Better late than never?

“Better late than never.”

We’re all guilty of using this phrase. That time you dropped off a belated birthday card or forgot a deadline. At best it’s a soggy excuse for not delivering on time, but for some reason we feel this sentiment somehow excuses our tardiness and brings some sort of redemption to our delayed delivery.

The greater tragedy is when we allow this phrase to enter our spiritual life. 

This last week I was prepping and studying for our latest installment in our Youth Church series called “Why Not?”. The topic: Trust & Obedience. The text: Genesis 22 / The story of Abraham & Isaac. 

As I read through the story, I was stopped by verse three, “Early the next morning…”. Now, at first glance those words might not catch you, but what preceded these words makes them all the more meaningful. Just hours before, God spoke to Abraham in the night and told him that He wanted Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac. Yes, to KILL HIS OWN SON. 

What sense was there in this request? Isaac, himself, was a gift from God. A promised child, a literal miracle to Abraham and his wife Sarah and now God wanted Abraham to kill this boy?

I cant begin to imagine the wrestle in Abrahams heart as he processed through his options. If I were Abraham, I would’ve been looking for any reason not to go through with it. “Oh, it looks like it might rain….. we’d better wait for better weather to go give a sacrifice….” or “Wow, this is a BIG decisions. I’d better take a few days to fast and pray……you know….. just to MAKE SURE.”

But verse 3 says that Abraham rose EARLY THE NEXT MORNING. No delay, no excuses, no hesitation, just obedience. (Spoiler alert: He doesn’t actually kill Isaac, God intervenes at the last moment)

This morning, during my devos, I was reading Luke 5. In this story, Jesus is getting mobbed by crowds trying the hear His teaching. Seeing a boat near by, He asks the boats owner (Simon Peter) to push off from shore so He could teach the crowds from a distance. After His teaching session is over He asks Simon Peter to set out for deeper waters and to cast out his nets for a catch. Simon Peter reluctantly obeys and before they knew it their nets were so full of fish they were about to break! After calling the other boat for help, both boats headed back to shore so full of fish that they were about to sink! 

What an amazing fish story! This was without a doubt the greatest catch of Simon Peter’s life and represented an amazing payday for him and his crew, but verse 11 again stopped me in my tracks. “As soon as they landed, they left everything and followed Jesus.” They didn’t stick around to count the catch, to calculate their earnings, to brag about their haul. As soon as the boats hit shore they left it all.

What would’ve happened if Abraham delayed? If Simon Peter stuck around to kill, clean & sell his catch? Is delayed obedience really obedience at all?

What are the areas in my life that I am guilty of delayed obedience to God? What can I do to have the response of an Abraham or Simon Peter?

I pray that the words of our stories include “Early the next morning” or “As soon as they landed”, because maybe it’s not always better late than never.

Make-up & Deodorant

Now, before I begin, may I preface what I am about to write by reminding you that I work with Middle Schoolers….

Make-up and deodorant. Two things that have purpose and value. Two things that are beneficial and have the potential to make a huge difference. Two things, that without application, are useless and meaningless. You can know the value and purpose of make-up and deodorant, but until you pick them up off the counter and apply them, they do you no good.

We had this same discussion with our Middle School students today. Not because Middle School girls are learning how to wear make-up and Middle School boys are still 1-3 years away from wearing deodorant, but because this silly example leads to a simple spiritual truth: without application, our Christian knowledge is useless.

There is a reason why we are challenged to not simply be “hearers of the Word” but to be “doers”. While make-up and deodorant make us look pretty and smell nice, applying our Christian knowledge in the form of action is what attracts the world to Jesus.

In the case of the example and of the spiritual lesson: application makes all the difference.

