Good morning, I'm
the Rev Steve Page from St Patrick's Anglican Church, and you're
listening to the Daily Devotional moment, sponsored by the Hudson Bay
Ministerial.
This month, I'm
drawing our images of Christian faith and spirituality from the
wonderful and sometimes weird world of Sports.
March Madness is
the annual month-long tournament in which 68 colleges and
universities in the US play a series of single-elimination games to
determine the national champion in college basketball.
Every year has
epic battles and cinderella underdogs and action and excitement. But
back in 1981 there was an especially memorable battle. The University
of Arkansas Razorbacks battled the defending champion University of
Louisville Cardinals met in the second round of the tournament.
It was a close,
back-and-forth game. With less than a minute to play, Arkansas led
71-69. A foul put an Arkansas player on the free-throw line, but he
only hit 1 of 2 shots. 72-69, with 36 seconds to play.
Louisville came
down the court and hit a long 2-pointer with 20 seconds left. 72-71
Arkansas.
But then disaster!
The in-bound pass got away from the Razorbacks, and Louisville
recovered. They worked the ball into range and took a shot as the
clock ticked down... Oh, a narrow miss! But wait! One of the
Cardinals grabbed the rebound. He pumped, then tossed the ball
through the hoop. 73-72 for Louisville, with just 5 seconds left!
Arkansas called timeout, to plan a last-gasp effort.
But 5 seconds is
not much time to get the ball to an open man in range for a good
shot. Arkansas passed the ball into play, to a guard named Ulysses
Reed. The Louisville defence immediately swarmed him with a
double-team. Tick. Tick. Tick. Reed couldn't get the ball to any of
his teammates. So as the clock expired, he heaved a desperation shot
from his own side of half-court. The ball hung in the air... Everyone
held their breath until... swish! He nailed it! Arkansas upset
Louisville 74-73 to advance to the next round.
After the game,
the Arkansas coach described Reed's shot as “throwing up a prayer
and having it answered.” Now, we could have a good little debate
about whether God cares about the results of a college basketball
game, or maybe God prefers Arkansas over western Kentucky. But what
grabbed me about the coach's words was their sense that prayer is
only for desperate times.
Yet the Bible
invites us to pray far more often. About anything. Things going well
for you? Pray to God and say Thanks. Things going rough? Pray about
them. Things going along same-old, same-old, pretty much as usual?
Again, talk to God about them all. “Pray continually” or Pray
without ceasing, Paul tells us in 1 Thessalonians. Jesus reminds us
that God knows our needs and concerns, better than we do ourselves,
but that, like a human father, our Heavenly Father wants us to talk
with him about the things and the people and the concerns in our
lives.
If you don't know
where to start, there is no better beginning-point than the Lord's
Prayer. You can look it up in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 6 vs
9-13. It was, after all, what Jesus said when some people asked him
how to pray. Read it over. Memorize it, it's not very long. Use it,
both as-is and as a way of shaping your own prayers.
And the God of
love and power and mercy hears our prayers, and answers them, shaping
us, our lives, our circumstances, our world more and more into a
Christ-like shape. Whether you are down by one as the clock ticks to
zero or not, God wants to hear from you today.
For St Patrick's
Church, I'm Steve Page.
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