Go Out There and Fail!

            John Wooden retired because he won too many championships. Let me explain.

            At the close of his career, John Wooden’s success changed the way people treated him. He had won a number of NCAA championships (ultimately: ten in twelve years); consequently, Wooden felt that people were treating him in a way that was unnatural. His life was growing increasingly out of balance, so he retired.

            People were not designed to win all of the time. Life is about the journey—the pursuit. The Texas Rangers’ loss to the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series reminded me of this.

            Some people refer to Cardinal manager, Tony La Russa, as the greatest of all time. However, La Russa has won only three championships in 33 years. That is less than one a decade.

            Duke Men’s basketball coach, Mike Krzyzewski, has four National Championships—an average of a little over one a decade since he has been coaching. Moreover, he traveled to four Final Fours before Duke finally won a championship.

            Dean Smith, for a few years the winningest college basketball coach of all time, won only two championships in over 35 years of coaching.

            The great Tom Landry won only two titles in 29 years as the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys. Winning championships is hard.

            Fortunately, none of these leaders got discouraged and quit. From them, I (and I hope the Rangers) have been reminded that the more pain and failure you can tolerate, the better chance you have to win a championship.

            Right now, on some level, I’m sure it is easy for the Texas Rangers to feel this way: “We got so close. It hurts so much to lose. I don’t ever want to put myself in that position again.” If they do, they will not have to worry; they will lose.

            I feel this principle of tolerating pain and failure for future rewards… transcends other fields. It applies to business, teaching, and church work. Bottom line—the cliché is true: the journey is more important than the destination. Isn’t this what Hebrews eleven is about?

            Years after his retirement, John Wooden would write, “… for those many coaches, whom I respect … I would wish each one national championship…. For those few coaches for whom I have less-than-warm feelings, my wish would be that they would win many national championships. However… I’m not sure I would wish that on anybody.”

            There is a famous line in the movie A FEW GOOD MEN—“You can’t handle the truth!” Insert the word "success" for "truth." We can’t handle constant success. We NEED failure.

            So let’s all go out there and fail—and relax when we do.

Five Things I Think I Think (with a nod to Peter King for this idea)

1. Congratulations ETCA girls’ volleyball. You are going to state! Speaking of waiting patiently and enjoying the journey, Diann Preston, enjoy the fruit of your years of labor.

2. Okay, so I blew my prediction the Rangers would win in six games. Still, it was an entertaining series.

3. Weird, with the Rangers playing in the World Series the last two years, seems like October is consumed by baseball. Now what?

4. At least we still have the Cowboys. (Guffaw. Guffaw.)

5. Parental pride: Abby Edge, you did a great acting job, subtly registering the non-verbal facial expressions on the video for our church. Well done.

Be Careful What You Wish For

John Wooden was the greatest American coach of the twentieth century. One reason, so many organizations voted him this honor, was because his UCLA teams won ten national championships. With this in mind, of all of the things John Wooden ever wrote, two paragraphs stand out to me as the most intriguing. The following quote is not a misprint:

Many times I have suggested to interested observers that if I ever met a magical genie who could grant me two wishes, I knew what they would be. First, for those many coaches whom I respect and have warm feelings toward I would wish each one a national championship.

For those few coaches for whom I have less-than-warm feelings, my wish would be that they win many national championships. However, in truth, I’m not sure I would wish that on anybody. [Italics mine.]

Why would John Wooden write this? Because his life became practically unbearable after winning so many championships, and by “practically” I mean just that—life was no longer practical under the structure of so much “success.” As the amount of championships Wooden’s teams won increased, so too did the amount of attention Wooden received. Questions from reporters and fans, crowds forming around him, requests for his time—all of the demands reached a disproportionate level in his life.

As Wooden wrote in his book, WOODEN ON LEADERSHIP, “I felt more and more that crowds were closing in and enveloping me. I seemed to be constantly surrounded. This great frenzy of activity and attention was more than unwelcome; it was unnatural.”

