Basketball Jones

Playing basketball after service on sundays has become our church's ritual if you will. Just as everyone knows that service always starts a little later than the scheduled start time and that the messages always run a little long, we all know that the place to be from 3 till sundown is at stimson park playing basketball on the far court. I love it. Especially since during the week most of my time is spent sitting in front of the computer or a sketch pad, running and breaking a sweat in a friendly but competitive game of 4 on 4 with friends is always something I look forward to.

Every once in awhile though, people have to attend after-service meetings and so the turn out is a lot less. Today was one of those days. We showed up at the courts and for our first game, we played against some strangers. Oh the madness! As we started to play, male egos collided and as the other teams temper and colorful choice of words flowed I started to recall why I stopped playing basketball in the past. I can't stand cocky teenagers that go on the prowl looking for ways to display their machismo. Well, I couldn't just stop playing and walk away with my tail between my legs whining "I don't want to play with you doo doo heads." So, I sucked it up, held my tongue and finished the game. We ended up losing the game, all the more adding to their already inflated egos. I collapsed on the floor in exhaustion and as I stared into the cloudy skies I kind of laughed because I guess God reminded me of the same thing he tells all of us. "Well, you still gotta love them, because guess what, I do." My laughter wasn't because I was thinking "yup, I've heard that before," but I think this time it was more of laughter due to complete amazement. It was more like "wow, God you're ridiculous! How do You do it?!? Did you hear what they were saying?!? Chris Rock doesn't even cuss that much!" And yet, his reply was still the same, "Yea, My love still wants them."

So I laid there, thinking about myself a little. How many times I sinned against God this week and how those sins make me just as much of a sinner as the guys we played against. How His reply to me is the same as it is to them, "Yea My love wants you too." And the only response I could mutter under my breath was "hm..love so amazing."