Clutch

// Of course I chose to talk about sports for my first Tumblr post. (I am hoping to update this thing a little more frequently than in the past.) //

If you follow basketball at all you know that the beginning of this season has not been what most people expected it to be. The now loaded Miami Heat have limped through the first few weeks, just now seemingly finding their stride and personality. The Lakers, while winning, have looked more like a team waiting for June than the dominant force everyone expected out west. The Knicks, thanks to Amare, are turning heads and the rejouvinated Mavericks are once again riding the German wave called “Dirk”.

With all of this swirling around the league, probably the greatest surprise of all is the franchise record start by the San Antonio Spurs. A team that was swept in the Western Semis last year by a flawed Suns team and was labeled too old and too slow to contend in the era of Lebron, DRose and Kevin Durant.

Thankfully, the Spurs front office didn’t panic. (Not that they ever do) They held onto Richard Jefferson, who is nicely finding his place in the offense and brings a great athletic edge to the defensive side of the ball and extended the contract of the now controversial Tony Parker. Parker, quite accurately, was said to have lost his competitive edge after becoming too enthralled with the role of being a celebrity husband. And while divorce, in my mind, is never the best option, it has seemingly cleared Parker’s head enough to bring him back to the Tony of old, like in ‘07 when he whirled and slashed his way through the NBA.

Mr. Fundamental, Tim Duncan, has been able to diminish his minuets without sacrificing his impact on the game. He scores when they need him to score, he rebounds when they need him to rebound and can still protect the lane and the hoop effectively. Even though his numbers are down, you cannot over emphasize his value to this franchise and his role in the cohesiveness of this team. To top it all off, they added depth and youth to the bench, which cannot be overlooked.

While each of these peices have been doing their intricate part and while Coach Pop has been working his usual magic of inspiration, motivation and rotation (even though it seems he has abandonded his usual iron-fisted motto on defense and morphed his slow Spurs into one of the leaugues highst scoring teams) one man has been proving once again why he is one of the games premier clutch players.

Manu Ginobili hasn’t ever fully recieved the praise he is due. Chaulk that up to struggeling to stay healthy throughout a full season and sometimes getting lost in the shadow of ESPN’s nausiating coverage of Miami and L.A. But through it all, he posseses the ability to take over a game and make the game winning play with the best. (My interest in writing this post is no doubt “the perfect storm” of the book i’m reading “The Book of Basketball” by Bill Simmons / Thanks Spencer / and the fact that Ginobili has hit 2 game winning shots in the last 3 days).

ESPN analyst, Skip Bayless, has put Manu’s name in the same scentence with Bird, Magic, Jordan, DWade and Kobe as one of the great clutch players in history. That’s saying alot when you consider that everyone in the audience (even Bird) was shocked when Larry missed a big shot, Magic owns some of the NBA’s greatest moments, MJ was….well he was MJ, and DWade and Kobe seem to have ice water in their veins! (Notice Lebron is nowhere to be found on this list….. Paul Peirce probably should be, but his late game play is usually pretty one dimensional)

Being clutch is what seperates the good players from the truly great players. The ability to feel the weight of the moment, want the ball in your hands and be unafraid to fail and take the blame is something that great players, clutch players, are willing to do.

Some of history’s most skilled players lacked this gene. Wilt Chamberlain was notoriously afraid of crutial moments and wanted anyone else to take the game winning shot. Lebron is another. Unmatched in his physical prowess, Lebron’s mental make-up is more fragile than fine china. He is seemingly so afraid of not measuring up to people’s expectations that he crumbles under the pressure, where the greats rise to the occasion.

Manu has been deemed “The Closer” by the Spurs conerstone, Duncan. But what makes Ginobili so fun to watch in those wanning momements isn’t just his exagerated head and ball fakes, but the wide variety of ways he finds to win. Drives through the lane, rediculous falling lay-ins, no-look passes to wide open teamates, step back jumpers, and his european style of getting to the free-throw line.

The Spurs fast start has shown us a few things. Never underestimate team chemistry. Skill will usually defeat talent and when the game is on the line, you want the ball in the hands of Manu Ginobili.