The Clank

(Photo by ABNCPARTIES.COM)

I, along with my wife and my two oldest children, joined millions of others in watching the Duke vs. Butler NCAA Men’s Championship basketball game. It was a great game, in doubt to the very end.

We held our breath as Gordon Hayward (who looks like an old friend of mine named Joe Don Ridgell) launched a mid-court shot. The shot banked off the square on the glass… and bounced off the rim—making an incredibly loud sound of “CLANK”.

Victory was so close! So much so, CBS replayed the last shot several times.

Had Hayward’s shot gone in, Butler would have pulled off one of the greatest upsets in history, winning by the score of 62-61. Had the shot gone in, it would have conceivably become the greatest shot in basketball history. Unfortunately (unless you were pulling for Duke), the shot clanked.

Reflecting this morning, I could not help but think Hayward represents the majority of us. For most of us, the best we will experience in our respective fields is getting close enough to clank. Very few of us win the "National Championship”—see Colt McCoy.

What do we do with the clank? One response would be to choose to live our entire lives in misery or sadness, thinking we can only really enjoy our lives the day we win the "Championship." But I wonder, could it be that God places higher value on other experiences available to us all?

I dare to believe the answer is—yes.

Why NOT Forsaking the Assembly Makes a Difference

Sometimes it is hard being a dad. You try teaching you kids and, unfortunately, sometimes they don’t want to listen. That’s when you pray that, at just the right time, someone else will come along to reinforce what you taught. Perhaps they will listen to them.

A few years ago, one father called another. He explained that he had a young son. One Sunday morning, the father’s young son was sitting down in a pew for his church’s early morning worship service. In walked a young man, a college student, who took a seat in a pew. He was obviously beaten up and his arm was in a sling.

The boy knew that the college student with the sling had flown much of the night and arrived at the airport at three or four in the morning. The reason he had been flying was because his team had played a football game in Lawrence, Kansas the night before against Kansas State. The reason his arm was in a sling was because he was knocked out of the game with an injury. Still, despite pain and exhaustion, he made the decision to worship God with his church—then he would go to the training room for treatment.

One father, with tears, shares his heart and gratitude to another. “My little boy saw that. I just want you to know that was the biggest impression anyone will ever make on my 10-year-old.”

The father who received the phone call was Brad McCoy. The college student whose first priority was to attend the Sunday morning worship service was Brad’s son, Colt.