This is the Day

This is the Day

Dear Champions,

The short excerpt is longer than usual and is from AP sports writer Joe Kay.  The scripture is Psalm 118:24 This is the day the Lord has made.  We will rejoice and be glad in it.

Coach Dan Benjamin of Division III Mount St. Joseph in Cincinnati has the two-hour practice mapped out, including a special play he's installing for the Lions' sold-out women's basketball season opener. A black whistle dangles in front of his gray "Play for 22" T-shirt.  No. 22 would be freshman Lauren Hill.

She's moving slowly today. There are days when the inoperable tumor squeezing her brain also saps her energy and robs her of coordination. She finally comes out onto the court carrying a water bottle and her teammates call out to her in encouragement: "Hey Lauren!"

Given how she's feeling, it would be easy to skip the practice. But since her diagnosis a year ago, she has made sure no opportunity gets wasted.

"That's kind of how I look at it," Hill said, resting in a folding chair after practice Thursday. "I'm spreading awareness and also teaching people how to live in the moment because the next moment's not promised. Anything can happen at any given moment. What matters is right now."

Acknowledging the urgency, the NCAA made a special exception to move up Mount St. Joseph's opener against Hiram College to Nov. 2, despite its rules that require seasons to start later in November. The scheduling change gives Hill a better shot to get on the court — the only chance she may get before the growing tumor that hinders her play also claims her life.

After the move, Xavier University offered its 10,000-seat arena so more people could attend. The game sold out faster than a Cleveland Cavaliers exhibition earlier this month.

College basketball players and sports teams from around the country are signing No. 22 jerseys and sending them to Lauren for support. The United States Basketball Writers Association has voted her for the Pat Summitt most courageous award, which is usually given out at the Final Four.

"This is an amazing young lady who's made an impact on the world, more than I will ever do," said Benjamin, a coach for 25 years. "I wish everybody could meet her."

Hill played basketball and soccer in nearby Lawrenceburg, Indiana. On her 18th birthday last October, she decided to commit to play basketball at The Mount, as it's known locally. A few weeks later, she started feeling bad. Tests found the cancerous tumor growing throughout her brain. Surgery wasn't an option. Six weeks of radiation, an experimental drug and two months of chemotherapy didn't help much. Doctors estimated she had a year to live.

"I try not to — try really hard not to — but it's hard to not think about down the road," she said.

A lot of people are going out of their way to get to know the ponytailed player who is showing everyone — with each deliberate dribble, left-handed shot and each time she just shows up — what it means to live each day fully.

Hill's parents and two younger siblings are trying to pack as much as they can into however many weeks she has left.

"You try not to concentrate on it too much because you can get caught up in the grief of the sheer fact that you're probably going to lose your child," her mother, Lisa Hill said. "But if I grieve and get depressed and curl up into a ball, I rob myself and her of today. Why?

"We've got today. I can spend today with her doing everything we want to do — just chit-chatting, listening to music, going shopping, whatever she wants to do. If I didn't get out of bed, I'd miss out on all those things."

Although she's right-handed, Lauren has to shoot with her left because the tumor is affecting her right side more severely. She gets dizzy if she moves her head side-to-side, so she has to move her upper body instead. Her balance is a little off. She'll be able to play only a few minutes at a time on Nov. 2.

Even with all of that, she refuses to think of it as her one and only game.

"She says, 'I hate that. If I can play one more game, I'm playing one more game,'" Lisa Hill said. "If she's upright and able, she'll still be out there."

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

Your Cornerstone

Your Cornerstone

Dear Champions,

 

The short excerpt is by Tim Keller, and the scripture is 1 Peter 2:6  See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him (Jesus) will never be put to shame." 

The cornerstone is your foundation.  The cornerstone of a building is the thing on which everything rested, and if the cornerstone was unsteady in any way, the whole building trembled. 

