Opus 2025-433: Full Court Press

I was marveling at the way in which God can deal with human beings who are each individual creatures.  I guess statistically you may be able to find someone in the world that is almost identical to you, but in reality it’s not going to happen.  We each look at things differently.  We have different values.  We have different priorities.  You get the idea.

And yet God deals with all of us in a way that is just and righteous.  It may not be fair, but it is just and righteous.  How does that work?

As I was pondering this, I got to thinking about the game of basketball.  Basketball has rules.  The rules are the same for both teams.  The equipment is the same for both teams.  Both nets are the same height on the ground.  The time allowed is the same for both teams.  Now I accept the fact that you may have a referee that is not having a good day, but they are supposed to be the same for both teams.

Now think about the UCLA full court press introduced by John Wooden.  I marvel at watching how in his first national championship with a bunch of guys who are really too short to be playing that level of basketball win it all walking away.  It was awesome.  It was coaching.

When I was in high school we had a church basketball team and we had a young guy who came in and taught us to use the full court press.  We ate them up.  We were 17 wins and one loss that year and the one loss was in triple overtime against a team that had three players who were starters in the freshman team at our college the next year.  Opposing them were a bunch of us non-basketball stars.  We had a guy who was good on baseball and I believe one who ran track, but they were the only genuine athletes in the group and they were not tall or great basketball players.

What made the difference?  Coaching.  Knowing how to make things work in a way that brought us to victory.  That’s how God works with us with our differences.  He coaches us in a unique way.  He knows us as individuals.  He knows our strengths and weaknesses.  He knows our environment.

And he gives us the benefit of a spiritual full court press.  Of course, it only works if we listen to what He tells us and play the game the way He teaches us.

Play ball.

homo unius libri