In my Bible classes, I make the point that while demons recognized Jesus, those in his family and his apostles struggled with that same concept. The young lady in the following story, Nicole, is now all grown up! This is from October, 2006.
We worked on defense in practice today. Still being out of the gym while our new floor is installed, we have to be imaginative. Without a basket or markings, my middle school girls have to mentally transform a church courtyard into a basketball court. This morning, we implemented the shell drill, the best way I know to teach defensive positioning. I made the point that vision of the ball is more important than vision of the person you are guarding for several reasons. The ball moves much faster than the offensive player AND the ball is much smaller than your opponent. To reinforce my teaching, I asked the closest player to me, Nicole, three questions.
1. How tall am I?
2. How much do I weigh?
3. What color are my eyes?
Nicole's answers were as follows:
5'7"
200 pounds
brown eyes
Now, Nicole is a very bright girl who has known me for years. She makes excellent grades and has a chance to be a good basketball player. I assume she has good vision and the lighting was perfect. She was also standing five feet away from me. However, in case you don't know me, the correct responses would have been as follows:
6'1"
185 pounds
blue eyes
How could she have missed it so far? In fairness, Christian Chevis, my student assistant, guessed my weight at 155, or a difference of 45 pounds from Nicole's estimate! If Nicole had witnessed my committing a crime, I would never have been arrested on the basis of her report to the police. I could have been a master criminal, based on my ability to disguise my appearance!
I kidded Nicole but her accuracy simply reinforces what I have seen previously. When I have had classes physically describe a teacher they had known for years, the descriptions seemed like different individuals. The guesses on age have been twenty years apart. Weight can vary by seventy-five pounds and heights by eight inches. And that is when the students knew the person, not just have caught a glimpse during a stressful situation. Our poor descriptive abilities are not limited just to the physical. We often misjudge others in the arenas of character and potential as well. In the time of Jesus, the Israelites were diligently searching for the messiah but failed to see him walking in their midst. The Savior, in Matthew 13, quoted Isaiah when he explained the failure of some to absorb visible truth:
"You will be ever seeing but never perceiving."
We still struggle with that blindness today. We fail to see the good in our neighbors. We don't grasp the moving of the Lord in our lives. We can't perceive God's will in a chaotic world. We look but we don't see. Sometimes, our eyes just fool us. (And mine are still blue.)
Applicable quote of the day:
"History is the study of lies, anyway, because no witness ever recalls events with total accuracy, not even eyewitnesses."
Nancy Pickard
God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1
http://www.hawleybooks.com/
E-mail me at steve@hawleybooks.com
We worked on defense in practice today. Still being out of the gym while our new floor is installed, we have to be imaginative. Without a basket or markings, my middle school girls have to mentally transform a church courtyard into a basketball court. This morning, we implemented the shell drill, the best way I know to teach defensive positioning. I made the point that vision of the ball is more important than vision of the person you are guarding for several reasons. The ball moves much faster than the offensive player AND the ball is much smaller than your opponent. To reinforce my teaching, I asked the closest player to me, Nicole, three questions.
1. How tall am I?
2. How much do I weigh?
3. What color are my eyes?
Nicole's answers were as follows:
5'7"
200 pounds
brown eyes
Now, Nicole is a very bright girl who has known me for years. She makes excellent grades and has a chance to be a good basketball player. I assume she has good vision and the lighting was perfect. She was also standing five feet away from me. However, in case you don't know me, the correct responses would have been as follows:
6'1"
185 pounds
blue eyes
How could she have missed it so far? In fairness, Christian Chevis, my student assistant, guessed my weight at 155, or a difference of 45 pounds from Nicole's estimate! If Nicole had witnessed my committing a crime, I would never have been arrested on the basis of her report to the police. I could have been a master criminal, based on my ability to disguise my appearance!
I kidded Nicole but her accuracy simply reinforces what I have seen previously. When I have had classes physically describe a teacher they had known for years, the descriptions seemed like different individuals. The guesses on age have been twenty years apart. Weight can vary by seventy-five pounds and heights by eight inches. And that is when the students knew the person, not just have caught a glimpse during a stressful situation. Our poor descriptive abilities are not limited just to the physical. We often misjudge others in the arenas of character and potential as well. In the time of Jesus, the Israelites were diligently searching for the messiah but failed to see him walking in their midst. The Savior, in Matthew 13, quoted Isaiah when he explained the failure of some to absorb visible truth:
"You will be ever seeing but never perceiving."
We still struggle with that blindness today. We fail to see the good in our neighbors. We don't grasp the moving of the Lord in our lives. We can't perceive God's will in a chaotic world. We look but we don't see. Sometimes, our eyes just fool us. (And mine are still blue.)
Applicable quote of the day:
"History is the study of lies, anyway, because no witness ever recalls events with total accuracy, not even eyewitnesses."
Nancy Pickard
God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1
http://www.hawleybooks.com/
E-mail me at steve@hawleybooks.com
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