His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. ~ 2 Peter 1:3, NIV
I’ve been struggling this week to know what to write. I am called to be a warrior? If you couldn’t tell from earlier posts, I’m tired. Discouraged. Talking about battles and training and perseverance didn’t delight my fancy.
Funny how God’s more concerned with our relationship with Him than He is with our personal space and comfort, right?
But today, as I was mulling over what to write, the Spirit whisper this word from Second Peter straight into my heart and mind. Everything you need. He’s give everything I need.
“But I’m not much of a warrior,” I argued. I think He laughed (because He knows it’s true, but also because He knows I’m nearsighted). And then, He showed me.
I’ve spend the week as a coach in a youth basketball camp sponsored by our church. Our teaching leader caught me this morning before camp with a smile. “Jen, you are just totally in your element here. Basketball and Jesus, and eighty kids.”
Yep. Life doesn’t get much better than that. I’m having a blast.
Everything I need . . . A few weeks ago we wrote about being God’s workmanship, about being equipped to do what He calls us to do. It’s funny, though. See, I love basketball. Used to be I loved it maybe a little too much—like it became an idol in my life. Coaching was my dream, but after moving to rural Nebraska and then started having kids, I had to unclench my fists on that hope. It wasn’t a conducive career for the kind of home my husband and I wanted to create, so with many tears, and a bit of disillusionment—and a long process of surrender, I let that one go.
But this week, I got to be coach. Not in the setting I’d hoped, not in the way I planned, but coach none-the-less. And it’s been a blast.
So, there’s a connection in here, I promise. But it took me a bit to see it—to understand what God was showing me—because what’s a basketball game have to do with being a warrior, anyway?
It isn’t the game. Not at all—it’s why we’re there, running this camp in the first place. Our slogan for AWANA is “Kids matter to God.” I know on Wednesday nights when I go to AWANA, I’m doing battle for those kids. Because they matter to God. But this week? On a basketball court?
I’m doing battle for those kids. Because they matter to God.
Isn’t that ironic? A dream to which I’d bid farewell over ten years ago has come back full circle. I’m equipped to coach basketball. But more than that, He has given me everything I need to coach kids. To do battle for them. Because they matter to God.
I love that. I’m a warrior after all. Isn’t God just so good?
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