My “Basketball Season”

Our lives are made up of seasons. Just like the weather seasons, each season of our lives has its pros and cons. Winters snow is beautiful but it can also be treacherous. Springs promise of new life also brings the dreaded allergy alerts. Summer offers beaches and vacations but also promises blistering heat (fellow Texans know that I mean). Autumn colors are a spectacle but nevertheless a prelude to death. So are the seasons of our lives, each containing promise and problems, perks and pitfalls.
This past Sunday afternoon I experienced some of the perks and the perils of my current season of life on the concrete slab of a local park playing my beloved game of B-Ball with a great group of (younger!) men from my church.
First let me clarify that I still consider myself a “young man” at 41 years of age. My sweet wife assures me that I am actually getting better with age. (God forgive her for lying because I think she actually believes this fabrication.) Yet even with all of her encouraging words I cannot help but wonder if I am in the twilight of my “Basketball career.” I know, I know many of you did not even know I had a “career” but let me assure you that all of us men do. They exist in the arenas of our minds where we are always victorious and always the hero.
In previous seasons of my life, sports, especially basketball, has often been a source of welcome relief from the mundane requirements for daily survival on this planet. For a few fleeting moments I could leave the playing field we call the real world and step into a different realm where “on any given Sunday” it was a very real possibility that I just might make that great pass or hit that perfect fall away jumper to clinch a victory for my team. Is there any greater feeling? My wife doesn’t understand the lure of such things but most men know what I am talking about. And so, with visions of past heroics floating through my mind I was lured away from the comfortable confines of my usual Sunday evening nap.
I hit the court with same enthusiasm and desire to win that I have always possessed but right there is where any similarity to my former glory days ended. The “problem” at this stage of my life is that although my mind still knows what to do my body has decided to rebel and just say no! Luckily, one of the “perks” of this season in my life is that when my body refuses to do what it is told and therefore leads me into a situation where I am unceremoniously drilled into the concrete, the opposing drillers are quick to rush to my aid and they are genuinely concerned if I will ever rise again. Thanks guys.
Every season has it’s own special charm. Life would get boring if things never changed. I think the key is just being able to find the good in each season that rolls around. Sadly it seems that my “Basketball season” may be coming to an end.
Oh well there is always “next season!”

Baseball season is just around the corner. I can't wait. Go Yankees! 

My "List"

I love it when a plan comes together. I feel a little sense of pride when my day or my week go according to the plan that I have conceived.
Now I am not one of those people who have their every waking minute scheduled on their day planner or Blackberry but I do begin each day with a mental checklist of things I hope to accomplish. To some, my “list” may seem to be filled with mundane and frivolous tasks and events, but it is my “list” and “my world” depends on it. Therefore, when my“ list” is interrupted it is a serious event indeed.
Nevertheless, interruptions are bound to happen when you live on a spinning ball with a billion or so other people who also have their “ list.” Now granted, some interruptions are just “life happening to us.” But quite often it seems that rude and inconsiderate people greatly contribute to my frustrations. I have found that these types of interruptions must be endured with a simple rolling of my eyes and a deep inner assurance that had they known who I am and how important my “list” is these people would have surely re – arranged their “list” so as not to interfere with my “list.” So I take the high road and forgive them.
Oh yeah, there is one small problem with my “list” for the day. It doesn’t always match God’s “list” for my day and when I periodically consult Gods “list” I very often find the names of those rude and considerate people.