“Just tell me what to do and I will do it, Lord. As long as I live I’ll wholeheartedly obey.” (Psalm 119:33-34)
When I check the basketball scores, occasionally I will see a player’s name and adjacent to his name would be DNP (Coaches Decision). Sometimes however, it is not the coach’s decision to keep a player out of the game. The decision is actually because of the player’s choice. In my experience coaching elementary school kids, I often had kids tell me not to put them in the game on certain occasions because we were playing a team that was loaded with good players. Not wanting to play, well I see that as some kind of anomaly or abnormality. Everybody wanted to get in the game when I was a kid. As a matter of fact, kids would use techniques to make sure the coach saw them and perhaps would call on them to get in the game. There was the jockeying for positions on the bench or the chairs to be close to the coach. You never wanted to sit on the far end of the bench. There was the sitting on the edge of the seat so that your head could be seen sticking out and showing an eagerness and interest in the game. There was the cheerleading technique where players on the bench would be quite vocal in cheering on the team when they did good or even mimicking the coach and throwing a towel on the floor when there was an unforced error causing the team to lose the ball. There were other techniques that I won’t go into because you will have to go get into Sunday service soon. But let me share this one with you.
I’m coaching a PTO game. The kids were young, third to fifth graders. Nevertheless we started practice with drills that I once I had to do. Defensive stance drills, dribbling drills, three-man weave drills, layup drills, shooting drills and more. Our team had a repertoire of seven plays that we would practice. All of them involved sitting picks or clearing sides. One of them was copied off of a high school state championship team. The fact that the teams had to play man-to-man attributed to our success. But the other factor that led to our success was practice, Yes, “Practice!” And I had a rule, if you don’t come to practice you don’t get to play that week. There would be no scores published, but that person, for all intents and purposes would have received a DNP. However, it was not the coach’s decisions, but rather the player’s decision. Both the kid and his parents knew the rule. Yes, they were children, but we all wanted to win. And to win, players needed to be coached. And to be coached and told what to do, the children had to come to practice.
What’s the point of this story? The point is that if you want to know what you need to do to win week after week in the competition with your key opponents (Satan, the Secular World, and Self), you need to come to practice. You need to come and listen to your appointed coach who got the plays from the playbook called the word of God. If you miss church, the consequences can find you on the bench, by your own choice, and unable to execute the winning plays. Again you ask, what’s the point of this story. Let me be straightforward! Go to church this morning! And don’t just go! Take some notes! Participate in the service when you meet with your “teammates” in the assembly of the saints! Enjoy! Or better yet, “Rejoice!” Be blessed!
“When you meet together, sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, as you praise the Lord with all your heart. Always use the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to thank God the Father for everything.” (Ephesians 5:19-20 CEV)
Still committed to the climb,
Mark L. King