Slow down

I love watching our granddaughter play basketball. At the same time, I also hate it!

She's in 5th grade, and my wife and I marvel at how scrappy she is on the court. She hustles more than anyone (at least to us)! Yet, when things start to get a little hectic - the crowd yelling, a tense game, lots of activity - I sometimes notice a look in her eyes that melts my heart. I want to go wrap my arms around her, because I've known that look all too well.

Basketball was much too fast-moving for me. I couldn't keep up. Not so much physically, but mentally. My mind simply couldn't process all that was happening that fast. And, even in football, one memory that has always stuck with me was similar.

I was an okay football player in the smallest class of teams. Mostly because I could run fast. I have never forgotten the time, though, where the coach kept telling me to cut back against the grain. I was a running back at the time, and we ran several plays in a row where I would run to the outside. I picked up several yards every time. The coach had a player sub in and tell me to cut back across the middle because it was wide open if I did. Next play, I did the same as I'd done the play before. Then he had another sub tell me the same. No change. Finally he called a time out and explained to me that once I got to the outside I should cut back and the field would be wide open and I'd be assured to get a touchdown. I remember hearing the words, but once the play started, it was like my mind went blank. I just couldn't process the thoughts 'in the heat of the moment.' I never did cut back against the grain. I was never sure why I couldn't remember it when the time came either. It wasn't like I didn't want to score. It simply didn't compute for some reason.

You will often here commentators or coaches talk about athletes who begin college or the pros even, and waiting for the "game to slow down" for them. It's a phrase describing that point where a players ability to process what's going on around them catches up to the speed of everything going on around them. I don't believe I ever got there.

I thought of this yesterday after the granddaughter's last game. Apparently she got in trouble for not listening to the coach (his take). My guess is, she did listen to him, but in the heat of the moment she wasn't able to remember it - along with all the other things she's been told - and she simply reacted to what was happening at the moment.

It was ironic that this happened yesterday... Because just that morning, as I sat in a church worship gathering, I was thinking about slowing down in a different context. 

As I sat in church I was feeling fairly good. I began to wonder why I could feel like this then, but never seemed able to have any sense of compassion or awareness of God's presence when I was at work. It actually dawned on me then that while sitting in a worship gathering things were slowed down for me. Nothing else was going on, I wasn't having to think about anything else, I was able to focus solely on that.

Focus. That seems a key component. What captures our focus? How do we maintain it? How do we focus on the right thing even in the midst of all the distractions around us??? 

I'm not sure how to do that. I'm going to try though. That will hopefully get me through this day. So, here's to slowing down; to paying attention; to finding the Center that is the Source of all things.

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"Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you." - 1 Peter 5:7