Hey, Coach
“I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye.” Psalm 32:8 KJV
Have you ever met or read about someone whose life’s story inspired you? I have read books about each of the Presidents. Some Presidents I don’t agree with all their policies. I have found, however, even in their lives they have stories of conquering something greater than themselves. It has inspired me.
The other side of these Presidential stories are filled with failures and broken dreams. Most of the Presidents, at some point in their lives, have overcome struggles. Despite those struggles they have still landed in the White House. Struggles or handicaps have not disqualified someone from becoming President. It almost looks like struggles and handicaps are a first step in the long journey to become President.
Recently I read a story about a fellow named James. Without realizing it, James has had a huge impact on me and countless other young boys and men. I bet you could ask one hundred boys today to tell you something about James. You would be lucky to find five who would even know who he was.
James was the first basketball coach of the University of Kansas. He coached there from 1898-1907. His record over that period was 55 wins and 60 loses (0.478). That is not a very impressive record. There is something even more surprising than that. He is the only basketball coach in the University of Kansas history to have a losing record.
How can someone like James inspire so many people, even today? James was born in Canada to Scottish immigrants. Sadly, by the age of nine, both of James’ parents had died of typhoid fever. James was orphaned. By fifteen, he had dropped out of school to become a lumberjack.
I guess being a lumberjack was not the occupation James wanted for his life. He decided to go to McGill University and Presbyterian College to become a minister. In 1890, James enrolled in the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) International Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts.
While James and his fellow students served at the YMCA in Springfield, they were given a task. They were to invent an indoor activity or game. The purpose of this project was to encourage young men to participate in an activity during the winter months. These men needed something to do between football and baseball seasons. Calisthenics and gymnastics just didn’t seem to be holding their interest.
Young James Naismith came up with an activity that involved nailing peach baskets to two opposite walls. He then handed his students a soccer ball and gave them the 13 instructions to his new game. And so, basketball was born.
Growing up, I heard over and over again, the stories of my father’s greatness on his high school’s basketball court. He loved that sport and he loved playing it with me when I was young. To this day, one of the highlights of my youth was the first time I beat him in basketball in a game of one-on-one.
Today, my oldest grandson is excited about basketball. That really brings a smile to my face. I know that feeling of sinking that shot that makes everyone say, “Wow!” To be able to dribble past that guy who is supposed to be so much better than you, and score, makes your heart race. I want my grandson to know what that feels like.
Being part of an upset, beating a team that no one gave you a chance against, builds a pride in your soul that never goes away. That feeling was made possible because of an unlikely orphan. James just wanted to help people find something to do with their free time. Basketball, is James Naismith’s gift that just keeps on giving.
When you are sixteen years old you know exactly what you want to do with your life. Well, you know exactly what you want to do that week. Sixteen is a very tough age. You’re still a kid, but you think you are an adult. You have all the answers.
Imagine for a moment, you come from a family that is very broken. You don’t remember your father because he died a long, long time ago. In fact, he died before you were even born. Your poor Mom, she has no money and has to go back to school. She really loves you, but she doesn’t see how in the world she is going to be able to take care of you.
Your Mom is probably really lonely, too. A man comes along and he sweeps her off her feet. Well, he doesn’t sweep her off her feet, but he is very capable of taking care of both of you financially. She marries this man and you have a new step-father.
But the man your Mom marries is a real jerk. He is an alcoholic and he gets physically abusive with her, your brother, and you. You’re only sixteen. Why has your lot in life placed you in such a bad situation?
You dream, like our little sixteen-year-old dreamed, of becoming someone who can take you away from all this. Maybe you can become, like our young man dreamed, a musician, a doctor, a lawyer, or even a minister. Anything to get you out of the world you live in.
The great thing about dreams is that they can take you away from the world you are currently living in, even if they never happen. Sometimes that break is enough to carry you through the day.
Shaphat had at least one son. The Bible tells us this. Shaphat was a wealthy land owner from an area near the Jordan River called Abel-meholah. I guess being a “wealthy land owner,” in Biblical times, was pretty much like being a “wealthy plantation owner” in our nation’s early history. Shaphat’s son is first introduced to us in the Bible while he is tending the fields with a team of oxen.
Shaphat’s son was not sitting in some palace waiting for his chance to sit on a royal throne. He wasn’t being waited on by servants or slaves his dad had at his beck and call. No, he was working the farm. There was no group he lorded over. His commands would only be heard by the oxen.
The Bible offers not even a hint that this son had any preparation for the path God laid ahead of him. How in the world God found him is one of those amazing things God does.
