The Great Were Once As You

There is a poem by Edgar Guest called "The Great Were Once As You." If you are unfamiliar with the poem its a great one to Google. The gist of it is that those we call great started out as ordinary and in fact still are ordinary men and women, but they didn't run when times of testing came. Rather they stayed and stood their ground even if that meant standing alone. There was no magic to it. They just did what needed to be done when it needed to be done. Its simple yet sometimes difficult to do.

It's not something that is done with perfection either. However there ought to be a striving for perfection and a forgiveness of self (and others) when that perfection isn't obtained. And if we strive for that perfection with the goal to glorify God and not self we will meet with incredible results.

Oh Youth, go forth and do! You, too, to
fame may rise;
You can be strong and wise. Stand up to
life and play the man
You can if you'll but think you can;
THE GREAT WERE ONCE AS YOU.
You envy them their proud success?
'Twas won with gifts that you possess. ~Edgar Guest

Trust in the LORD with all your heart, 
And lean not on your own understanding; 
In all your ways acknowledge Him, 
And He shall direct your paths.  ~Proverbs 3:5,6 (NKJV)

Example

I was playing basketball the other day with one of the players. As we were bantering back and forth he made a comment that struck a chord with me about the importance of our example in our lives because it was very telling about society today. I won't go into the actual details of the conversation but in a nutshell he automatically assumed that I was telling him not to say something that I would say myself when not in a "teacher" setting. He was mistaken, but the thought was very intriguing.

I began thinking about the importance of the teachers', parents', older siblings' etc examples in the lives of these young people (the future of our nation.) How can we expect them to listen to what we say and pay no attention to what we are doing? If we are honest with ourselves we cannot. If what we say and what we do are opposed to each other, odds are they are going to pay more attention to what we do. There will be times when even when we are doing the right thing people will assume we are not. Some of this can be prevented, some cannot. The point is if we want to help grow the people around us into men and women of integrity... we have to be that ourselves. Something that is so much easier said than done, but something that will require much effort, and might even step on our toes when we find we don't quite measure up to the standard. (I have seen that in myself often this year alone.) But if we can press on, I don't think we will be disappointed.

"Commit to the Lord whatever you do and your plans will succeed." ~Proverbs 16:3 (NIV)

Why do you do what you do?

Purpose. Its such a simple concept, but the results of doing things with a purpose are life-changing. It takes just going through the motions and changes it to doing things with a clarity unknown to many. There are so many worthy endeavors out there to live and do things for, and so often it is easy to get caught up in letting the events of life happen to us instead of taking life to the events.

Can you imagine a life where people took a proactive stance to life? Where people started doing things because it brought joy not only to their own lives, but also to the lives of others? Where the "almighty dollar" was changed into a tool for doing greater things? Where God was the single most important priority in people's lives, and they lived first and foremost to serve Him, and then to help those He had created to become the best they could become for His Kingdom? Can you imagine the ways that would change the world you lived in?

I don't know how it is in your world, but in mine it often seems like the devil is winning. We could probably put a whole list of things down on paper of all the areas where the devil seems to be winning, but we are not helpless victims in this fight. As a friend once said, "If we are on God's side we have already won! All we have to do is fight!" May we see the need to walk daily in the ways of the Lord, and to find the purpose in our daily grind that will allow us to overcome the struggles and show the world a better way to live.

The man answered, "'You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all you soul, all your strength, and all your mind.' And, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" ~Luke 10:27

Hidden Blessings of Adversity

I was in the locker room a couple weeks ago listening to Coach talking to the team after the game they had just lost. He could have come in and ripped the players apart. I sat through plenty post game speeches in my years of playing where the coaches would do that. (I don't remember many, they'd start yelling and I would tune out.) Instead he went into his office for a minute or two before coming into the room and asking the players what adversity meant. Throughout the season the program has hit many obstacles including both avoidable and unavoidable circumstances that has kept the team from playing with its full strength. His point was not to make excuses for those things that were not in anyone's control nor to add further blame to those things that could have been avoided. Instead he was able to get across in a very relevant way a valuable life lesson that if applied can help everyone of those girls not only in their basketball careers but in the different struggles they will face in life.

Adversity hits everyone, but what we choose to do with it is what allows us to either rise above and become more than we would have been otherwise or breaks us and makes us weaker. The thing is, that it is not up to chance whether we will sink or swim, but rather the decision we make. Adversity sometimes comes along because we make bad decisions, other times it occurs just because and is out of our control. Both allow great opportunities for us to overcome if we will seek the good in it. If we will pray that our focus will not be on the bad things that come up in life but on the opportunities that arise from them and the ways we can use them for God's glory, just imagine what we will be able to accomplish!

