The Correlation

 

The Correlation

Some things we believe are related are not in actuality! This is from June 24, 2018.

Recently, a number of my entries have been about basketball even though it's the summer time or it has been since June 21, three days ago. It's basketball camp time all across the USA which is where my topics come in. Every year since I don't know when, I've put on a free throw clinic for the camps I've worked, including the eleven I put on with my high school team in Tennessee. The first part of my presentation is a bit of advice on how coaches view players and how to better your chances of not getting cut; don't always be last in line, don't dribble or talk when the coach is speaking, being funny doesn't get you a uniform, etc. I also give some examples of great free throw shooters and poor ones. I talk about kids who have played for me and circumstances we saw on the free throw line. I mention Rick Barry who shot underhanded and was one of the great shooters of all time but no kid will shoot that way because they would be mocked. I talk about dropping rocks into Grandpa Chesshir's well and never missing. I always conclude with a teaching tool I learned from legendary coach Don Meyer on the six steps of shooting a free throw. Over the twenty years I've been here, I have done it at least one hundred times so a number of our long term campers could give it for me!

Every week of camp, I try to read some about free throws on the Internet just to keep from getting stale. This year, I read a New York Times article about free throw shooting over the years. Did you know that national free throw percentages in men's college basketball has remained unchanged since 1965 while almost every other stat or measurable score/time in sports has improved? Also, there is an across the board 10% drop off in players' free throw percentage between practice and games, undoubtedly do to fatigue and practice (and maybe shooting in a foreign gym as well). The one item which would surprise many fans from the article was that in 2009, only one team in the top twenty-five free throw percentage rankings also was ranked in the top twenty-five of the NCAA polls and that was North Carolina. The point was that there is no correlation, or at least very little, in being a great free throw shooting team and a winning on the court team. (The piece mentioned Memphis was 38-2 and lost in the 2008 NCAA finals despite being a horrible team from the line.) I discussed it with our boys' coach, Tyler Guidry. He thinks it's because the best teams have the elite athletes who play such good defense it makes it so difficult to score but these same players might not be the best free throw shooters. My thought, similar to Tyler's, is that the teams most likely to win at a high level are more likely to have excellent post players but many post players also shoot a very low free throw percentage. It's a discussion for another day but I do think a number of folks who casually follow college hoops would be shocked that good teams, at least from limited data, don't excel at the free throw stripe.

There have always been perceived correlations in our world including stories in the Bible. The Israelites believed you were rich because God loved you and poor because He didn't. The Pharisees were beloved by the common people and seen as right with God because they excelled  in fasting/giving/teaching/praying, which are all important in our walk. The problem was they wanted everyone to know that they were good at fasting/giving/teaching/praying- Jesus saved some of His harshest criticisms for these pillars of society. In one of His most powerful statements in the Gospels, Jesus speaks out in Matthew 7 against the perception that doing miracles alone will get one into heaven, despite what the folks in Jesus' teaching believed:
 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
We're pretty big on correlation-speak in school. Study hard and you'll make good grades! It's good advice to hit the books but the outcomes don't always match the effort. Practice hard and you'll be a great player! Some of  the hardest working kids on the court I've ever coached struggled to compete due to physical limitations. We see Biblical characters rejoicing over the wrong things- Jesus told some missionaries to be glad their names are in heaven and not because demons submitted to them. We have to remember we are only righteous because of the blood of Jesus and not due to what the world perceives as righteous acts. Jesus says here in the Sermon on the Mount that obedience to the Father's will is paramount. I better make sure I know what that will is and then obey it. According to the Savior, that's a 100% correlation.

Applicable quote of the day:
The biggest thing is just routine. I think that's the biggest correlation between golfers and basketball players. 
Stephen Curry

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1

The Comment

 

The Comment

My international students have told me in the past the Google Translate is not always accurate. It's better to trust someone you know who understands the context of what is written than a computer program. Sometimes, you find out you would rather not have known. This is from January 10, 2010.

I love to wake up in the morning and find comments on my devotional of the previous evening. (I post my entries at night.) Hopefully, you understand I am not begging you to leave your thoughts but comments serve as a reminder that someone is reading. Several mornings ago, I checked and found two comments on the most recent post. One came from Jon, one of my former students. The other had a name listed in English but the message, which was fairly long, was in a language that was definitely Asian. I would need a translator! As we began my first class period that day, I asked Jeewha, one of my senior students, to look at it and tell me if the communication was in Korean. Jeewha informed me that it was not; it was Chinese. So, I called Bella, who is from Taiwan, to my desk and asked her to interpret. Bella took one glance and it was obvious that she was embarrassed. She, in so many words, told me I did not want to know. I asked if it was from a person or website; it was some sort of website and I probably can guess what kind. I immediately deleted the comment and my site is free again from impure thoughts from the outside world.

On Friday, I had Mint read the Parable of the Sower to my senior Bible class which is covering the same passage. None of them understood. You see, Mint is from Thailand and she read the scripture in her native Thai. The others heard the words but the words had no meaning. I could have just as easily had it read in Korean or Chinese, as I mentioned earlier, or even in Portuguese, using the voice of Eduardo. But, unless, you understand Korean, Chinese, or Portuguese, the story would have been just as intelligible. Jesus struggled in the same way when His audiences did not comprehend his message. In John 8:43, the Savior asked the religious leaders ,
'Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say.' 
He went on to say that their father was Satan and the native language of the deceiver is lying. In Acts 28, Paul quotes Isaiah 6:9,10 where the prophet tells the people the reason they don't understand is that their hearts have become calloused. My seniors, as I noted earlier, are working through the Parable of the Sower in which the four soils where the seed lands represent the hearts of the hearers. I'd say that lines up with Isaiah just fine. This morning, we had a baptism in our English service but it was conducted in Mandarin. Johnny, the boyfriend of Pauline, one of my Chinese students, put on Jesus as his savior. Our Chinese minister, Vito, took Johnny's confession of faith in front of the congregation in his native tongue. Those of us in the pews must have been listening with our hearts because we understood perfectly everything that transpired this morning. And this time, I didn't need Bella to translate for me. The meaning was written on Johnny's face.

Applicable quote of the day:
''Say what we may of the inadequacy of translation, yet the work is and will always be one of the weightiest and worthiest undertakings in the general concerns of the world.''
Johann Wolfgang Goethe

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1

All The Money I Have

 

All The Money I Have

This is about one of my favorite campers of all time! It's from June 22, 2018.
Basketball camp is over for me in this summer of 2018. Well, technically, I'm doing my free throw clinic twice next week but as a full time coach, I'm finished until next June. In twelve days, on the Fourth Of July, I take off for Can Tho, Vietnam by way of Singapore and Saigon/HCMC. It takes me several weeks to totally get ready with all the details which surround being out of the country for a month. Camp went well under Tyler Guidry, my former student, who was in charge for the first time. One issue we dealt with this year was being away from our main location for the first time. Since we had camp at our West Campus, five blocks away, we had to handle getting several children back and forth to our WCS ASAP program. This morning as we were getting ready to start our 8:30 session, someone noticed that Rocky wasn't here. Normally, our AD, Mark Krimm delivers him but Mark left for vacation yesterday. Tyler called the school front desk and discovered Rocky was waiting for a ride. I volunteered and made the two minute trek and found Rocky, who absolutely loves basketball camp, waiting. The first thing he asked was, "Can I ride shotgun?" No, you're in the back seat, Rocky. I should explain that Rocky was in one of our kindergarten classes this past school year and I ate lunch with he and his classmates multiple times so we go way back or at least as far as a six year old can go!

As we made the drive from one campus to the other, Rocky and I conversed. I told him I would not be at camp next week because I was preparing  to go to Vietnam. He asked why I was going there and I related it to our Honduras/Haiti orphanage projects which he was involved in by collecting loose change. Rocky asked me if the people in Vietnam are poor and I told him many of them are. He asked if I was going to collect pennies like we do at school and I told him that adults assist my going with dollars and I use it to help people there. He asked if I would come back without any money and I told Rocky that would be the case, referring, of course, to my mission funds and not my personal bank account. This bothered him, leading to his next statement:
"Coach Hawley, if you don't have any, I will give you all the money I have."
Very simple and succinct. Rocky even repeated it. I was touched, almost taken aback. I thanked him but like I said, it was a short drive and so a short conversation. As soon as we arrived, I told Samantha, our camp coordinator, what had happened and she had the same reaction as me.  What an unbelievable thing for anyone to say, let alone a small child.

