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“I have said this to you, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world!” (John 16.33 NRSV)
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Every basketball fan knows the name Larry Bird. He has won nearly every award possible for a basketball player. Yet he still remembers what it was like to be slighted, to be overlooked, to feel unappreciated.
He tells about being chosen in his senior year of high school for the Kentucky-Indiana All-Star games. Those games are a big deal in Kentucky and Indiana, as you may know. The only reason Larry was chosen was that usually there was a representative from southern Indiana. He was the one selected to fill that slot. However, from the beginning, he was placed on the second team.
In the practices, however, the second team out-played the first. And in the first game in the All-Star series in Louisville the Indiana team was up by eight points or so in the second half when the coach put Larry's unit in. They blew the Kentucky team off the floor.
The same thing happened in Indianapolis. The Indiana team was trailing in the first half, but when Larry's unit went in, they went crazy and took complete control of the game. In the second half the coach started the first unit again. Then the second unit was put in--everybody but Larry Bird. Larry just sat on the bench, wondering what was going on.
With about two minutes to go in the game, the coach came over to Larry and said, "Hey, I forgot all about you. Why don't you go in now and get something?" Larry said, "Too late, Coach. I've already been embarrassed."
The coach got pretty angry at that. But Larry Bird had been humiliated. He had put in his time, just like everyone else. Everybody else got to play. If the coach had told Larry he wasn't good enough, that would have been one thing. But to come and say he had forgotten about him was another. How can a coach forget about somebody, asks Larry, after he's been practicing with him for two or three weeks?
"I know I reacted wrong," Larry Bird says, "but I was young. However, if I had to do it all over again, I would probably do the same thing because I know how embarrassed I felt that night. My values have changed. My outlook has changed. But I can remember how I felt that night, just sitting there--totally forgotten."
Friends, if one of the all-time greats who ever played the game of basketball can feel forgotten, how about the rest of us who are not as skilled as he? It hurts when we are overlooked, unappreciated, forgotten.
God doesn't forget us. He tells us we are somebody. Those early disciples faced all matter of opposition and even persecution, but they knew they were not forgotten. Christ had given them a new identity. He had given them an inner peace that the world could not take away. Christ gives us that peace as well.
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Dear God, thank you for making me somebody and for not forgetting about me. Amen.
Ron Newhouse
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Every basketball fan knows the name Larry Bird. He has won nearly every award possible for a basketball player. Yet he still remembers what it was like to be slighted, to be overlooked, to feel unappreciated.
He tells about being chosen in his senior year of high school for the Kentucky-Indiana All-Star games. Those games are a big deal in Kentucky and Indiana, as you may know. The only reason Larry was chosen was that usually there was a representative from southern Indiana. He was the one selected to fill that slot. However, from the beginning, he was placed on the second team.
In the practices, however, the second team out-played the first. And in the first game in the All-Star series in Louisville the Indiana team was up by eight points or so in the second half when the coach put Larry's unit in. They blew the Kentucky team off the floor.
The same thing happened in Indianapolis. The Indiana team was trailing in the first half, but when Larry's unit went in, they went crazy and took complete control of the game. In the second half the coach started the first unit again. Then the second unit was put in--everybody but Larry Bird. Larry just sat on the bench, wondering what was going on.
With about two minutes to go in the game, the coach came over to Larry and said, "Hey, I forgot all about you. Why don't you go in now and get something?" Larry said, "Too late, Coach. I've already been embarrassed."
The coach got pretty angry at that. But Larry Bird had been humiliated. He had put in his time, just like everyone else. Everybody else got to play. If the coach had told Larry he wasn't good enough, that would have been one thing. But to come and say he had forgotten about him was another. How can a coach forget about somebody, asks Larry, after he's been practicing with him for two or three weeks?
"I know I reacted wrong," Larry Bird says, "but I was young. However, if I had to do it all over again, I would probably do the same thing because I know how embarrassed I felt that night. My values have changed. My outlook has changed. But I can remember how I felt that night, just sitting there--totally forgotten."
Friends, if one of the all-time greats who ever played the game of basketball can feel forgotten, how about the rest of us who are not as skilled as he? It hurts when we are overlooked, unappreciated, forgotten.
God doesn't forget us. He tells us we are somebody. Those early disciples faced all matter of opposition and even persecution, but they knew they were not forgotten. Christ had given them a new identity. He had given them an inner peace that the world could not take away. Christ gives us that peace as well.
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Dear God, thank you for making me somebody and for not forgetting about me. Amen.
Ron Newhouse