Staying the Course

Recently I had the opportunity to work with a volunteer through the details of facility management during an Upward basketball event. The day is typically a nine hour day that involves lots of people, coaches, ref’s, concession workers, scoreboards, sound, and videos. All of which are happening at the same time.

As the day began, we prompted a certain video to work during the halftime presentation of the scripture message. While it worked previously, it decided not to work during the trial run. As someone who desires good first impressions, I asked the volunteer (who is more comfortable with technology than I am) to come back to my office. It was there I gave him a five minute tutorial on verbally sharing a devotion “in case” the video fails again. While I could sense the “fret” inside of him of what I was asking him to do, he never said “I can’t” or “I won’t.” He simply listened and rehearsed the written devotion. His last words before the games began were, “I can do this.” We prayed and the day moved forward.

Nine hours later, I (the one who put new actions in motion to ensure first impressions as a result of my lack of technological faith) found myself rejoicing in the game room with a loud applause to God for seeing to it that the video series worked ALL six games! Two lessons I pondered after this day: 1.) Why am I always creating second plans in the midst of my unknowns or worries and 2.) This volunteer expressed a servant’s heart that didn’t want to let down a leader despite internal fears of having to verbally speak before the crowd.

God is always at work in our lives. For me, God was demonstrating the need to trust Him and the course for day. For the volunteer, he was willing to do what was asked of him and as a result, God provided in a way that he didn’t have to live up to what would be an unplanned challenge for him. Here’s the take away of this Upward basketball day - God always calls us to trust him and when we respond to what He calls / ask us to do, He will provide in such ways that glorify Him (as well as ease our internal tensions ).