Jesus and Butler basketball

If you follow college basketball, you probably know about the Butler Bulldogs.

You may not know that the team’s coach Brad Stevens is a United Methodist and member of St. Luke’s UMC in Indianapolis. Here’s a message to the congregation written by St. Luke’s pastor Kent Millard:

Friends,

I know that we all hurt with Coach Brad Stevens and the Butler Basketball team when they were not able to play at their usual high level of scoring in the NCAA Championship game last Monday night in Houston , Texas .

As I reflected on it I realized that none of us ever perform at our highest level of effectiveness all the time and sometimes we all have an “off day” when nothing seems to go right. It least I know that is true with me. There are times when I know don’t bring my “best game” to my work and to life and I am also disappointed with myself and the way I handled particular situations. I suspect that all of us have the same experience at different times in our lives.

The measure of a person’s life is not how they respond when things are going well and everything they do seems to succeed. The real measure of our character is how we respond when things are not going well and we don’t live up to our expectations and the expectations of others.

I believe the sterling character of the Butler basketball team is shown in how they responded after their loss in the Championship game last Monday night. Dan Wetzel, a Yahoo sports reporter, described what happened in the Butler dressing room after the game was over..

He said that Shawn Vanzant sat in the corner of the Butler locker room sobbing and blaming himself for missing shots that might have turned the game around. Near him was Matt Howard with a towel over his head and tears streaming down his cheeks because he blamed himself for the loss.

That is when Ron Nored, red eyed and tearful himself, went over to Shawn Vanzant and pulled him up off his stool and hugged his friend and physically and emotionally attempted to lift him out of his despair. Then he went to Matt Howard, hugged him as well and soon all the players were standing up hugging each other, crying and expressing their love for one another. In the midst of their pain over this loss they loved and supported each other rather than blaming each other or themselves for the loss.

Later, when Ron Nored was asked why he did that he said: “That’s why we’re here – we’re for each other. In the big picture, it is just a basketball game. It is really about the guys in this locker room. I wanted Shawn to know we don’t really care that his shot didn’t go in; we care about him.”

That is a statement of a person with a mature character and one who has a good grasp of what really matters in life. The truth is that loving and caring for each other is the ultimate value in life regardless of whether we win or lose in a basketball game or in the game of life.

Jesus once said “Love one another as I have loved you.” Jesus loves us all unconditionally and totally whether we are doing well in life or struggling in life. Jesus calls us to do the same.

Ron Nored and the Butler Basketball team model for us how to love each other unconditionally, through the good times and the painful times in life, and that is the real lesson we all can learn from the NCAA Championship Basketball game last Monday night.

In the big picture Brad Stevens and the Butler Basketball team had an incredibly victorious year in basketball winning 28 games and having a 14 game winning streak during the past two months which was the best in the nation.

In the Olympics, we honor the top three athletes or teams with gold, silver or bronze metals and for the rest of their lives they feel honored that they were among the top three in their particular sport. Unfortunately, we only honor one team in the NCAA rather than recognizing that the team that lost the championship game, though they finished ahead of the 67 other top teams which were in the tournament.

Coach Brad Stevens will be in our 9:30 and 11 am worship services on Sunday and we will have an opportunity to express our appreciation for a coach and a team who live up to our highest values whether they win or lose a particular game.

I thank God for Brad Stevens and the Butler Basketball team for the way they love and support each other in good times and bad and for their inspiring model of being scholar athletes. We can all learn a lot from this coach and his team.