I remember talking years ago to a counselor at an Ivey League School, and she said that what is interesting is that everybody who comes to an Ivey League School made A's where they came from and somebody is going to get B's and C's and a lot of them showed up on my couch.  She said that it is one thing to want good grades, but it's another thing to basically build your identity on the idea that I am smart.  When the cornerstone shakes, then the whole life shakes. 

A lot of athletes start to feel good about themselves until they retire and very often their life falls apart.  Why?  It's great to want to be an athlete, but it's another thing to build your identity on it.  

The one who puts their trust in Jesus will never be put to shame.  If you build your life on any other cornerstone, you will fill like a failure when your cornerstone shakes.  You'll be shaken to the roots, and you'll feel like you don't have a self.  You have to recognize that you do have a cornerstone, and Jesus has to become precious to you. 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

Naive Grace-Part 2

Naïve Grace-Part 2

Dear Champions,

 

The short excerpt is continued from last week and is again by the late Mike Yaconelli, and the scripture is Ephesians 2:8-9 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.

Most of my life, I heard the message loud and clear that Christianity was all about coloring within the lines and coloring well.  If I was a good Christian, if I loved Jesus and wanted to please Him, if I read my Bible, prayed, and went to church, then I would get better and better at coloring.  And if I lived a long and godly life, I would eventually be able to draw close to the perfect drawing.  But wherever that message came from, it was a lie -- I am 52 years old, and my coloring still looks like Alana's.

 

I believe God looks at my coloring and says, "Hmmmmmmm.  You certainly like the color green!  Lots of passion in this stroke.  I like it."

 

Even as I write those words, I can hear the "concern" of those who worry about others misunderstanding the gospel.  "You're not suggesting, are you, that nothing matters to God?  Certainly, God has standards!"

 

What I am suggesting is that God's grace is outside the lines of our understanding, and we can only stand in awe and wonder.  Christianity is not about learning how to live within the lines;  It is about the joy of coloring.  The grace of God is preposterous enough to accept as beautiful a coloring that anyone else would reject as ugly.  The grace of God sees beyond the scribbling to the heart of the scribbler – a scribbler who is similar to 2 thieves who hung on crosses on either side of Jesus.  One of the two asked Jesus to please accept his scribbled and sloppy life into the kingdom of God…and He did.  Preposterous. 

 

And very good news for the rest of us scribblers…

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

 

 

Naive Grace-Part 1

Naïve Grace-Part 1

Dear Champions,

 

The short excerpt is by the late Mike Yaconelli, and the scripture is Ephesians 2:8-9 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.

A few years ago, I asked some friends if they would have their 2-year-old daughter, Alana, color me a page out of her coloring book.  When Alana colored, she never worried about lines, realism, or symmetry.  It never occurred to her that something could be wrong with her work.  Alana colored the page, and she brought it to me just before Sunday morning worship service. 

           

She was very proud and excited, anxious for my response.  I did respond, in the same manner I imagine most of us would respond:  I lied.  "Oh, Alana, thank you for this beautiful drawing!  It must have taken you a long time, and it's very special.  Thank you again."  Of course, part of me was thinking, This is terrible.  Is red the only color you could use?  How about yellow?  Blue?  Green?  None of your strokes are even close to being within the lines.  What's the matter with you?  Take this back and draw it again – only do it right this time!

 

But I couldn't criticize Alana, in part because she exhibited grace, the grace of a child who knows it is okay to color outside the lines.  Was she naïve?  Sure.  Would to God we all kept our childlike naivete about grace…

 

Most of my life, I heard the message loud and clear that Christianity was all about coloring within the lines and coloring well.  If I was a good Christian, if I loved Jesus and wanted to please Him, if I read my Bible, prayed, and went to church, then I would get better and better at coloring.  And if I lived a long and godly life, I would eventually be able to draw close to the perfect drawing.  But wherever that message came from, it was a lie -- I am 52 years old, and my coloring still looks like Alana's.

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining