Seeking God on Tuesday
John Wooden won a state basketball championship in high school, a national basketball title in college, was the national college player of the year while playing at Purdue, was drafted by the Boston Celtics, New York Yankees, and Chicago Bears, coached 10 national basketball titles at UCLA, was considered by most of his peers to be the greatest college basketball coach of all time, is one of only three individuals to be inducted into the basketball hall of fame as a player and as a coach, has written numerous best selling books, been quoted like a 2oth and 21st century Will Rogers or Mark Twain and has pretty much been a household name for over eighty years when the talk is of basketball. Not a bad resume and I could have added more.
Coach Wooden’s take on it all was simply, “Talent is God given. Be humble. Fame is man-given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful.” Those words epitomize to me essential ingredients of a Christ centered life. Jesus taught humility, lived humility, honored humility, and accepts nothing less of his disciples. John Wooden was known as much for his humble, kind spirit as he was for his basketball accomplishments and in doing so exhibited as much about Jesus Christ to the world as he did basketball. What does your life exhibit?
“God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” (1 Peter 5:5)
“What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? (Matthew 16:26)