The Time of Amazing Things

My friends, we have arrived at one of the best times of the year.  No, not spring.  Okay, yes Easter a little bit.  But it’s the best time of year for one reason:  College Basketball.  Yes, friends, March is the month of madness, surprises, letdowns, and amazing things.  It’s the time of year when people become obsessed maniacs in need of constant viewing of 10 young adults chasing each other and a rubber ball 94 feet up and down a hardwood floor as they try desperately to put said 9.5 inch rubber ball through an 18 inch metal hoop.

Judging by that description you could probably tell one of two opposing things about my relationship to basketball; either A) I must think it’s silly watching people do this silly task or B) It’s silly how much I love the game of basketball.

If you guessed B) you would be absolutely correct.  I love basketball.  I love basketball more than most other citizens of the world love soccer, which if you’ve watched the rest of the world watch soccer you would know is kind of a lot.  I love the flow of the game, watching a crisp bounce pass into the paint.  I love the sound the net makes as the ball comes through it on a buried jump shot.  I love the emotion of players when they get fouled on a good shot and get the extra free throw.  I love the movement of a fast break where the ball never touches the ground because it moves so quickly on passes up the floor.  I love basketball.

Now, if you were a careful reader of those things I love about basketball, you would have noticed that most of them are about things I love watching in basketball.  Like almost 80% of the general basketball-loving population, I’m not what some would call “good” at the actual game itself.  I’m passable at best and abysmal on off-days, but I enjoy playing every chance I get.  Most of us out there are like that.  We love watching the game and wishing we could do that amazing acrobatic layup, but the sad reality is we just can’t.

As I’ve come into adulthood this is one thing I’ve become more and more comfortable with:  we’re not all gifted the same way.   When I watch college basketball players (who are now younger than me, which is still a weird feeling), I recognize that for whatever reason God reached down and stretched those bones into that 6’10” frame and left mine hovering between 5’11” and 6’0”.  And I’m okay with that.  I don’t have to have an unnatural wingspan or a natural shooting touch to enjoy the game of basketball.  It may not be my gift, but I enjoy it all the same.

When God gave each of us our gifts, whatever they may be, they were given so that each of us would fill our own callings in life.  Some of us are meant to be basketball players, and some of us, regardless of how much we may love the game, were not meant to be.  But just because we are not meant to do something and we don’t have those specific gifts doesn’t mean we can’t still love that something.  Just because you aren’t particularly good at playing an instrument doesn’t mean you can’t still love the chance to play.  Just because you may not be the best you know at relating to people doesn’t mean you still can’t love being around people.

That’s where work and effort come into play.  Even though we each have certain gifts, it takes time and effort to develop those gifts into their fullest potential.  Just because someone is 7 feet tall doesn’t make them automatically good at basketball; it certainly helps a lot, but it still takes work to really utilize that gift to the fullest potential.  Having a natural perfect pitch doesn’t automatically make you a virtuoso musician.  Again, it certainly helps, but there’s still a lot of work to be done to use that gift to the best of it’s ability.

We have all been given gifts, that much I know for certain.  All of us are good at something, regardless of if we’ve found it yet or not.  All we have to do is find those gifts, and use those gifts to the best of the ability we can.  Not all of us at are basketball players, regardless of how much we may want to be.  But whatever we are meant to be is just as great, whether that’s a musician, an artist, a carpenter, a machine operator, a farmer, or any other thing you think you could be great at.  God has trusted each of us with gifts, but we have to put in the time to work with those gifts.  But when you do exercise those gifts as only you can, then amazing things can happen.  It’s the season of amazing things, so what amazing thing can you do?