Twelve hours later and reflecting on my talk with Rocky, here is what I think many adults would say in that moment with a similar understanding of what Rocky perceived as my desperate situation:
Let me get back to you.
Let me see what I can do.
Let me make a few phone calls.
Look, I'm not saying we should jump right into what could be a complicated set of circumstances. But what I am saying is we, including me, put ourselves into the equation very quickly but Rocky didn't consider his own well-being. He put others, in this case me, before himself. James chapter 2 uses an illustration of a believer repeating some platitudes to another believer who is in dire straits instead of actually doing something tangible to alleviate the need. That wasn't Rocky. His first reaction, without hesitation, was to empty his own piggy bank. That's what I wish my initial response would always be. I in my adult wisdom would play out the pluses and minuses and make sure I don't make rash statements I will feel grudgingly obligated to fulfill. You know, that's a serious deposit Rocky made this morning in his laying up treasure in heaven bank account, the one in which interest rates don't factor. He could give a lot of us financial lessons in compassion. Sometimes it just takes a child to show us the way.

Applicable quote of the day:
No one has yet realized the wealth of sympathy, the kindness and generosity hidden in the soul of a child. The effort of every true education should be to unlock that treasure. 
Emma Goldman

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1

The Price Of Poverty

 

The Price Of Poverty

This is from July 13, 2008 while I was in the middle of the most adventurous summer ever for me- back to back out of the US mission trips only a week apart!
It was an adventure but I'm back in Houston! I was supposed to sleep in my own bed last night but instead, I lay my head on a very soft pillow in the Crown Plaza Hotel next to the Miami Airport. Our flight out of Honduras was delayed by ninety minutes, we sat on the runway in Miami for forty more, then stood in line more than two hours to pass through Customs, resulting in my 9:05 PM flight to take off without me. As always, the Lord handled the situation much better than I could have imagined. I did manage to have my two suitcases disappear yesterday somewhere between the hotel and the airport in San Pedro Sula, never to be seen again. I will be shoes/belt/shorts/underwear shopping in the next several days....and I probably need to pick up some luggage while I'm at it. (In a potentially serious blow to my finding my true love in China next week, my Lucky You Cologne was a casualty in the suitcase heist!)

As my other missions to Honduras have been, this was a terrific trip. Both the kids and adults in our group worked hard to serve the Lord by ministering to our fellow man. We are very blessed here in the States. While we complain about the cost of gas, consider what the fuel increases have done to the main staples in the diet of the poor in Honduras. In the past year, the costs of beans and corn have doubled while the price of rice has tripled. To make matters worse, fertilizer, which is petroleum based, has become prohibitively expensive, making farming more difficult and less productive. In the US, we spend a small percentage of our income on food. In poorer nations, the percentage is much, much higher. In spite of the hardships they face, we found the brothers and sisters we worked with to be joyful and perhaps more spiritually focused than their North American counterparts. Jesus said the poor would always be with us. Fortunately, physical poverty does not insure spiritual poverty. Unfortunately, neither does material wealth insure righteousness. If it did, we would be turning the world upside down. 

 
Applicable quote of the day:
"Anyone who has struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor."
-- James Baldwin

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1

The Baptism

 

The Baptism

One of my favorite people/sisters/students as well as one of my favorite stories! It's from September 19, 2013.

This past Sunday was a special day for me. I was blessed to baptize two ladies into Jesus during our AM worship service. One was Jan, the mother of Simon, one of my WCS eighth grade Bible students. Mother and son are from China and Jan has been studying the scriptures intently with David Fang, our Chinese minister. The other was Nancy, a former student of mine and one of the most amazing people ever. (Today is also her birthday!) This is Nancy and me four days ago as she came up out of the water. The picture was snapped by another of her former teachers, Karen Keese. It's already one of my favorites!

This afternoon, as we prepared to review for tomorrow's test, I put this shot upon the screen and told my students a little bit about Nancy's background. I wasn't prepared for the questions which followed:
"Coach, what is that?"
"It's a baptistery."
"Where is it?"
"It's in the church auditorium where we have all-school chapel."
"We don't have one of those in my church! How deep is it?"
Here I called on Maggie, one of my fellow congregants and we decided it's about chest deep on me which must be about four feet deep.
"Is it always ready?"
"It is!"
"What are you wearing?"
"I'm wearing waders like you fish in. I put on workout clothes because I always get my tie wet!"
"What is she wearing?"
"Well, we have some gowns that those being baptized wear." I again had to rely on Maggie as I've never been in the ladies' room upstairs where we prepare. I mentioned a few more things like my Grandpa Hawley was baptized in a lake and most of the believers (2/3rds) I've immersed are foreign born and all but one are female. I might have thrown in that my dad baptized me in the spring of my 7th grade year- I didn't tell them how nervous I was! I'm pretty sure I threw in that my baptism was a cause of rejoicing in my family but not everyone in the world has that blessing.

