Cool Devotions

Shaq Diesel and D-Wade

published Jun 06, 2006 12:00

http://www.633main.com/dev247.htm Now one of my talents is definitely not a basketball. And I'm OK with that. I have never been the most athletic person, but I do feel God has blessed me with enough management and leadership skills to analyze the game and determine the recipe to match a team up against an opponent and win. I used to help coach our church team and I learned from my friends Leroy and Danaan the different fundamentals and skills of basketball. When we coached we were unbeatable. Now we did have a group of very athletic guys, but the most important fundamental I learned was to make sure each player played their own role. For instance if you look back to the Bull's and Jordan era, everyone on that team had a role. Even as wierd as Dennis Rodman is, he knew his role was to simply grab rebounds. Cartright's role was to draw his defender outside the lane so when Michael drove, he had a clear shot. Steve Kerr's role was to wait at the 3-pt line to shoot an almost guaranteed 3! Scottie Pippin's role was get open off of screen set by Horace Grant, so that when Jordan was double-teamed he had the option of performing one of his impossible shots, or dishing it to Scottie for the easy dunk. As you can see I love to analyze games. And when LA traded Shaq to Miami, I knew it would be 7 plus years before they ever had another championship even if they had Kobe Bryant. What were they thinking?? How could you trade the best center in NBA history (outside of Wilt Chamberlain and Oscar Roberts)?? So do you know what you got out in LA? A misplaced role! I know there are a lot of Cali listeners to the podcast, but you must agree, Shaq knew his role. He wasn't shooting threes, or bringing the ball up the court. Neither of those was his forte. His skill is to post, over power his opponent, and slam the ball down their throat. He is so effective, sometimes the only strategy is foul him, cause he's not that good a free throw shooter. Well to say it plainly, he sucks at the free throw line. But anyway, todays encouragement is for you to play your role. You can not win anyone to Christ. Your only role is to lift Him up and point the person in His direction, and allow the Holy Spirit to do the rest. You know John 3 does not say, "5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Eric, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. It says, "A man should be born of the Spirit." And in verse six it goes on to say, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. So when we try to play the role of the Holy Spirit, that person you are trying to witness too will only be born of flesh, but after we plant the seed and step back and let the Holy Spirit take over the rest of the game, then that person can be born of the Spirit. So today lets pray this prayer, "Father, help me to be a team player by fulfilling my role, which is to live a life that will point others to you, So that your Holy Spirit can convict and save them. In Jesus name, Amen." Well I hope the team you're rooting for wins, but as you can tell I'm going for Miami to win the series in six games. A freind emailed me this quote, "I just wanted to help my teammates, And God gave me the strength." That was Dwayne Wade the star point guard for Miami. And as long as he has that humble role fulfilling attitude, its a sure win! -Eric Lusain, Cincinnati, OH