Wow. I had something entirely different in mind for my blog today, but a story on Yahoo News caught my eye. I cried as I read it and found it so moving that I must blog about it. I’ve attached part of it below my blog. I hope it moves you as well.
I’ll try to bottom line it for you. Darius McNeal, senior captain of the DeKalb, Illinois Barbs basketball team, deliberately missed two free throws, awarded his team for a technical foul caused because the opposing team wanted to allow a player on the court who was not there for the start of the game and therefore not on the roster. That player? Johntel Franklin, who came to play just hours after his 39 year old mother lost her battle with cancer.
Johntel wanted to play. He needed to be with his team at his time of grief. The letter of the rule was followed, but it was a different spirit at play that night. To quote the DeKalb coach (who advised his player to miss those free throws) -- "This is something our kids will hold for a lifetime," Rohlman said. "They may not remember our record 20 years from now, but they'll remember what happened in that gym that night." Doesn’t matter who won. The two teams went out for pizza together after the game.
What will people remember about you 20 years from now? Would you lose a game to win a brother? Would you even be willing to take the risk? That is exactly what Jesus asks us to do – risk it all to save others. He has called us to serve one another.
We are called to be “living sacrifices” and to esteem others above ourselves, to look on the things of others and lose our lives for the sake of our calling. (I challenge you to find the scriptures to go with these.)
It isn’t my place to tell you when, where and how to sacrifice for others. I don’t know your gifts, your resources or the needs of those around you. But I do know one thing – no matter how poor or ill or talentless you might be, you can be nice to people around you. You can show love. It costs nothing – except, occasionally, your ego or a chance to win.
Recently, a friend of mine and I sat crying tears of joy over the way several churches and the community in our small town rallied around to help her father who is recovering from a major injury. He lives several states away. He was self-employed all his life and has little insurance.
Maybe in this case we’d be tempted to say “I don’t know him. Why should I help?” Or “He needs to be an example of what happens when you fail to be adequately covered by insurance. It is his responsibility, not mine.”
But sometimes, to paraphrase a famous line, the team has to “take one” for an individual player. That is what happened in the DeKalb/Milwaukee game. That is what should happen in the Christian game of life. All true believers are on the same team. And, since everyone is a child of God and a potential believer, the whole world is ultimately in the same family.
In 20 years the members of both these high school basketball teams will still remember THAT night – even if they forget every other game. In 20 years, my friend will still remember what others did for her family.
In 20 years, what will people remember about your life? About mine? It bears some thought now about what will be remembered in 20 years.
Love, Nancy
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AMID THE GRIEVING, A RARE ACT OF SPORTSMANSHIP (AP)
Hours earlier, the mother of Milwaukee Madison senior captain Johntel Franklin died at a local hospital. Carlitha Franklin had been in remission after a five-year fight with cervical cancer, but she began to hemorrhage that morning while Johntel was taking his college ACT exam.
Her son and several of his teammates were at the hospital late that afternoon when the decision was made to turn off the life-support system. Carlitha Franklin was just 39.
"She was young and they were real close," said Milwaukee coach Aaron Womack Jr., who was at the hospital. Womack was going to cancel the game, but Franklin told him he wanted the team to play.
(The Franklin showed up and said he wanted to play.)
There was just one problem. Since Franklin wasn't on the pre-game roster, putting him in meant drawing a technical foul that would give DeKalb two free throws.
Though it was a tight game, Womack was willing to give up the two points. It was more important to help his senior guard and co-captain deal with his grief by playing.
Over on the other bench, though, Rohlman wasn't so willing to take them. He told the referees to forget the technical and just let Franklin play.
"The refs told them, no, that's the rule. You have to take them."
That's when Rohlman asked for volunteers, and McNeal's hand went up.
He went alone to the free throw line, dribbled the ball a couple of times, and looked at the rim.
His first attempt went about two feet, bouncing a couple of times as it rolled toward the end line. The second barely left his hand.
It didn't take long for the Milwaukee players to figure out what was going on.
They stood and turned toward the DeKalb bench and started applauding the gesture of sportsmanship. Soon, so did everybody in the stands.
"I got kind of emotional but it helped a lot just to play," (Franklin) said. "I felt like I had a lot of support out there."
It hasn't been the greatest season for the team, but they have stuck together through a lot of adversity.
"We maybe don't have the best basketball players in the world but they go to class and take care of business," Womack said. "We have a losing record but there's life lessons going on, good ones."
None so good, though, as the moment a team and a player decided there were more important things than winning and having good stats.
Yes, DeKalb would go home with a loss. But it was a trip they'll never forget.
"This is something our kids will hold for a lifetime," Rohlman said. "They may not remember our record 20 years from now, but they'll remember what happened in that gym that night."
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