As you can see, I’m talkin’ CHCS Hoops this week. Well, I would, because games have begun, and next week I get to be a substitute coach for the tan team. I even got to practice with the tan team this week. And I noticed a couple things during practice that I found interesting.
Number one: It doesn’t look like I am ever going to dunk. I always thought that if I would just grow a few more inches or improve my vertical leap about a foot that I would jump from the floor and “bring the thunder” with a smashing dunk. I don’t think so. I would be hard pressed to slide a piece of notebook paper between my sneakers and the floor when I’m really jumping these days.
Number two: “I got no shot.” I can barely hit the backboard, much less the rim. Putting the ball in the hoop? An impossibility. During practice I was what I refer to as an “o-fer”. That means I put zero shots in the basket for however many I attempted to shoot.
Codie, one of our tan team players, however, couldn’t seem to miss. While I was hard-pressed to get the ball anywhere near the backboard and rim, Codie was scoring from everywhere. He made layups; he hit short shots; he scored from fifteen feet away; he was on fire from 3-point land. I said, “Yo Codie, you’re unconscious, dude (cool hoop lingo).” He was experiencing what basketball players call being “in the zone.”
Thinking of the “Codie-zone,” I couldn’t help but get to thinkin’ about the “God-zone.” Oswald Chambers, in his classic devotional book, My Utmost for His Highest, wrote about the “God-zone” when he was discussing the prophet, Isaiah. In chapter six of Isaiah’s great book of the Bible, he stepped into the presence of God, and some unbelievable things happened. He saw God sitting on a throne and large birds were flying overhead and they were calling, “Holy, Holy, Holy…! And, finally, the floor started to shake and the room filled with smoke.
Isaiah responded by confessing his sin, receiving God’s forgiveness and asking to be sent out as a person who speaks for God! Wow, a lot happened in the “God-zone!” The idea of being “In the zone” in the Bible is not quite like basketball. It’s not about just every-once-in-a-while a player shoots the ball better than he normally would. God would like for us to live our entire lives in His zone or in His presence.
Jesus talked to His students about “abiding” in Him in John 15. Listen to this: “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man abides (or remains) in Me and I in him, he will bear much fruit, apart from Me you can do nothing (John 15:5).”
Now why couldn’t I make a shot a shot at practice this week? Easy – I haven’t practiced shooting for the past thirty years. Codie, on the other hand, has obviously been “throwing the rock at the hole” pretty often lately.
God wants us to “practice His presence” or live our lives “trusting in Him with all our heart” and “acknowledging Him in all our ways (Proverbs 3:5-6).”
Let’s ask Him to help us: Dear Father in Heaven, we confess that we get distracted from living in and practicing Your presence. Thank You for making Yourself available to us every moment of every day. Strengthen us, dear Lord, to stay at the source of our strength – YOU! In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Proud of you,
Pastor Wilson
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