i played full court, fully competitive basketball with nine high schoolers. yes, there was pride in my effort to play like a teenager and it caught up with me. midway through game 2 - i caught an elbow in the throat. i could not swallow for an hour and had to eat ice cream for dinner (that part wasn’t all bad).  this would hurt at any age but it really slowed me down and i felt elderly among these young studs. there are some spiritual parallels but i am not going there. God is like the ice cream... satan is like the elbow? sometimes we cannot swallow the truth.... ok i will stop.

 

today was a good day. it was a hard good day. i went in to my meeting with my counselor, mentor and heard some pretty powerful words spoken over me. i do hurt. my soul is a struggling place. but hearing God’s affirming words: “john I am proud of you” is healing for me. unfortunately i have the  busy man disease. i am beginning to hate that and must fight for space to hear Him. in these days his words are gentle, accepting and direct. to add i hear Him saying “I want to live the life.” not super sure what that means but do believe it has something to do with trusting Christ as life. it is like playing basketball and failing. But then kolby bryant comes in and i say show me some pointers - he says no. then i say kolby play with me once a week and coach me. he says no again. but then he says something illogical. “john - by my spirit i am going to enter into your ice cream eating body and play ball through you.” i will be everything you need to play well. it be you playing but it will be me. our union will the winning combination and key for victory.