Last night, the pre-game show for Game One of this year's NBA finals between the Boston Celtics and L.A. Lakers included footage from the 1980s' rivalry between these teams. The Lakers had Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, James Worthy, and other notable players. The Celtics had Larry Bird, Robert Parrish, Kevin McHale, and Danny Ainge as some of their most dangerous weapons.
This brought back many memories of my childhood. We lived on a cul-de-sac (just like we do now, only it was at the end of a longer street). There in front of our driveway, on the edge of the circle of grass in the cul-de-sac, my dad had set up a really nice basketball board. My brothers and I would play there for hours on end. We would identify ourselves as famous players. I was always Larry Bird.
Of course, when Michael Jordan joined the Bulls, I had to be him. After all, we did live in Chicago! I was a basketball fanatic (sort of like my son Elijah is now!). Just as the eighties belonged to the Celtics and Lakers, the nineties belonged to the Bulls.
I remember getting ready to watch Game One of the 1991 NBA finals. It was the first time the Bulls had made it to the championship series with Michael Jordan. (They would end up winning the championship that year as well as 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, and 1998! Phil Jackson was the coach that whole time, by the way.) Well, getting back to my story, we had just moved to Richmond, Virginia, a month earlier and here I was in our little town-home, getting ready to watch my beloved Bulls in their first NBA championship series. The tip-off was minutes away, when all of a sudden - BLIP! - the screen went blank. The picture tube on our old floor-model, the only TV we had - was toast! I jumped in the car and ran to the nearest appliance store and bought a $300 TV. I was back home in minutes, ready to watch the game. That move went totally against my frugal nature. After all, that was about all the money we had in reserve, and I just went out and spent it on a television set - in a matter of minutes! But that's how badly I wanted to watch the Bulls.
Fast forward to seventeen years later: June 5, 2008. The Celtics and Lakers are matched up for the first time in two decades! The Big Three are going up against Kobe and crew! What do I do? Turn off the TV after the first quarter and go to bed! Why? Not because I wasn't thoroughly enjoying the game, but because I knew I had to get up early the next morning, and there's no way I'd end up watching the whole thing anyway, so why not go to bed now? (It was shortly after 9:30 p.m.)
Knowing myself and what I used to be like, it's hard to believe that I went to bed like I did last night. Of course I woke up and was anxious to see if the Celtics won or not, but the fact was, I had reached a point in my life when I valued sleep over sports. The choice was entirely mine. I had no parents telling me to go to bed. I was simply tired and chose to go to bed instead of staying up to watch the game.
The funny thing is, I have no regrets. I'm glad the Celtics won, and I'm glad I got my shut-eye. I'm not sure what the lesson is in this! I'd like to think that I've simply matured and come to the realization that sports, while fun, are not the primary substance of life. If our lives revolve around sports, then we have lost the Center and our sense of what is really important. Yes, I'd like to think that this whole matter of my going to bed after the first quarter is an indication of the fact that "when I became a man, I put away childish things."
But part of me knows better than that. That's what I'd like to think. But it's probably only partially true at best. The fact is, I'm getting older, and I'm feeling a bit more tired at the end of each day. This is pretty sorry to say, considering that I haven't turned forty yet! Still, I don't rebound as quickly as I did at age twenty, or even thirty.
Regardless of how late we stay up, or whether we watch the game or read God's Word, the bottom-line is: "To everything there is a season, a time for ever purpose under heaven" - and certainly that includes a time to watch the game and a time to read God's Word, a time to play and a time to pray. And in the freeness of His grace, God "has made everything beautiful in its time" (Ecclesiastes 3:11). Our response to this reality ought to be the prayer of Moses, recorded in Psalm 90: "So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom."
Amen.
Go Celtics!