TGIF
Trey wasn’t interested in basketball at all…until he watched Steph Curry play.
Since he saw Steph Curry play, I’ve had to carry a basketball in the truck along with the skateboards he normally wears out.
Since he saw Steph Curry play, I get to freeze at the basketball courts as well as the skateboard park, as he enjoys both even in the dead of winter.
The problem with this is that he wants to play the game like Steph Curry.
Curry is legendary for shooting impossibly long shots and hitting them with astonishing regularity.
Thus, Trey is only interested in heaving up equally long bombs that rarely even hit the rim.
He’s too young, too small, and too weak from Lyme disease, to have a hope of consistent success.
Still, he enjoys trying.
He wonders if someday he can play in the NBA.
As a good parent, I gave him all the reasons why that will never happen.
There were enough reasons for this that he started nodding off during the lecture.
Thinking I had successfully quashed this foolish dream, he still had one more question.
“What if God wants me to play pro ball”?
He doesn’t, I assured him.
Because, of course, I know the mind of God.
Right.
That was when I realized that in that one answer I had sinned grievously.
We spend a lot of time telling people what God does and doesn’t want and what He will and won’t do.
We listen to dreams and we shoot them down with better accuracy than Curry could hope for.
We judge what God is capable of by our own capabilities, and in doing so create a God in our limited, puny image.
We deny that with God all things are possible, and that He is able to do exceedingly, abundantly beyond all we can ask or think.
Dreams for a child are like clothes…they grow in and out of them until they finally find the one that fits.
That is, unless someone already told them that God says it doesn’t fit at all…or that God hates dreamers.
I’m finding out that the child never completely grows up and dreams are not just for the young.
I hope the God of the Bible is my God and not the one I lied to Trey about.
I’ve got some dreams myself.
Keep shooting,Trey… and pass to the old man once in while.
He thinks he’s got a shot too…
Make your own application…
Oh, this is wonderful: “Dreams for a child are like clothes…they grow in and out of them until they finally find the one that fits.”
I love that!!!
Exceeding, abundantly….. beyond all that we can ask or imagine. Whatever that looks like.
Any updates on Trey?
He and Jonny started therapy yesterday.
We have hope.
They are there because their mom is believing big things about God…a long shot that may go right through the nets…
Thank you. Adding my prayers.
My daughter, who worked for a ‘famous Lyme disease specialist” (now retired) says it works.
Make my own application?
If Trey were a Sixers fan, you’d still be going to the skate park only. 🙂
Kevin H,
LOL! 🙂
He’s not a fan of any team…he just loves Steph Curry.
“Dreams for a child are like clothes…they grow in and out of them until they finally find the one that fits”
Michael, this post is the BEST writing that i ever remember reading anywhere … keep your dreams, the things close to your heart and thank God for them… i suspect we have no idea what our loving Father has planned for each of His children in Eternity… He knows what will fit, eh?
Em,
Thank you, my friend… 🙂
Dreamers are a gift from God to a dark and doubting world. The world needs its dreamers, its poets, its artists, to salve our coarse souls. Thanks for the reminder this morning, Michael.
I struggle with this one. I go through the statistics with my kids when they talk about becoming hockey players or soccer players. I also go through attitudes of the heart with them, asking them why they value fame & fortune.
They know I want the best for them, but they still joke about me and threaten to get me a t-shirt emblazoned with “Crushing Dreams since 1971”.
Perhaps this Wenatchee the Hatchet article expresses it best (and it’s not primarily about Driscoll, though he’s mentioned tangentially): http://wenatcheethehatchet.blogspot.ca/2015/11/from-aeon-how-feeding-ambition-of.html
Thanks for being here, Cash. 🙂
I do think that we need to reorient our kids’ hearts and minds to realize that God being able to do abundantly more than we ask or think means far more mundane things like keeping my wife and I together through the trials of life, and far more eternal things like saving me from sin, than it means achieving a worldly status goal ala Joel Osteen.
But maybe, Michael, you just are encouraging me to chill out and let their dreams die a natural death instead of feeling like I have to kill them?
Steve in Canada,
I know the numbers, but I also know that wanting to do something with excellence is a really good thing.
Trey won’t play in the NBA…but I want him to shoot for being the best at whatever God calls him to do.
“But maybe, Michael, you just are encouraging me to chill out and let their dreams die a natural death instead of feeling like I have to kill them?”
You made the right application as far as I’m concerned. 🙂
Michael, when you say Trey won’t play in the NBA you are being pragmatic but I hope he doesn’t read your blog. This could really squash his dreams. I remember my sister telling me that what ever you do don’t become a worship leader after hearing me struggle to learn to play guitar. She might be right but it really squashed me dreams and I stopped playing altogether.
Andrew,
He doesn’t read the blog.
What I do with him now is line out the path to any of his dreams…what he will have to do and when if that is what he truly wants.
We’ll see which path he decides to pursue in earnest…in a few years.
I love it. Child like faith. No boundaries, no limits, only open minds and big dreams. No wonder Jesus loved children and told us to be just like them. Go Trey! And go all of us!
I still have this dream of playing 3rd base for the Dodgers. Now I must admit that as I approach my 67th birthday, I probably only have another 20 yrs to accomplish it. 🙂
Andrew #11–
I think you should get a new guitar or pick up one you already have. 🙂
Sorry that should’ve been Andrew #14
Thanks Cash. This is the kind of encourage I need.
Good to hear from you CostcoCal!
Thanks, Bob. I’m still alive. 🙂
What’s been amazing me is that God is fulfilling dreams I didn’t even have yet!
I am now beginning to recognize what it’s like to dream and not condemn myself for wanting.
The guilt of feeling that wanting something for myself or my family is not always out of selfishness. He loves me and wants me to be happy in Him. “Not a problem”!
Thanks for sharing Laura.
With God, all things are possible. Praying for Trey and his brother.
Got a shooters name
I’d love to train him 🙂
I get why basketball and skateboarding go together so well. Both are cathartic in a sense. You can go grab a ball or skateboard and simply leave the cares of the moment behind(at least that’s what they do for me).
While there may only be one Steph, there is also only one Trey and only the Lord knows the story he has for him.