I’m writing this on Saturday, the second day of March Madness. Our family has a good time each year, each filling on a NCAA Tournament Bracket. We have a trophy that is given to the person that does “the best” on choosing winning team. The trophy has traveled from place to place in three different states the past few years in…none of those Tennessee
I have never won the trophy. This year, I’ve gotten a good start in the right number of picks I have chosen, but the chance of getting that trophy are slim. l chose Purdue to all the way to the final four.
Ironically, I know Furman is an outstanding school with a great academic reputation; a friend is a trustee. But how many people gave thought to picking Furman to defeat #1 Purdue? One family member, a graduate of Furman, who did this year.
Team is the big issue? Sure, most teams have a “star, but The Game Is for a Team.
A preacher friend recently reminded me of a story about what it means to be a part of a team. It is a story of Al McGuire and Butch Lee. McGuire was a great basketball coach, who retired from Marquette after winning the NCAA tournament in 1976. Butch Lee was a kind of prima donna player on that team. The story is about McGuire trying to teach Butch Lee about team basketball. This was the coach’s word. “Now, Butch, the game is forty minutes long, and if you divide that between the two teams, that means there is twenty minutes when one team will have the ball and there’s twenty minutes when the other team will have the ball. There are five players on each side. That means each player will have the ball for about four minutes. Now, Butch, I know what you can do with a ball in four minutes. What I want you to show me, is what you can do for the other thirty-six minutes.”
There is more than one lesson here and it goes beyond basketball to the whole of life. What do you do when someone else has the ball? When someone else is in the limelight? When you are the supporting member, not the star of the game?
I was intrigued by these thoughts recently as I finished reading Paul’s Letter to the Colossians. In his final greetings he names a number of people whom he knew were doing the work of Christ.
Read the list of names in Colossians 4:1-18: Tychicus, Onesimus, Aristarchus, Mark, Justus, Epaphras, Luke, Demas, Nympha and Archippus. How many of those names do you recognize? Tychicus – never heard of him? Onesimus — yeah — vaguely. Aristarchus — no — don’t know him. And on we could go. Faithful Scripture readers are familiar, really, only with Luke and Mark in this lineup.
So it is well that we pause now and then, especially in the midst March Madness, to celebrate the support cast. It is possible for the main character to come through with impact at center stage, only if the backup crew are performing well.
John, my son-in-law, organizes and facilitates our family game of bracket choosing. I confess, I am waiting for that trophy with a bit of hope until he reports were we all stand after the games being played today.