Hoop Dreams

Just got back from our Divisional Fall Youth Event.

The event is held at the Georgia Division's Camp. We had around 100 teens. It was THE premier weekend for fall colors in the Georgia mountains. The temperature was cold as far as us southerners understand cold. The wind was blowing most of the day Saturday. I was to organize a three on three basketball tournament on Saturday but only seven guys showed up. So we played four campers against three staff for the "championship" of the weekend. They just don't make delegate basketball players like they used to. As the leaves fell so too fell the hopes and dreams of the camper team, so too fell our shots through the hoop.

For a moment just before we made the last shot to win the second game I reflected back to just a few years ago when I had another great basketball contest on this same campground. It was a one on one affair. The boys had battled hard that day. In the end I had watched as one Drew Forster dropped the championship goal in the basket, ending my hopes of glory. I had vowed that day to never step foot on that court again unless I was prepared. Now three years later here I was about to redeem myself. And then it happened the ball went through the hoop giving us the victory!

There were no great theological sound bites that I have to share from the weekend, no great falling on your face before God and crying out. But there was a simple breeze of the Spirit that covered our times there. There was a deeper understanding of God's presence that seemed to permeate most of what was done throughout the weekend (this of course excludes the fist fight that occurred near the flag football game. No, Phil I wasn't involved in the fight)."

It was fall. There was a newness in the air. I am not sure how leaves dying and warmth leaving somehow gives me a fresh feeling, but it does. It tells me things can be redeemed.