Last
night the NBA playoffs were in full swing.
I must admit I don’t watch hardly any sports anymore, but with the
firestorm that has been going on the last few days it has piqued my interest. I checked out the scores this morning and
something caught my eye. In one of the
ballgames last night, at a very crucial time, a referee grabbed the ball from a
player as he was going to shoot a free throw that would tie the game with just
a few seconds left, and he went to the scorer’s table to argue with the clock
keeper. This disrupted the momentum of
the game, as well as the player who was about to shoot the free throw to tie
the game. When the player finally
receive the ball to shoot the free throw he missed it and the team he played
for ultimately went on to lose the game. Afterwards many on the player’s team
blamed the referee for the loss and their key player missing the free throw. Even the other team was stunned by what
happen. When the player who missed the
free throw was interviewed about the incident he took full responsibility for
the miss and did not place the blame on anyone else other than himself. That is so refreshing because in the world
today people tend to want to blame others for their troubles, their
difficulties, and they go out of their to blame others rather than looking
closely at their own faults. Jesus tells
us that before we take a speck out of someone else’s eye we need to remove the
log from our own. I am reminded of
Zacchaeus and how when Jesus confronted Him and asked to spend time with him at
his house that Zacchaeus immediately realized he had been sinning against God
and the people by over collecting taxes. Without prompting or being told he said
that he would “give half of my
possessions to the poor, Lord! And if I have extorted anything from anyone,
I’ll pay back four times as much!”[1]
Like the basketball player last night taking responsibility for his actions,
so did Zacchaeus. We can learn from
their example, instead of blaming others, let us look closely at ourselves and
then make a change in our lives if necessary.
Jesus loves us and desires to give us life, eternal life. Let us live our life in a way that focuses on
Him and not just our own selves.
[1] The Holy Bible:
Holman Christian standard version. (2009). (Lk 19:8). Nashville: Holman
Bible Publishers.
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