You might have recognized that all the questions centered around the physical aspects of the baptism and not the spiritual implications, applications, and ramifications. But you know what, I was fascinated by the baptistery in our church building as a little boy. Every time I went to Dad's office- he was the preacher- I stuck my head into the baptistery just to look. And it's possible when I was five or so that I told our neighbor, Mrs. Barr, that I fell in and had to be rescued by the York, Nebraska Fire Department! None of the students asked why Nancy was baptized into Jesus- they probably have an idea- but we'll get there. Maybe we sparked something today. You know, I read a quote tonight by a Christian writer who made the point that if we really want to witness to the world, we'd have our baptisms in public places instead of in our church buildings. I'll have to think about that. I know I like this: while I was typing these short thoughts tonight, Nancy sent me a FACEBOOK picture of what she is studying in the Bible tonight. It's Acts 7 where Stephen begins his defense to the Sanhedrin. But you know what happens when Nancy turns the page to the end of that chapter, don't you? Stephen, the man I was named for, gets killed for preaching the Gospel of Jesus. That's still going on in the world this evening. Here's my confession for tonight- I've got it easy.

Applicable quote of the day:

“The earthly form of Christ is the form that died on the cross. The image of God is the image of Christ crucified. It is to this image that the life of the disciples must be conformed; in other words, they must be conformed to his death (Phil 3.10, Rom 6.4) The Christian life is a life of crucifixion (Gal 2.19) In baptism the form of Christ's death is impressed upon his own. They are dead to the flesh and to sin, they are dead to the world, and the world is dead to them (Gal 6.14). Anybody living in the strength of Christ's baptism lives in the strength of Christ's death.”
― Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1

Simon Says

 

Simon Says

This is about a terrific young man and his Bible class project. It's from April 27, 2014.

As some of you are aware, each Spring our 8th grade Bible students at WCS participate in a Talents Project in my class. Based on Jesus' Parable of the Talents from Matthew 25, each student in March is given $10 and given four weeks to do good with the cash.They have to turn in a typed report on why and how they chose their method of spending, how it made a difference, and how they themselves were changed by the experience. The only restrictions are they cannot put the money in their Honduras/Haiti bottle or in the collection at their place of worship. It's a test grade. After I take up the projects and review them, I offer some of the eighth graders the chance to present their experiences in our middle school chapels. Several, all boys by the way, declined but ten accepted the challenge and shared their stories during our Tuesday and Thursday chapels last week. They did a good job as I knew they would- the six girls and four boys spoke from the heart to a rapt audience of 5th/6th/7th and fellow 8th graders as well as their teachers. I added a twist this year, based again on Jesus' parable. Our high school student ministry team selected what they believed to be the most effective use of the money combined with its presentation and awarded an additional ten dollars to that youngster. They chose Ally, who spent her time with and money on a cancer patient who doesn't speak English named Delfina. Ally spoke passionately about her project and was an excellent choice. Ally was surprised and appreciative of her honor and she's already planning how to use it. (On Thursday, she dropped a poem off on my desk she had penned about her new friend.)

But there is more to this story than just Ally, who by the way just killed it in her role as Biondello in our WCS Fine Arts' production of The Taming Of The Shrew this past weekend. After the announcement of Ally as the winner in chapel three days ago, M.J. and Simone, two of the student ministry team, wanted to talk to me. They told me how impressed they were with Simon's presentation and they asked to come by his class and recognize him as well. I thought it was an awesome idea and so the two of them, both favorite former students of mine, showed up fifth period and talked to Simon's class about Simon. They told the eighth graders they believed Simon, like Ally, did an incredible job and wanted to show their appreciation. The student minsters and their faculty leaders pooled their money, and Simone and M.J. gave Simon ten more dollars to wage the battle for doing what's right. His classmates cheered and I asked Simon if he would like to respond. He seemed a little flustered but he rose to his feet and uttered the two most appropriate words under the circumstances- "Thank You!" Then he sat down and we continued class but I know his world just changed some.

