Lesson Learned from Michael Jordan
Photo by Howard Chai on Unsplash
We typically do not watch cable tv in my house, except for college football games. Most of the stuff we watch is now streamed from one of the many streaming services out there. But I will be watching tonight, because tonight the first part of “The Last Dance,” a documentary on the Bulls final season, is coming on.
I’ve always been fascinated by people in any field who exhibit a certain kind of relentlessness that sets them apart from everyone else in their field. The NBA is filled with some of the best athletes in the world. To be the best of the best requires a kind of psychotic drive that almost makes you seem crazy—I’m sure the world will see some of this tonight.
In preparation for the documentary, several articles have come out and I have been tearing them up. In one such article titled, “The Michael Jordan I knew is about to be revealed to the world in ‘The Last Dance.’” The writer included a quote from Michael Jordan that, in my opinion, applies to all areas of life, including discipleship to Jesus.
“People didn’t believe me when I told them I practiced harder than I played, but it was true. That’s where my comfort zone was created. By the time the game came, all I had to do was react to what my body was already accustomed to doing.”
Frequent readers of this blog will understand why it resonates with me so much. What he is highlighting is the overall pattern of life he has adopted so that he could be prepared to act when proper action was needed.
Dallas Willard speaks to this in The Spirit of the Disciplines.
“Those exquisite responses we see, the amazing timing and strength such an athlete displays, aren’t produced and maintained by the short hours of the game itself. They are available to the athlete for those short and all-important hours because of a daily regimen no one sees. For example, the proper diet and rest and the exercises for specific muscles are not a part of the game itself, but without them the athlete certainly would not perform outstandingly. Some of these daily habits may even seem silly to us, but the successful athlete knows that his disciplines must be undertaken, and undertaken rightly, or all his natural talents and best efforts will go down in defeat to others who have disciplined themselves in preparation for game time.”
The same is true when it comes to following Jesus. The work (practice) must be intense before the moment where proper action is required (the game). The good disciple is one who works hard at patience, confidence, love, etc, in order that when the moment comes where those characteristics are required, they will be able to simply respond.
In his book, The Psychology of Redemption, Oswald Chambers highlights how a well-practiced person responds versus the person that hasn’t made practice a normal part of their life with God:
“The question of forming habits on the basis of the grace of God is a very vital one. To ignore it is to fall into the snare of the Pharisee—the grace of God is praised, Jesus Christ is praised, the Redemption is praised, but the practical everyday life evades working it out. If we refuse to practice, it is not God’s grace that fails when a crisis comes, but our own nature. When the crisis comes, we ask God to help us, but He cannot if we have not made our nature our ally. The practicing is ours, not God’s. God regenerates us and puts us in contact with all His divine resources, but He cannot make us walk according to His will. If we will obey the Spirit of God and practice through our physical life all that God has put in our hearts by His Spirit, then when the crisis comes we shall find that we have not only God’s grace to stand by us but our own nature also, and the crisis is passed without any disaster, but exactly the opposite happens, the soul is built up into a stronger attitude towards God.
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Practice, along with God’s grace, makes the Christian perfect.