Losing Faith

I read a blog yesterday that told of a man who was once a preacher and teacher at a seminary. This man has lost his faith in God. He has lost faith that God could exist in a world filled with so much pain and suffering. In fact, he's even written at least one book talking about this very thing.
There's so many ways Christians can explain why God does or does not allow things to happen. I heard a very good sermon by Foree Grove years ago. He talked about the fact that we live in a "thorny" world. This imagery stuck with me for a long time and has developed quite a bit in my brain. I even came up with my own analogy for some atheists that I discussed this with when I studied in Mexico. To me, God is like a clock-maker. He made the world like a clock. He put all the essential pieces together and made them work in harmony. He wound it up and let it go. Sometimes the watch goes too fast and He has to reset it. At times it starts to slow down and He has to wind it up. The pieces, at times, break and have to be repaired or replaced but, for the most part, it runs on it's own. The clock maker checks on it regularly and does what needs to be done when He feels it's necessary. You may agree or disagree with this analogy. Leave a comment. I'd love to hear it!
In the end, is the world perfect? No. Do bad things happen to good people? Yes. I see God work through many of these occurences and He gives us plenty of opportunity to glorify his name through all of these things. We just have to be on the lookout for the part He wants us to play. Most importantly, we have to act on what that part is. That's the hard part!

Surgery

Surgery seemed to go pretty well on Friday. In fact, I felt almost good enough to walk on Friday and most of the day Saturday. The problem started Saturday night. In absence of taking anti-inflammatories, my knee continued to swell on Saturday evening and became quite uncomfortable. I say this is because of not taking the anti-inflammatories but I don't know this for sure. Today, my knee is still extremely swollen and I have quite a bit of difficulty walking on it without crutches. I hope that things will get better quickly but I plan to be coaching our last practice and game on crutches.

Stolen Game

I have a hard time blaming anyone but myself and my team for losing games. I especially don't like to blame referrees. They have a tough job and I don't make it any easier on them. Thursday, I can truly say that the refs stole the game from my team. We lost by 4 points. We made some mistakes down the stretch. But, when I asked a ref in the second quarter why she wasn't calling the other team for certain fouls, her response was that both teams were doing it. The problem was, at that point in the game the foul-count was 8-2 against us. In the 3rd quarter, they didn't call a single foul against the team we were playing and called 6 against us. The final count for the second half was 11-4. To put this in perspective, let me throw out a few figures from the game. The other team's leading scorer (14 points) had 4 fouls. The other team's post player had no fouls. One of my starters fouled out. We shot less than half as many free throws as they did. I had one girl get pushed down on her face right in front of the ref in the last 2 minutes of the game and he didn't call anything. I just about lost my mind!!

In my heart of hearts, we won that game. The score just didn't show it. The more disappointing thing is that, in my girls' hearts, all our hard work and progress over the last four weeks was voided by that 4-point loss. I just pray that they can bring it together and try to get a win in our last game tomorrow.

Arthroscopic Meniscectomy

Tomorrow, I go in for my knee surgery. I'm praying that the procedure is quick, successful and that there is very little damage. I'm due to be off my feet for a couple of days but am hoping that I feel good enough to at least go sit and watch practice on Saturday. Our last game is next Wednesday and we can't practice on Monday because of President's Day. So, I'll at least be able to run practice on Tuesday and be at the game on Wednesday.

I was thinking about MY expectations of what the surgery will do. I guess, I really don't have any expectations but mainly hopes. I hope that the doctor finds very little damage. I hope that what damage exists, he will be able to repair it. I hope that my recovery is short and I'm able to be out running around quickly. Tuesday will definitely be one of the hardest practices of the year since I will not likely be able to actually get on the court and do anything with the teams. Lately, because of a lack of numbers, it's been important that I act as part of the practice team. Our JV is just not at a level that they can help out the varsity much, competition-wise.

I leave it all for God to take care of!

Basketball Update

So, we didn't win on Tuesday night. In fact, considering the weather, we shouldn't have even played the game. As soon as we got to Middletown to play our game (about 45 minutes away) someone from their school walked in and said everything was cancelled and told us we had to leave. Then, after we worked out the fact that the JV game would be cancelled and we would only play the varsity game, we found out the second referee was stuck in traffic. Then, both of our athletic directors wanted us to start the game with one ref (not a good idea). Eventually, we were able to hold off until the second ref arrived. In the end, we were outmatched. We had a girl that was 5' 6" guarding a girl that was 6'4". We did have some successes, though. First, we scored 3 1/2 times as many points as we did the first game against this team, we had fewer turnovers and no traveling or double dribble calls against us. We're improving!

Pat on the Back

A lot of times, the only "pat on the back" that we get is a "self-pat." You know, the one where you reach back over your opposite shoulder and give yourself a couple of taps. Well, lately, I haven't had to do that very much. I've been getting plenty from other people and I feel a little mixed up about it. It has to do with taking over the basketball team. Since I took over 2 1/2 weeks ago, we have gone 0-7. That's right, we haven't won a single game. We came close with a 6-point loss last Thursday that turned out to be a real "barn-burner." Sadly, in the end, we haven't gotten over the hump. Strangely, through all the losses, I have received nothing but praise from parents, administrators and even people I don't know. They come up and tell me what a good job I'm doing and how much better the girls have looked since I took over. Even one of the girls told me that she feels they've learned more in the last couple of weeks than they learned the entire rest of the season. I'm ecstatic to hear it. It's just hard to feel too good about it when we still haven't won a game. Tomorrow, we face a team that, just 3 weeks ago, beat us 61-8. I pray that the girls keep their heads up and remember their roles on the court. If they can do that, we should make a game of it.

Exercising My Rights

I exercised my right not to vote today. I know you're thinking poorly of me because I didn't vote. The problem really is that, when they asked me at the DMV if I wanted to be registered to vote, I said, "Yes." Then, they asked what party I belonged to. I answered, "Ha! Neither!" It actually works out pretty well for me right now. I am a true Independent. There are too many choices for me to really select either primary to vote in. Come November, I'll be in a booth. Today, Delaware has decided that my independence has negated my ability to vote in a primary.

Breaking 200!

This is actually the opposite of what you might think, as far as "breaking" a number is concerned. When I graduated high school, I only weighed about 150 lbs. Over the few years after high school, I actually was able to gain some muscle and got up to about 165 lbs. Then, my metabolism slowed down and my eating did not. Many factors contributed to this but for the last couple of years I have fluctuated between about 215-225 lbs. When the new year began, I turned off the switch. The "switch" I'm speaking of is the one that drives me to eat till I am full. I turned it off. Last week, I weighed myself on the scale used by the wrestling team (has to be accurate). I weighed 199.1 lbs. I'm still losing. My goal is to get under 180 lbs. We'll see how it goes.