Finally, Wooden concluded that his life had become irrevocably out of balance. “Balance is crucial in everything we do…. The body has to be in balance; the mind has to be in balance; emotions must be in balance. Balance is important everywhere and in everything we do.”

“Unfortunately, over the last years of my coaching at UCLA things had gotten out of balance. Perhaps my subconscious mind figured out that the only way to regain the balance I required personally and professionally was to leave the game I love.”

And he did. He announced his retirement, and two days later, UCLA won its final national championship for John Wooden.

Man was not created to be a rock star. At some point, what we call success is really a disaster in the making, not unlike a hurricane forming off of a coast.

We see people experience what Wooden describes all of the time; we just don’t recognize it. Moreover, we lock in on the aberrant behavior that people typically demonstrate in a sad attempt to cope.

I think these pressures are what often lie behind the star, who overdoses on drugs, and even takes his or her own life. I believe Wooden is describing some of the background behind Tiger Woods’ self-destructive behavior. The proverbial “cry for help” really is that. Life has hurled itself out of balance. The “successful” person desperately searches for a means to bring it back into stability.

The Beatles were before my time, but I think it is fascinating to trace the arc of the world’s most successful rock band. In 1966, they chose to discontinue touring. Crowds had become too wild. Life had become too chaotic. Therefore, the Beatles decided to accelerate their drug use (abuse), produce studio albums, and travel to India to study with the Maharishi.

None of those actions were enough. Finally, the band disbanded.

I take from all of this a warning. In a culture that accentuates “success,” there is a level of “success” that is too far. Cross that line, and you cross the threshold marking off the restraints that help keep life in check.

I believe these realties lay behind God’s decision to sabotage the Tower of Babel. (“The LORD said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.”)

After pondering these issues and many more, the writer of Ecclesiastes offered some sage advice, “11:13 Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.”

In our culture, we see illustration, after illustration, after illustration, detailing for us the price of too much success. Maybe the writer of Ecclesiastes is right—maybe we should redefine what life’s great need is, and what life’s great success is.

Five Things I Think I Think (with a nod to Peter King for this idea)

1. Timothy Edge has a new hobby. He has given up magic for chess. He has really gotten into chess. At last, I found what motivates him to read. He reads a chess book that teaches checkmate moves while he plays his older sisters in chess matches. Hey, whatever it takes. As for magic, I guess his last trick was his best one. He has made his magic tricks disappear from the Edge household.

2. Buzz has already begun on Edmund Morris’ final volume of his biography of Theodore Roosevelt. It will be called COLONEL ROOSEVELT and is set to release late November early December. If it is anything like the first two volumes, it will be a marvelous work. Coupling Morris, the writer, with a subject so compelling as Theodore Roosevelt, and you’ve got a categorical nightmare. Is it great literature or history? I think both. By the way, if Random House would like for me to do an in-depth review, all they need to do is send me an advanced copy. I’ll gladly take care of the rest.

3. I had a great time at the North Street church of Christ in Nacogdoches, Texas yesterday. Every August, they bring in a different preacher and his wife each weekend of the month. They put the couple up in the Fredonia Hotel (built in 1955 and restored, it is a neat place to stay.) Sunday morning, the preacher teachers a combined Bible class and preaches. It is sort of like a weekly lectureship for August.

            The church has a marvelous campus ministry to Stephen F. Austin University. Their campus presence is known as the “Yellow House” and has been a present for a few decades now.

            I’ve known Dr. Michael Harbour, their preacher, since 1995, when we both lived in the valley of Texas. He has a marvelous mind, as well as, other assorted skills, and I think is the ideal fit for that ministry context.

            I have some old friends that attend there and it was so good to see them. Parents of some of our Shiloh folks attend North Street also; I was grateful to get to know them.

            Thank you North Street.

4. Three out of five against Boston and New York—not a bad homestand Texas Rangers. And over 235,000 fans attended the homestand. I can remember when 235,000 fans represented a little less than a third of the season’s attendance.