God didn’t just pluck Shaphat’s son up and throw him into a position of responsibility. The Lord placed a mentor, not just an average mentor, but a great mentor, in his path. Just like today, God doesn’t usually throw you into a position where He hasn’t given you some kind of training to handle it. Our self-pity and fear usually just clouds our vision of what God is capable of doing with us.
Shaphat’s son would one day be called the Prophet of Israel and the Wonder-Worker of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Far from the fields where his oxen plowed, he would become one of the greatest prophets of all time. He is mentioned in the Christian New Testament, the Jewish Bible, and the Islamic Quran.
Our young sixteen-year-old got involved in a program sponsored by the American Legion. The program was called Boys Nation. It is a rigorous, competitive program that involves members from every state except Hawaii.
On their website, Boys Nation states their purpose: “… participants learn the rights, privileges and responsibilities of franchised citizens. The training is objective and centers on the structure of city, county and state governments.” Through this program, two boys, from each of the 49 states, are elected to represent their state at the Boys Nation in Washington. This is a very competitive process.
When our young sixteen-year-old lad was elected to serve his state, I’m sure he was extremely excited. There in Washington, the 98 students held a series of mock-Senate sessions. The intense one-week session included meeting elected and government officials.
About this time, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was campaigning for an end to racial segregation in public schools. The President, in a speech, encouraged the nation to end segregation as well. Boys Nation took a vote. They agreed with the President and Dr. King that there should be an end to this segregation. Our sixteen-year-old was one of the few southern delegates to vote for the end of segregation.
Six weeks after the President’s speech, our sixteen-year-old and 97 of his fellow delegates headed to Washington for their session. A month after the delegates left Washington, Dr. King would deliver his famous “I Have a Dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
On July 24, 1963, our sixteen-year-old had the highlight of his Washington trip. He, and his 97 fellow Boys Nation delegates, met the President of the United States, John F. Kennedy, at the White House. The now famous picture of young Bill Clinton shaking President Kennedy’s hand changed his life.
No longer did Bill Clinton think of being a musician or minister. Clinton decided he wanted to be a public servant. It’s amazing what can happen when people we admire hit us with the wand of inspiration.
Out in the field one day, Shaphat’s son, Elisha, was behind his twelve oxen plowing a field. God had sent Elijah to find him. Elisha was going to succeed Elijah as God’s spokesperson. Quickly, Elisha slaughtered the oxen and used the wood from the plow to cook them. He said his goodbyes to his parents and fed the people the meat from his oxen.
For the next seven or eight years, Elisha was Elijah’s attendant and trainee. The Bible gives us no hint of what that period was like, but Elisha’s record shows that it must have been some awesome training.
Elisha’s request, before Elijah is taken up in a whirlwind, was only that he receive a “double-portion” of what God had blessed Elijah with. God seems to have honored that request because Elisha performed twice as many miracles as Elijah.
As Elisha turned to start his journey, the Jordan River, which he crossed with Elijah, stood in front of him. Just like Elijah did a short time before, Elisha parted the Jordan and began the new role God had called him to.
Followers immediately wanted to organize a search party. They just wanted to make sure God didn’t push Elijah off the chariot of fire that had taken him up into the heavens. Elisha told them it was a waste of time, but they did it anyway. Three days later that had to admit Elisha was correct.
Miracle after miracle filled Elisha’s resume. He purified waters that made people sick. Mocking young boys were killed by a bear. The prophet Obadiah’s widow’s financial worries disappeared with his miracle of supplying her with what seemed like an endless supply of oil. He repeatedly saved King Jehoram from planned ambushes.
The kindness of a woman, who offered Elisha a place to stay, was repaid with a gift of a son in her old age. When the distraught woman came to Elisha to tell him her son had died, he raised the son from that death. This young boy would become the prophet Habakkuk.
Like Jesus, Elisha fed thousands with a small amount of food. With twenty barley loaves, and some corn, two thousand were fed. They all ate and were filled. There was even food left over.
Even in death Elisha’s miracles did not stop. When a dead man’s body was laid on Elisha’s corpse, the man “revived, and stood up on his feet.”
Whether we want to admit it or not, we all have mentors. Some of these mentors have influenced us and we don’t even realize it until much later. James Naismith’s invention of basketball has touched so many lives. Yet, very few know anything about him.
I’m sure when young Bill Clinton met President Kennedy, he was in awe. Kennedy was quite the celebrity at the time. But, I bet Clinton never thought it was going to be a life changing encounter.
Elisha was just a farmer in a field until his mentor, Elijah called to him. Very little is mentioned about that training, but its effects lasted over sixty years after Elijah’s death. That’s how long Elisha served as the Prophet of Israel.
Every day we wake up with the possibility of being mentored or being a mentor. Being mentored brings future blessings. As a mentor, you plant the seeds that helps others receive their blessings which will bloom because of your efforts.
