MARCH MADNESS

For the last few weeks we've been watching Eli Brooks of the Wolverines play incredible basketball. This reminded me of a perfect story for this time of year, where Philip Yancey compares God's Grace to a basketball player's experience. Check this out.

Each year before spring, I fall victim to what the sports announcers diagnose as “March Madness.” I cannot resist the temptation to tune in to the final basketball game, in which the sole survivors of a sixty-four-team tournament meet for the NCAA championship. That most important game always seems to come down to one eighteen-year-old kid standing on a free throw line with one second left on the clock.

He dribbles nervously. If he misses these two foul shots, he knows, he will be the goat of his campus, the goat of his state. Twenty years from now he’ll be in counseling, reliving this moment. If he makes these shots, he’ll be a hero. His picture will be on the front page. He could probably run for governor.

He takes another dribble and the other team calls time, to rattle him. He stands on the sideline, weighing his entire future. Everything depends on him. His teammates pat him encouragingly, but say nothing.

One year, I remember, I left the room to answer a phone call just as the kid was setting himself to shoot. Worry lines creased his forehead. He was biting his lower lip. His left leg quivered at the knee. Twenty thousands fans were yelling, waving banners and handkerchiefs to distract him.

The phone call took longer than expected, and when I returned I saw a new sight. This same kid, his hair drenched with Gatorade, was now riding atop the shoulders of his teammates, cutting the cords of a basketball net. He had not a care in the world. His grin filled the entire screen.

Those two freeze-frames — the same kid crouching at the free throw line and then celebrating on his friends’ shoulder — came to symbolize for me the difference between ungrace and grace.

The world runs by ungrace. Everything depends on what I do. I have to make the shot.

Jesus’ kingdom calls us to another way, one that depends not on our performance but His own. We do not have to achieve but follow. He has already earned for us the costly victory of God’s acceptance.

This story is from Yancey's book, "What's So Amazing About Grace" Click HERE.