I remember
the difference between the Varsity/ JV and the C team for basketball at
Sammamish. It was kind of a weird
situation, because the Varsity and the JV teams were decently good. In fact, Varsity was one of the best teams in
the state. But for some reason, the
C-Team (the one I was on) was absolutely terrible…in fact, we only won 2 games
all year, and both were against the same team.
Now, if
there were such a thing as a C-Team basketball analyst, I think they’d be able
to find dozen of reasons for this odd gap in achievement. They may point to a good senior class, or a
different offensive strategy, but that’s not the main thing that I noticed.
I think the
biggest difference between these teams was the view of the coaches. Here’s what I mean:
The Varsity
coach was so respected among the school.
Able to beat almost any student in a game of one-on-one, his reputation
preceded him. Sometime new student
players would be nervous to meet him or play for him, as he had been voted
King-Co coach of the year before. He
would quickly dispel these fears, however, as his kind and easygoing nature
would calm nerves. This coach literally
improved my vertical by about 4-5 inches in one day. He got results based on his coaching
techniques.
The JV coach
was beloved by everyone who played under him.
A couple of guys on the team even called him “dad”. His office was always filled with both
Varsity and JV basketball player. He had
charisma, he showed interest in all of his players, and got incredible results. When I quit playing basketball, he was the
one who would always ask me to play, without making me feel guilty for not
playing. He was loved by everyone who
knew him.
The C-Team
coach, however, was a totally different story.
Without trying to put him down or anything, he was feared by many of the
players on his team. He was angry at us
a lot, making us run lines for the slightest infraction. Most of the practices actually consisted of
us running lines for the majority of the time, and we were terrible as a
team. Much of the time, we were afraid
of making a mistake and ticking off the coach.
I actually saw him in the mall the other day, and I totally avoided
him. I didn’t want to talk to him, I
didn’t want to be around him, I didn’t want to see him. Players feared him because he was angry and
volatile. Thus, he didn’t get the
results he wanted and the team was terrible.
I think that’s
the problem that a lot of people have with God.
NOT that He is an angry and volatile God, but that people perceive Him
to be. He’s not angry and volatile, He’s
slow to anger and never changing. People
walk around life acting like He’s angry, when in reality, God is desperately in
love with them, and even died for them.
It’s
realizations like this that change people.
The more you get to know Jesus, the more revolutionary you realize that
He is. He’s perfect, but He’s not angry
about your flaws. He’s absolutely
righteous, but has forgiven sinners. This
is revolutionary and will change people around the world. Crazy results will come from this. God is
not looking for ways to condemn or destroy you, He’s looking for ways to redeem
you. He’s looking out for your
best! That’s revolutionary! That will produce crazy results in the lives
of those who begin to understand it, just like how the players of the
basketball teams were shaped by their perceptions of their coaches!
No comments:
Post a Comment