It's dark on the highway now.
The road through the mountains is winding.
Adrenaline has faded.
Exhaustion has arrived.
The car has grown quiet.
For a week, there has been a continual washing of uniforms, taping of ankles, soaking of knees and backs and shoulders, pumping of anti-inflammatories, and intentional rehydration and nutrition.
Basketball has wrapped for another year, capping off a tough, grinding season with a week-long tournament. A tournament that ended today with a division 3 win for the Varsity/JV boys.
This is the third season of Cougars basketball. It was unique. It was full of new challenges, new opportunities, and new friends who became family.
It has definitely been one of those "who would've thought 3 years ago that this would be what is happening now?" kind of feelings.
Why does the Lord work the way He does? That's the question rolling around inside me as the tires eat up the miles toward home. Why does He allow us to learn the lessons of becoming more like Him, even in something as silly as basketball?
I've seen kids who have never played before become productive, helpful members of the team. I've seen kids, who are used to winning, struggle through one difficult loss after another. We've watched as emotions exploded, and then cooled, and the hard work of reconciling friendships through it.
I love to watch the Cougars play. Because I know that there's a great deal of sacrifice in each life when they take the court. The three basketball players who live in my own house are proof of it. They've all played sick, and hurt, and tired, and nervous to the point of nausea.
I love to watch them take the court. I watch their faces. I see the deep breath. In. Out.
Eye contact with each other.
Resolve.
Once more into the fray, that's how it feels. And I know, basketball is nothing like actual battle. But dang if it doesn't feel like it is when they're out there.
We have watched them, each one, have a moment of crisis. Some have had many. We see the struggle. The "do I care enough to throw my body out there? Is it worth it?"
But they do it. They come away with bruises and swollen joints and broken skin, black eyes and chipped teeth, sprained ankles and torn muscles, broken bones.
And the harder they fight, the harder we cheer, until we are all horse and our hands are bright red from clapping encouragement.
If we could go out there and lift them onto our shoulders and carry their exhaustion for them, for even a moment, we would do it.
And they know it. They hear it as we cheer wildly.
What a picture of the walk of faith.
Fighting for each other, sacrificing for each other, loving each other well enough to forgive after emotions have wounded, encouraging each other. Hurting, healing, laughing, crying, working hard.
Most of the people who watch the Cougars play don't really know all that they each, individually, have endured in their lives. They don't know that the Lord, in His mercy, gave them each other in order to teach them something about themselves, and HIMSELF.
Can a basketball game be a spiritual opportunity?
You better believe it.
We've watched internal struggle. We've prayed, and we've seen victory.
When a group of young people wraps their arms around each other at an altar in a church, and they pray over each other, and they weep together, and they ask the Lord to bind them together, and they press into His face in order to gain the strength they need to face the strife and struggle in front of them...you may not have seen that, but you can see the result of it on the court.
That's what happened today. They played a team that should've beaten them. And they came out victorious.
It doesn't always happen that way. And the learning would've been good, because the Lord is good, even if they had lost.
But today He was gracious beyond what He had to be. And they knew it. A group of 14-18 year-old boys threw their arms around each other and tears slid down their cheeks and they were slow to separate. They lingered in the moment. In His mercy.
They fought so hard, all season long, for that moment of victory.
They fought for it when they were alone with the Lord.
They fought for it together at the altar.
They fought for it all season long, in practices and games.
They fought for it. And I can barely contain my gratitude that the Lord, in His great love for my sons, allowed them to be a part of the victory.
More battles lie ahead. That's the walk.
But they finished this one well.
And now they're asleep as we drive.
Rest well, Cougars. You've earned it.
