christmas festivities. Limited funds have us making tough decisions when it comes to picking things off of the children’s wish list. The turkey meal becomes chicken and the Honey-Baked Ham is bologna soaked in honey and covered in Baked Beans. I have even heard some ask can we just skip over Christmas this year. The reason some of us want to skip over Christmas may not be the bad economy. It could be a relationship that has broken up. It could be children who have wondered away. A bad doctor’s report that says this could be your last Christmas together. With so much bad news in the world today it is hard to proclaim “Joy to the world!”
It is times like this that it is important to go back to the heart of Christmas. The story of Jesus’ birth explodes with joy. In the story we find shepherds living in fields. Shepherds were considered unclean, lower-class, and not very popular among the majority of the Jewish people. The shepherds provided the sheep that were needed for the sacrifices in the Temple. They still were not highly regarded because they did not participate in the social or religious life of the people. They kept to themselves. Raised their sheep. Lived in the fields. Isolated. Lonely. Separate. And yet, it was these men that God chose to announce the birth of Jesus, the Savior of the world. The sense of joy that the angels felt in giving the shepherds this announcement is obvious. The first word to the shepherds is “I am bringing you good news of GREAT joy . . .” It is almost as though this angel could not get the words out before the whole host of angels break forth in praise.
I remember once when I was a child that my cousin came running into the house one Christmas holding what looked like a baseball bat wrapped in Christmas paper. In excitement he could not control himself and he says, “I can’t tell you what it is but it looks like a bat doesn’t it?” This same excitement bursts from the angels as they tell the shepherds the good news that Jesus has bee born. The joy is contagious. The shepherds leave immediately to go tell this good news to those in Bethlehem. They take a huge risk leaving their sheep behind. They leave their livelihood and seek after the meaning behind the joy. The meaning behind the message that brought the angels such joy is worth leaving everything behind to discover it for themselves. Then once they discover the source of the angels joy they leave announcing it to the world. This is a world they had rarely participated in but insisted that this world experience the joy that they knew.
What was it that had the angels of heaven acting like little children who can’t keep secrets? What was it that forced the shepherds to leave all they had known behind? What was it that brought so much joy to the world? What was it that they had that so many of us miss?
Joy. The story of the angels and the shepherds teach us that joy is not found by seeking joy. Joy is a by-product. It is the result of another great event. Joy is a product of experiencing the Good News of Jesus Christ. Joy is not self-induced. We can’t find joy by fighting crowds at shopping malls. We can’t turn on joy by watching our favorite Christmas movie. Real, abiding joy does not come after receiving that “salad shooter” that we always wanted. These thing may bring us pleasure but they do not produce lasting joy. Joy is not a present. Joy is a presence. Joy is found in Jesus. Imagine what difference it would make if you put retelling the story of Jesus to your children instead of spending some much time making wish lists for Santa.

Becoming Great

A few things on my life goals list:
* Run a marathon
* learn to sail
* build a sailboat
* Learn to foreign languages: Spanish and Arabic

I am just thinking one day that I am going to wake up and be able to accomplish everything on this list (25 things) without learning, practicing, or studying. Somehow I will possess the necessary skills or abilities. Yeah right! It is true though if you haven't noticed that the time frame for mastering a skill is shrinking. Some books say "30 days" to a new language.

I guess God could just give you the ability in a moment but God doesn't usually work that way (remember how long the Israelites wondered in the desert or the story of Joseph?) God works more by the pressure cooker method than the microwave.

If we are going to master a skill or ability it takes one thing: PRACTICE. Here is the steps to accomplish things on your life goal list:
1. make sure you have a life goal list.
2. Do it.
3. Do it again.
4. After you fail, do it again.
5. Keep doing it.

“Only one who devotes himself to a cause with his whole strength and soul can be a true master. For this reason mastery demands all of a person.” - Albert Einstein

Great Day

Yesterday was a real blessing. We started the day out eating muffins. Then we went to the restaraunt where we served meals to 300+ people. It was a great experience for our children to serve those among us who are less fortunate. I was amazed at the amount of volunteers who came out to serve and many who stayed all day. We invited a hispanic/latino congregation to join us. The one thing that serving others will do is break down barriers of language and culture. It was a lot of fun seeing people attempting to communicate and build relationships.

After we got home yesterday I prepared a meal. We had fresh green beans, corn, potatoes, and ham. As a family we sat around the table sharing what we have to be thankful for.

Then we topped off the evening with putting up the Christmas tree. It was a great way to end a great day - telling the children about the birth of Jesus.

Some of my lessons:

1. We got to love our city. In loving our city we must know our city. We must take the time to get to know the people of our city. We can't remain divided among class or race. As followers of Jesus, we are called to love the people in our town.

2. We must live the gospel. Our lives must be a reflection of the life of Jesus. We must live incarnationally. We can't just speak of God's love. We must embody God's love.

Give Thanks

What I am thankful for:
* Sweet Tea
* Chocolate ice cream
* a truck that runs
* Socks that don't have holes in them
* Sunrises and sunsets
* the feel of sand between my toes
* my children thinking I'm a rock star, hero, and superdad when I am none of these
* cold weather that doesn't stay around forever
* summer nights
* for new life, resurrection moments, and second chances
* for a God who loves, who forgives, and who sends
* a church that serves
* a staff that laughs, works, and encourages
* a wife who likes a clean house and lives with three messy guys
* a wife who is a best friend, lover, and traveling partner

Just a few things . . . . .

Healing Service @ Liberty Hill Church

Pictures by Susan Kyle

Cowardly Thing

When I was in school I usually ended up cramming for tests. I would want until the last minute to finish deadlines and to turn in reports. If I am not careful I can treat my own spiritual life the same way. How many of us wait until a crisis to start praying? Or we go weeks without reading the scriptures and then try to read a whole book in one sitting on a Sunday afternoon (in between the Falcons game of course!) In speaking to a large crowds Jesus says, "For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it" (Luke 14:28)? What if you decided to build a house and the contractor showed up without any drawings and said we were going to wing it as we go? Yeah that will be fun (and costly)! Laziness means more work. C.S. Lewis says, "The cowardly thing is also the most dangerous thing." The Christian life takes preparation. It takes planning. It takes centering our lives on Jesus. It takes stepping back DAILY from the demands of the world to re-position ourselves, re-center ourselves, and to re-gain our grip on the life we have been called to live in Christ.