I am not a basket ball fan, really, until March rolls around. There is something about tournaments that I can’t resist, and I have no idea why. I love playoffs. I always have and always will, to some degree or another.
Last night I watched the MU/Memphis game and it was a doozy. Like I said before, I don’t watch b-ball a lot and it had been a long time since I had but I sat down to watch this game and I was impressed. Not only was I impressed with how good and exciting this game was but also the talent that I saw. I was amazed how good these two teams were, how deep their benches were, and how good they worked together as teams. They definitely had their star players but I saw all contribute very strongly. Maybe it was just an unusually good game but it really stuck out to me how far this sport has evolved and grown into the entertainment powerhouse it is now. Watching these guys play was so visually stunning. I never realized how graceful the sport could be, when played well. As an artist I tend to go heavy on aesthetic beauty and some sports have it, while others just don’t, which is why I can’t stand watching bowling. Not much there to hold the attention.
The whole time I was watching this game I kept thinking about old black and white videos of basketball and how awkward, goofy, and ungraceful some of those guys were who started the sport. I kept getting images of dorky guys not knowing what they were doing with no technique and no formed skills, trying to take a huge leather ball and dump it into a basket. Well this was far from that. The point I am making is that basketball has come a long way through time, style, technique, and a few rare stars that have popped up along the way, making and re-creating the sport with their own personal flare and finesse.
Bottom line, this sport has evolved into what it is because man has formed it through time and taken every thing about it to the fullest expression of what basketball is and what it could ever be. Man takes things to the full, no matter what the subject matter may be because it’s in our nature to progress something and to move it forward till completion. And if ever something hinders the fullest expression that man wants, then man generally changes the rules to adapt to the expression desired. Which is maybe why I saw a lot of what looked like traveling to me.
This concept is not so much about basketball. It is an underlying theme with anything humans put their hands to, it just so happens that this concept really struck me while watching the game. Weird I know.
Man moves things to the fullest expression possible, with anything, but especially with sin. I’m not at all saying basketball is sinful, don’t read that. But it holds true that the longer someone does something, the better one gets at it. And it couldn’t be truer than with iniquity. That’s why it’s called a mystery; just when you would think someone can’t get any worse in sin, bam, you hear the most shocking, absurd, disgusting acts that so degrade the nobility intended for man. It’s even clearer when it comes to nations, in my opinion. The height of sin is most fully expressed in community when the expression of that sin is empowered by laws and ordinances. This is truly Psalm 2 stuff. Man casting off all restraint so as to express himself; it’s quite a terrifying reality.
As the extreme realities of sports grow even more extreme (I’m thinking the fairly recent development of motocross, bmx, stunt plane flying etc etc) so does the condition of the sin in man. Progress in the world around us is usually man just taking expression to the full. Not all expreesion is sinful, of course, but a majority of it is and when we continue to press the envelope in arenas dear to our hearts then I cannot help but see the underlying theme. There is a fullness of iniquity coming, when man’s deepest and clearest expression of sin is in practice, without restraint. Let’s face it, the longer we live in a sinful state, the more sinful that state becomes.
And so we watch and we pray. The church has been practicing for a few thousand years and I do believe her expression is going to be magnificent at the end. She will be burning and shining, full of grace and truth. As the sin of man progresses then so too must the light of the church.