"This third I will put into the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call on my name and I will answer them; I will say, ‘They are my people,’ and they will say, ‘The LORD is our God.’” ~Zechariah 13:9 (NIV)

No, they don't hate you

Why does the Bible tell us to do the things it tells us to do? Why do our parents require certain things of us? Why did our coaches push us so hard? Why did we have to make certain grades in school in order to be able to do the fun extra-curricular things we truly enjoyed? What was the point in all these things? Was it not to help us become the best we are capable of becoming?

I think its sometimes easy to forget that the ones pushing us to do these things really want the best for our lives. God is the perfect example. He didn't give all these rules to inhibit but rather to free. Granted we have to have self-discipline in order to live up (as best we can) to His commands, but in the end it frees us. Our parents while not perfect because they are flesh, give us rules as well, not as a hindrance but in order to teach us how to be respectable people. Our coaches wanted our best effort and often made us run when we didn't give it or showed less than desirable attitudes not because they didn't like us, but because they saw what we were capable of and how the things we were doing could limit our potential. Likewise teachers did the same thing (minus the running.)

Something else I often forgot and sometimes still do is that my idea of the perfect way to do things doesn't always happen. People are different, and while sometimes others should improve upon their methods, sometimes it is I who needs to realize that my way isn't always the right one. I think though that when we start giving people the benefit of the doubt that they are trying to do the right thing (helping them out when they are not trying), that we will be able to accomplish much more then if we see people in the light of they don't know what they are talking about, or they are doing this because they don't like us. The more we learn to work with people while staying solidly grounded in the Truth, the more I believe we will be able to accomplish both for the Lord and in the objectives we are trying to achieve. 

"Do to others as you would have them do to you." Luke 6:31

Carpe Diem

"We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand." ~ Randy Pausch

I love inspirational things, quotes, stories, people... They somehow just awaken things inside of me that make me want to go out and conquer the world. haha. In ways they allow me to have opportunities with people that I might not could have on my own due to the limitations of my own experiences.

This particular quote that I put up above is a neat thought in and of itself and is made even more impressive due to the fact that this man was dying of pancreatic cancer when he said it. People like him prove to me that life is more about the view we take on our circumstances rather than the circumstances themselves. I have prayed a lot lately that I won't see the difficulties but rather the challenges and opportunities in the difficulties. (Challenges may sound like difficulties, but to me a challenge is something to be overcome and help strengthen rather than to hold you back.)

I love so many of the Old Testament stories, of the seemingly insurmountable odds and the way God overcomes in each like Daniel in the lion's den or Moses with the Israelites. I think that is the real secret. We each have our own part to do in the insurmountable odds we face each day, but we also have our own set of limitations. If we try to face our challenges by ourselves, we will be stopped by our limitations every time. However if instead we seek God's direction, what is there that we will not be able to do? So as we go through each day, may we live it in view of God's unlimited power and dare to do great things in His kingdom.

Jesus replied, "What is impossible with men is possible with God." 
~ Luke 18:27 (NIV)

Another on Wooden

   Over the years I have grown to love Coach Wooden's philosophy on basketball. I think mostly because it is so applicable to life for it is grounded in Bible principles. He talks about giving your best on every possession. The idea behind this is not that you will make every shot, never have a turnover, and break the press every single time. The idea is that you give yourself the best opportunity to do these things.
   Something I'm learning as I have begun coaching is that this is the principle I need to be teaching. Intensity. The desire to give the absolute best effort on every play. Well that is great for basketball but how does that relate to life? Simple. Everyday we are given a gift of 24 hours. How we consistently spend these hours will determine the direction of our lives. The reason for that is simply that these hours in essence are our lives. We are given a gift of how to spend them.
   Something else I'm learning is that there are things we have to do. We aren't necessarily given a choice, (if we want to eat or get an education or fill in the blank.) Yet we can still make the most even of these hours by the way we choose to see them. Our attitude truly does make an impact on the direction of our lives. We may waste a day here or there, but if we choose to learn from our mistakes even the initially wasted day can bring impact into our lives. If we live each day with an intensity to use it to the best of our ability for the Lord, I think we will meet with results unimagined. They will exceed our expectations.

"Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men." Colossians 3:23 (NIV)