Dirty Paws
READY:
"'Son,' he said to him, 'you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.'"
-Luke 15:31-32
SET:
I once overheard of a group of coaches discussing what they were going to do with a certain player who had problems following the team rules. He’d had plenty of issues, but the final straw came when they found out he was caught up in drugs. Some of the coaches wanted to kick the young man off the team, but the head coach did not. He justified keeping the young man on the team by telling this story… “I once had a new puppy,” the head coach said. “It would come into the house and track mud all over the place. My wife was very upset, to say the least. One day, I’d had enough. The dog had to go. But then I started thinking. I realized that I’d really not worked with or taught that puppy much of anything. The reason he was tracking mud in the house was because I had failed to do my job.”
The rest of the coaches listened as he told this story. And as the head coach finished, he related to puppy back to this young player. “Before we turn our backs on this young man, I want us to ask ourselves if we can honestly say that we’ve done everything we can to help him learn how to be a quality young man.”
In Luke 15:11-32, we read “The Parable of the Lost Son.” The lost son is just like the coach’s troubled player and his muddy dog. They all had dirty paws. But even with our filth and sin, Jesus chooses not to give up on us. He continues to love us no matter what we do or how far we fall. And, in life, we have the opportunity to extend the same enduring love to those around us. We don’t have to give up on people when they fall short. Christ will give us the strength and wisdom to know how to keep loving others just as He keeps loving us.
Today, when we see someone who is struggling—maybe a teammate of ours—may we not turn our backs on them just because they have dirty paws.
IMPACT PLAY
It's All About Heart, Baby!
READY: “Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” -1 Samuel 16:7 (NKJV)
SET: It’s time for March Madness again, as the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament begins today. It certainly is an exciting time of year.
Last year, in the first three rounds of the tournament, Davidson’s Stephen Curry absolutely torched teams, averaging 34.3 points per game and leading his team to their first Regional Championship since 1969. Though Kansas defeated Curry and the tenacious Davidson team in the Elite Eight, the Wildcats will still go down as the Cinderella team of 2008.
As a high school senior, Curry was overlooked by several big-time schools whose seasons ended long before Davidson’s in 2008. Curry was a scrawny, 6-1, 155-pound senior, considered too small and frail to handle the physical play of the AAC and SEC. Many major Division-I coaches could not get past his physique. But one coach, Bob McKillop, looked beneath the physical appearance and saw the heart of a champion.
After one of their tourney wins last season, Curry was asked if he was motivated to show all the coaches who turned him down that he could play at this level. Curry quietly replied, “I am self-motivated. I am motivated to play for my teammates and for God.” What a good lesson for us all. We need to understand that what is impossible for man is not impossible for God.
Curry’s story reminds me of another young man who was overlooked years ago. In 1 Samuel 16, Samuel was commissioned by God to go and anoint the second king of Israel. He was led to the home of Jesse the Bethlehemite, where God said he would find the one whom God Himself had chosen. When Samuel looked upon Eliab, he thought he’d found his man, based on Eliab’s appearance. But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or his physical nature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7 NKJV).
Eventually, the youngest son was brought before him, and the Lord instructed Samuel to anoint him. And sometime later, as David stood over the defeated body of Goliath, I can imagine Samuel must have felt the same confirmation in his heart that Coach McKillop felt seeing Curry lead Davidson deep into last year’s tournament.
Today, let’s remember that God has chosen the “weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty” (1 Corinthians 1:27). As David said before he slew Goliath, “All…shall know that the Lord does not save with sword and spear, for the battle is the Lord’s” (1 Samuel 17:47).
READY:
"'Son,' he said to him, 'you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.'"
-Luke 15:31-32
SET:
I once overheard of a group of coaches discussing what they were going to do with a certain player who had problems following the team rules. He’d had plenty of issues, but the final straw came when they found out he was caught up in drugs. Some of the coaches wanted to kick the young man off the team, but the head coach did not. He justified keeping the young man on the team by telling this story… “I once had a new puppy,” the head coach said. “It would come into the house and track mud all over the place. My wife was very upset, to say the least. One day, I’d had enough. The dog had to go. But then I started thinking. I realized that I’d really not worked with or taught that puppy much of anything. The reason he was tracking mud in the house was because I had failed to do my job.”
The rest of the coaches listened as he told this story. And as the head coach finished, he related to puppy back to this young player. “Before we turn our backs on this young man, I want us to ask ourselves if we can honestly say that we’ve done everything we can to help him learn how to be a quality young man.”
In Luke 15:11-32, we read “The Parable of the Lost Son.” The lost son is just like the coach’s troubled player and his muddy dog. They all had dirty paws. But even with our filth and sin, Jesus chooses not to give up on us. He continues to love us no matter what we do or how far we fall. And, in life, we have the opportunity to extend the same enduring love to those around us. We don’t have to give up on people when they fall short. Christ will give us the strength and wisdom to know how to keep loving others just as He keeps loving us.
Today, when we see someone who is struggling—maybe a teammate of ours—may we not turn our backs on them just because they have dirty paws.
IMPACT PLAY
It's All About Heart, Baby!
READY: “Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” -1 Samuel 16:7 (NKJV)
SET: It’s time for March Madness again, as the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament begins today. It certainly is an exciting time of year.
Last year, in the first three rounds of the tournament, Davidson’s Stephen Curry absolutely torched teams, averaging 34.3 points per game and leading his team to their first Regional Championship since 1969. Though Kansas defeated Curry and the tenacious Davidson team in the Elite Eight, the Wildcats will still go down as the Cinderella team of 2008.
As a high school senior, Curry was overlooked by several big-time schools whose seasons ended long before Davidson’s in 2008. Curry was a scrawny, 6-1, 155-pound senior, considered too small and frail to handle the physical play of the AAC and SEC. Many major Division-I coaches could not get past his physique. But one coach, Bob McKillop, looked beneath the physical appearance and saw the heart of a champion.
After one of their tourney wins last season, Curry was asked if he was motivated to show all the coaches who turned him down that he could play at this level. Curry quietly replied, “I am self-motivated. I am motivated to play for my teammates and for God.” What a good lesson for us all. We need to understand that what is impossible for man is not impossible for God.
Curry’s story reminds me of another young man who was overlooked years ago. In 1 Samuel 16, Samuel was commissioned by God to go and anoint the second king of Israel. He was led to the home of Jesse the Bethlehemite, where God said he would find the one whom God Himself had chosen. When Samuel looked upon Eliab, he thought he’d found his man, based on Eliab’s appearance. But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or his physical nature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7 NKJV).
Eventually, the youngest son was brought before him, and the Lord instructed Samuel to anoint him. And sometime later, as David stood over the defeated body of Goliath, I can imagine Samuel must have felt the same confirmation in his heart that Coach McKillop felt seeing Curry lead Davidson deep into last year’s tournament.
Today, let’s remember that God has chosen the “weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty” (1 Corinthians 1:27). As David said before he slew Goliath, “All…shall know that the Lord does not save with sword and spear, for the battle is the Lord’s” (1 Samuel 17:47).