5. School starts this week at ETCA. I knew summer would be over in a hurry!

What Would a Communion Meal Look Like?

What would a communion meal look like?

If you have been following this blog, you may agree with me that the preponderance of Scripture supports the idea of having a meal of communion within the Lord's Supper. You may also be asking yourself, “What would that look like?” “How could a church pull this off?”

Admittedly, this would be difficult. Frankly, a meal within the Communion and Worship Service might be best carried out in the context of a small church. One church I could see experiencing this communion and fellowship would be a church I know that has been engaging and dynamic ministry for years. 

For the past 14 years, they have been sending buses out into the town and bringing in children of all ages. They do so every Wednesday night at 5:30. They feed these children a meal, followed by Bible classes offered at 7 PM.

The meal is free. It is available to everyone in the community. Volunteers prepare the meal and clean up.

This church takes the ministry of Jesus very seriously. They practice what theologians call incarnational ministry. That means the people of their town see Jesus in the skin of these members. 

Although this is a small town, their ministry corresponds more to inner-city ministry. There is a high percentage of minorities, particularly Hispanic, and many of these children come from broken homes of low socio-economic income brackets.

It is safe to say that for some of these children, that week’s best meal, and the most love they receive, will occur simultaneously on Wednesday evenings.

I believe this church would have the opportunity to impact its are with the rich teaching that is found in Scripture concerning sustenance from God, spiritual forgiveness, hospitality, fellowship, and worship. To them I would suggest: why not practice the Lord's Supper as the church of the first century practiced it? Look to the roots of the Old Testament. Remember the Meal of Shalom, the Passover Meal, and the Burnt Offering, and the Sin Offering, and the Cross.

Move the Wednesday night meal to Sunday. Place it in the context of your worship service. Move your worship service from the church auditorium into the fellowship hall. Bring in the children.

Everybody gets their plates of food and drink and sits down and eats. Everyone sings and fellowships together.

Tell all the air that this meal is being offered to the community because Christ lives within you. Tell everyone that you're worshiping God because your sins has been forgiven, and because of that, God is in your presence.

Tell them you have brought them in and offered them hospitality of the Lord because the Lord offered you hospitality first. You're simply offering to them what God offered to you. Proclaim the gospel. Proclaim God’s Word. Read it aloud.

Pray prayers, and at some point in the assembly that alternates between formal proclamation in informal conversation, bring in the unleavened bread and the fruit of the vine and present it to the members of the church and to anyone else who considers himself worthy to participate.

Take time in meditation and prayer and silence to reflect upon Christ and his sacrifice. If you do this week after week, you will inextricably link your ministry with the cross. And I predict the byproduct will be many more people responding to Christ and conversion.

This is but one example of impacting a local work with a communion meal as practiced in scripture. What about your locale?

Five Things I Think I Think (with a nod to Peter King for this idea)

1. It is nice to see so many pay tribute to John Wooden. He was a great man as well as a marvelous coach. He published his last book at age 99. The book was on mentoring and was very good. I hope to publish my first book before I am 99. The most amazing thing about Wooden is that I am not so sure he was more relevant his last week of life than he was a coach thirty-five years ago.

2. If I remember correctly, Wooden served as a deacon at his church for several years in Santa Monica.

3. I saw my first 3-D movie the other day with my son. I spent the first half of the show watching the special effects instead of paying attention to the plot.

4. Recently, I discovered the collateral damage of having parents ask you to tell them what you want when they die. My wife’s folks recently sent all of their kids a list of their possessions asking them to identify what they desired upon their passing. My own mother did this a few years ago.

            Last week, our youngest daughter, Annie, who is 8, said to me, “Daddy, when you die, can I have your treadmill?”

            I asked her, “Do you know something I don’t?”

            “No,” she replied. “I just figure you’ll be dead by the time I get to be Haleigh’s age (a senior in high school.)

            She may be right!

5. Congratulations to you, Timothy Edge. Your baseball team won the East Tyler league championship.