Church and Basketball

So it looks like I’ve been away awhile? Sorry about that. Between changing jobs and starting a married life, time seemed to just sort of slip away from me. The good news (or should I say cliché news) is that I have decided that one of my New Year’s resolutions is to give this blog a little TLC. And that starts today…

Williston is a suburb of Burlington, about 10 minutes away from my house, so I am going to count it. Its claim to fame (in my mind) are the Christmas Tree Shop (future blog post?) and a very discretely placed Wal-Mart which everyone claims to avoid, yet always seems to have a full parking lot. Hmmm…

It is also the location of the Williston Church of the Nazarene which hosts pick-up basketball on Monday nights from 6 to about 8:30 PM.

Ouch.

Coming into the night, I was nervous. Not at the prospect of meeting new people or visiting a strange location, but at the thought of my ankle. In early December 2012 I sprained my ankle HARD, and was out of commission for quite a while. At the time, I swore off basketball, intent to focus instead on my running.

What can I say? I love the game and couldn’t stay away.

My buddy Kevin and I rolled up to the church about five minutes earlier than the advertised time, but there were already cars in the parking lot and lights on… good sign.

As we walked in, we were greeted by a guy named Tim who made us feel welcome, assured us that people would be arriving shortly and invited us to warm up with him.

In warm-up, my neighbor Kevin was killin layup drills…

After a few layup drills, trick shots, kind-spirited jabs, the crew assembled at the free throw line to shoot for teams. Sometimes a painfully long process, I was encouraged when the teams were quickly decided when 3 people, including yours truly, made their first attempt and were placed onto the same team.

Unfortunately, that is where our skill (or luck) for the night ended. Despite playing well themselves, my teammates had to endure playing with a guy who acts like he is both Steve Nash AND Kobe Bryant, but in reality plays more like a guy who was cut from every basketball team he ever tried out for. Again, yours truly.

Joking aside, while I did have my share of turnovers and shots that just seemed to rattle out, so did our competitors. We were just never able to capitalize on their shortcomings and we lost 3 straight games, 2 of them pretty badly.

But we were feeling it, and we weren’t about give in, even though the other team was making shots that would have made Jordan scratch is head in amazement.

“Let’s run that back,” we suggested, much to the delight of the other team who was enjoying wiping the floor with us. Before we had a chance to start the game over, someone said, “Nah, I think we are going to do the talk.”

Gathering for the talk…

Talk?

I came here for hoops, what’s there to talk about? To my surprise, without any further instruction each individual nodded his head, grabbed a drink of water and gathered together under one of the hoops.

When the room had quieted and people seemed ready, one of the players stood in front of the crowd and began to talk. After opening with a short prayer for safety of the ballers, he shared a story he had found on Facebook of Joshua Bell, a world famous musician who played his violin incognito in a subway and wasn’t recognized a single time.

He noted that people didn’t recognize the beauty because they weren’t looking for it, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t there. Much like, he said, the idea that people rarely look for God during their daily life, focusing instead on completing the tasks of our busy lives.

Our speaker went on to quote 3 or 4 very short bible verses, each containing the phrase, “I am with you.” The point, he said, is that even though we are not looking for God, he is always with us. And without saying much more, he encouraged us to take time during our “busy” lives and try to find God in the beauty around us; to “stop and smell the flowers” so to speak.

In less than five minutes, without enduring a huge lecture or intense scripture reading, I had just attended church.

The group thanked the speaker, grabbed the ball and started to shoot around again. Preparations for the next epic on-court battle had begun.

As for me though, my time had come. The ankle was feeling frosty and I had a football game to catch. Make no mistake about it though, I will be back for “Church and Basketball” again next week. Hope to see you there.

Until Next Time,

A Stranger Observing Burlington, Vermont – Elek