You see, Simon is from China and he really did not know what to do with his original investment. He's new to WCS and lives with a lady from our congregation. I was blessed to be able to baptize his mom into Jesus back in the Fall but she has long returned to China and I know that is very lonely for a middle school boy. But he did a nice job on his project and agreed to be one of those who stood in front of his peers in chapel. Simon was very nervous and asked me if he could go first on Thursday, an easy favor to grant. He paced back and forth as he told about how he spent his money in his second language. He found a list of sick and shut-in folks in our church bulletin and decided to brighten their lives. He purchased cards and postage and wrote six letters to the elderly recipients with one being personally dropped off by Simon himself. On Thursday, he shared his thoughts and the letters two of the ladies sent back to him along with a picture. In terms of delivery, Simon's talk was not what any speech teacher would call eloquent but in terms of sincerity and gut wrenching honesty, it was worthy of an Academy Award. And so when Simone and M.J. bestowed their honor on this young man from China, he crowned his prize with the perfect acceptance speech. Like Simon Says, 'keep it brief'....and keep it from the heart. He was two for two.

Applicable quote of the day:
''Speeches that are measured by the hour will die with the hour.''

Thomas Jefferson

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1

Well, Actually..........

 

Well, Actually..........

My devotional tonight is about a girl I had just met but now know very well! It is from June 19, 2018.
We started our second week of camp yesterday. There's a few new kids from last week but most of our campers are now classified as returning vets even if they are only five years old. Except for Charlotte who has been on my camp team multiple years, I'm working with a entirely new group this June. We've moved to our West Campus this year which is a totally different set-up, even though only a few blocks from our main location. This site has a lobby entrance to navigate before you walk around to the gym area. The coaches get there early and help set up for the camp day- I typically fill up the water cooler. Then I head back to the lobby and greet the kids as they come in. Maggie is on my team for the second week in the morning session. I'd never met her before last Monday but I feel like I had. Her eldest sister was one of my eighth grade students this year and is painting a ceiling tile for my classroom on Jesus washing the feet of His apostles. And, her mom is going to be our WCS athletic trainer next year! Throw in a sixth grade sister who will be attending our school as well and it's like we're old friends! Maggie and I sit and talk as the other kids come in, usually accompanied by parents. I'm learning her philosophy of life which seems to be pretty terrific! It befits a terrific young lady.

Yesterday morning as we chatted before camp, I noticed Maggie began consecutive sentences with the word, actually. I interrupted her and said I was going to count how many times she used actually in my presence. She tried really hard.... and only said it once on Monday! But today, THREE TIMES  so she's up to four! (I had an 8th grader in class several years ago by the name of Riley who went through a week in which everything was intense. "Coach, the chicken fried steak at lunch today was intense!" "Coach, that Spanish quiz was intense!" Of course, Riley quickly grew out of it!) It's not just kids! During Monday's afternoon session, Coach Guthrie said "OK?" five times talking about consistency in shooting motion. Me? I'm an ''umm'' guy but I haven't slipped up yet. So, in the competition between Maggie and me, the score stands at:
ACTUALLY- 4
UMM- 0
I'm winning! But since there are three days of camp left this week, it's not even half time. I can't let down my guard!

Being creatures of habit and our environment, we pick up quirks in our speech patterns which, I'm convinced, few of us recognize. I'm not really concerned about what subconsciously has made a home in my linguistics. I've never uttered Umm on purpose but I also doubt my saying Umm has ever hurt another's feelings. Deliberate choice of words? That's another story. Words can be weapons or they can carry healing, as Rudyard Kipling alludes in the quote below. That decision is mine and yours. How then should we construct our verbal interactions? Here are some pretty good Biblical suggestions/commandments!

Ephesians 4:29
Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.

Colossians 4:6 
Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

Matthew 15:11 
It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.”

Proverbs 15:1-2 
A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. The tongue of the wise commends knowledge, but the mouths of fools pour out folly.

Ephesians 5:4 
Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.

Psalm 141:3 
Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips!

Can I learn from these gems of knowledge? Would living by these thoughts of profound wisdom make me wiser and avoid the shame I deal with from my utterances? Will applying them make me a better servant of the Kingdom of Heaven? They can, they would, and they will! Actually!

Applicable quote of the day:
Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.
Rudyard Kipling

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1