An Orange Ball and a Hoop

…do good works… Ephesians 2:10

Every now and again life unfolds a fabulous event right before your eyes and you get a front row seat to something completely wonderful.  During the past week the people of our community were a part of PW schools basketball history. For the second time in the school’s history, a boys’ team made it to the state finals. The venue for the final two games (The MSU Breslin Center) was the icing on the cake for every young man on the team who grew up wanting to be an MSU Spartan.  It was a great run that ended with a State Runner-Up trophy but the events that made this an amazing week honestly have very little to do with the trophy awarded at the end of the final game.

As the Pirates advanced to the Quarterfinals and beyond, a few of the little lovelies asked during Morning Prayer if they could pray for the team to win.  I repeated a line from a good friend who always says “I don’t think God really care about sports; He wants us to use all of our gifts and talents in the best way we can.” So instead of praying to win, we prayed that the players would do good works and play to honor God.  That’s exactly what they did but they might not even realize all the lessons they taught this week.  Many folks will say it’s just a game; life is about many more important things than shooting an orange ball through a hoop.  They may be right but this group of young men and their coaches demonstrated so much more both on and off the court.  Their attitude, behavior and discipleship is a story that needs to be told.  For those readers close to home, it’s a review of all we were taught and for those of you far away, it’s a story to lift your spirit and inspire you to “be Christ” in all things.

Lesson 1 – Bloom where you are planted! Being a small school in a rural area, the players you have are the players you build a team with! There is nobody to recruit or nobody picking us as a school of choice, we field a team with the boys that were born here…period. The boys on this team have been playing together for 6 to 9 years.  They learned to build on each other’s strengths, work hard and hold each other accountable for making the most of their talents. They learned the value of supporting each other and accepting each other for exactly who they are.

Lesson 2 – Humility is impressive, inspiring and it never goes out of fashion.  No matter what the score or the outcome these young men were gracefully humble.  They reminded us that humility is demonstrated because it is expected, not because it is earned or deserved. 

Lesson 3 – The best way to thank God for a talent is to share it with compassion! Each year the team goes to play a game with the students at a school for the physically and mentally challenged.  Most of the boys on the team will say it’s their favorite game of the season.  This year several of those special students were at the semifinal game to support their Pirate buddies.  At the end of the game, two of my favorite Pirates climbed up into the stands to find this group of special students who had come to cheer them on.  They went to this section first, before finding their parents or their girlfriends or friends in the student section. The parents of one of these players told me nothing their son could do on the court could ever make them prouder than what he did after the game.  When a reporter asked why that had been their first stop after the game he replied, "We just had to go up there and show ‘em some love and thank them for comin’ out to support us!”  In the wise words of the coach, “It’s about doing something for someone who can’t do anything for you in return.”  Thank you Pirates for demonstrating that reminder in living color.  It was so very Christ like of you.

Lesson 4 – It has been said that a nation’s goodness can be judged by the way it treats it’s young and it’s old.  This teams enthusiasm, talent, sportsmanship and Christianity gave a small town a chance to come together and grow in goodness.  Not many small town teams could gather enough support to fill hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of seats in a Big 10 college coliseum.  People from our communities and several neighboring towns bought tickets and rallied behind some great young men…that was a fine sight to see. Thanks for giving us a chance to practice treating our young with support and respect.

Lessons 5- Never miss a chance to do something good for kids; someday they will be in charge and they need to see how things should be done.  To the anonymous donor who paid for the game ticket for every Pewamo elementary student, thank you just isn’t a big enough word! To the neighboring school to our North, thank you for lending us school busses to get all the kids to the game. True generosity is beautifully touching and it was modeled so clearly nobody could miss it!

Lesson 6 – In life we face challenges but there are also celebrations and times of great happiness; neither is intended to last forever.  After the biggest week of his life, another of my favorite Pirates had to get up Sunday morning long before dawn to milk cows and his very wise father reminded him that life is like that…times of great excitement are always followed by a sudden burst of reality.  God is eager to meet us in both places!

Lesson 7 – Thankfulness and praising the Giver of all gifts is the most important thing.  Not many public school teams have a Catholic priest bless them before games and then sit behind the bench cheering and praying over them during the most important game of their high school career.  They realized his role in helping them remember to play for God’s glory and not their own.

It may be just a game with an orange ball and a hoop; but for several hundred people from the middle of Michigan’s mitten…it was much much more!  God bless the Pirates and we thank you for your humility, sportsmanship and your excellent example of Christ inspired behavior both on and off the court. Thank you for bringing us together!  Many will remember this as the year of the winter that wouldn’t end…but we will also remember it as the year the students became the teachers of some great lessons!

A Seed To Plant:  Take a lesson from the coach this week and share or do something with someone who can’t do anything back for you.

Blessings on your day!