Winners

Everyone Wants to be a Winner

Recently, the AAU basketball team my husband coaches and our son plays on won the Oregon State Championship. They were recognized as the number one team in their age group (5th/6th) and division. It was a joyous time as we all celebrated their victory. Some of us, i.e. me, cried tears of mixed emotion as the relief that the season was finally over intertwined with the letdown that the season was now officially over. Many players' faces were also filled with tears as the thought of another season ending overcame their emotions. 

So much of our lives are invested in the team and each other. We are really a family. We have traveled together five months out of the year for four years now. We laugh together, we cry together, we go broke together. It's great! But in all sincerity it's a very unique bond we share. As adults we understand that what we have as a team and family of parents and grandparents is once in a lifetime amazing.

Unfortunately, I have also witnessed what it looks like when people take the need and drive to win too far. This year seemed especially bad. The parents on our team do a very good job at keeping quiet during the games. Sometimes I wonder if it's because we are in awe of how insane the other people look who are getting all worked up. These are eleven and twelve year old boys, people. There's cussing, there's technical fouls from coaches, there's technical fouls from players, there's coaches' wives freaking out on our players and coaches, there's coaches' wives coming out the stands to yell at the players during time outs, etc., etc. It can get down-right crazy out there.

No matter how you act or react during a game (preferably you act with dignity and class) the root incentive remains the same, everyone wants to be on the winning team.

If these players didn't want to win they wouldn't sacrifice their blood, sweat, tears, bodies, time, practices, nights, weekends, and schedules to compete. They wouldn't run until they tossed their cookies, they wouldn't allow their hearts to take over when their bodies scream, "I'm DONE!!!" These players, too, want to win.

I will freely admit that I got into winning way more this year than any years in the past. I too sacrifice much for this team and want to see them do well. It makes me feel good when we win a tournament and take home a trophy. Parents on teams across the nation and world put their schedules on hold to support their children in whatever they set their hand at doing. It is only natural to want to see them do well.

As we traveled home after winning that state championship a sadness overcame me. In a time when I should, by human standards, be the most joyous, I felt blue. I began to reflect on the season and the need of our flesh to win and be winners. And it made me almost depressed to think about the amount of effort we put in to winning in a temporal game with a little orange ball and a net, but how little time we put into what it means to be a winner for eternity.

So many of us focus on the here and now with little to no regard for eternity. Francis Chan does the best job of clearing up eternity as he holds very long white rope in his hands and tells us to imagine the rope goes on forever and ever. That rope is eternity. But upon closer examination we see the first inch of that rope is wrapped in red tape and pinched between his left index finger and thumb. It is then he tells us that little one inch red portion represents our life here on earth. The point of the demonstration - the time we spend here is so short in comparison to eternity.

If we live our lives to only be winners in the here and now then we are modeling this as the correct way to live to our children who are watching our every move, hanging on our every word, and adapting this mind set as truth to what will one day become our children and grandchildren. Is this really what we want?

I was so proud of my husband this year. In the past I have told him that we really need to make Jesus our number one focus when we go on the road (we have to travel to all our tournaments as we live a very small and remote town) to play in our tournaments. He agreed, but I wasn't sure he was going to do anything about it. Each time we began to pull out of the driveway for five months he led our family in a prayer for safe travels and that we would glorify Jesus in all we said and did on and off the court. He led us in family devotions in the hotel rooms at night after a long day of playing and traveling when we were all tired. He continued to purpose in his heart to be a Christian example to those on our team who may not yet know Jesus, players and parents. He talked to our boys often about what it means to be a Christian leader on and off the court as well. The one thing I will remember most about this season is how we all strove to be winners for Jesus.

As fun as basketball is, and as much as I love our basketball family, at the end of the day it's not about winning; it's about knowing Jesus and making him known. That is the ONLY thing that lasts for all eternity. That is the ONLY way to truly be a winner. Jesus said in Matthew 16:25, "For if you want to save your own life, you will lose it; but if you lose your life for my sake, you will find it."