Published 11/20/19
By Greg Johnson
What If...
Your older brother is a good basketball player. You’ve been playing against him for a while to improve your game, but he’s naturally way ahead of your ability. You know you should play more, but you’re the type who gets bored easily. Unless someone’s shooting with you, you usually don’t bother practicing.
After the season ends, your coach tells you that, in order to play more, you are going to have to start practicing. For a couple of weeks after the season, that’s what you do. Every night, you go outside and shoot right-handed lay-ups, side shots, free throws, long shots—you even start dribbling the ball between your legs. But you soon get tired and start to find other things to do inside the house.
Now that it’s summer, one of your friends invites you to the basketball camp he usually attends, and you beg us to pay the $175 to let you go. It’s a stretch for us, but we come up with the cash. The week is great. Not only do you learn a lot about the sport, you also get to play tons of games against teams made up of guys your own age. It is an intense week, but well worth it. Plus, the coach comments to you that you have a good shot and show real potential.
Again, for the first few weeks after the camp, you are out shooting every day. But then those distractions come: TV, going over to your friend’s house to play Super Nintendo and listening to CDs.
To be honest, you can see from your year on the team—and the week at camp—that basketball requires more dedication and energy than you are willing to give. Even though you are good at basketball (and even like it), you enjoy watching TV and playing games more than practicing a sport.
Questions to Think On
• Are you the type who can be dedicated to a few things, or are you a little lazier? Why do you think that is?
• Why is it so tempting to be lazy?
• What do you think are the consequences of being lazy?
• What do you think are the rewards of dedication and work?
What Does God Have to Say?
Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth. Proverbs 10:4
I went past the field of the sluggard, past the vineyard of the man who lacks judgment; thorns had come up everywhere, the ground was covered with weeds, and the stone wall was in ruins. I applied my heart to what I observed and learned a lesson from what I saw: A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest—and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man.
(c)