The Love of the Game

If you know me fairly well you know I'm a basketball fan. More than anything, a Portland Trailblazers fan, but a basketball fan for sure. One of my frequent internet stops is by ESPN's basketball blog "Truehoop." Today I read an interesting article there called "The Heart of Sports" written by Henry Abbott.

Abbott starts off the story with a reference to Michael Jordan's secret to basketball success. Ready for it, "Love of the game."

That's it. Nothing but love.

Sports analytics are a growing trend. Years ago there were simply stats. Now there are stat-hounds. Fantasy leagues are played by piles of sports fans. There are countless reasons why things on stat-sheets change over and over, but at the biggest analytics conference of the year, Abbott reports, the biggest factor in success always comes down to heart.

It begs the question of care. Do you really care about the things that you are doing?

In his book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell (one of my favorite authors both for prose and hairstyle) writes about his theory of 10,000 hours of meaningful practice being the meter for success. When someone cares and works enough to hit the 10,000 hours mark at just about anything they cross a point where success in that field becomes much more likely. The funny thing about his theory is that it includes the word "meaningful."

Have you ever coasted through life? Ever been on cruise control? I tend to default to that place during times of frustration. Rather than putting extra and intentional effort into that thing that is frustrating me, I will withdraw a bit and wait it out. Let the frustration go and then come back to it.

Maybe one of the reasons I do a lot of things good, but few things great, is that I get into spurts of interests. I'll play a lot of music, then very little. I'll read a lot of books on one subject, then check something else out. I'll spend countless hours working on a ministry project for weeks, then I'll watch it and pull back.

Greatness comes through consistent behavior and effort. But consistent behavior and effort require love. You have to love what your doing or you'll never keep it up.

Here's the breakdown: What do you want to be great at? What do you love? What do you obsess over? Are you willing to choose a love that takes constant time and grooming to be the best at it?

Funny thing about everything I've posted so far, it applies deeper than careers and skills. Have you shown your love to your spouse today? Have you made the extra effort to show you care and want to be with him/her?

Have you taken time to truly know Jesus? I don't want to get religious on this, but isn't it right there, too? You can try and learn to hear God's voice once a week in a service, but it is a lot easier when you take time to listen and connect daily. Do you want to know the power and voice of a living God? Or are you more comfortable choosing an average relationship with Him?

I don't want average or mediocre anything, especially not average or mediocre faith. What's the point of having a faith that brings you to church but doesn't bring you to life?

Choose to Love the King, and let that love lead to obsession.

And that obsession will lead to a great friendship.