If God Can Make Me into a Basketball Player, He Can Do Anything
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January 23, 2022If God Can Make Me into a Basketball Player, He Can Do Anything
I grew up in a winning environment. Our little town starting winning Girl’s Basketball championships when I was about 6 years old. I immediately started dreaming of growing up and being on a State Championship team as well. The dream seemed very real as the years went by since we continued to win and win and win.
I began to notice that this small town didn’t just take sports seriously; we took everything seriously, including family, good grades, church, friends, fun, and so on. Okay, it’s a German Catholic community with mostly like-minded people in many ways.
Anyway, to get to my story of the miracle about me becoming a basketball player.
After years of watching the older girls win a lot, I began to realize that it does not take someone out there to become a winner, that it’s not only possible for us but expected. It’s expected by most in the local community that we will do our very best, even if that means a lot of sacrifice and hard work on our part. We were so used to hard work on the farm; it really wasn’t that big of a stretch for us to work hard at school and in the extracurricular activities as well.
To make a long story short, my freshman year was not good. I was struggling with self-esteem, I was not naturally talented in basketball, and so forth. My Mom suggested that I get out of the sport because I was too busy. I told her I’d like to play one more year and see how it goes and then decide.
That’s when it started – I began to beg God to make me into a basketball player. I think God planted that desire in my heart. Why? Because He knew that it would help boost my self-esteem (badly needed at the time) and it could be used for future youth ministry, etc. etc. etc. God never does something for only one reason – He usually has a wide facet of reasons and effects from His goodness to us!
This is real - I began to dream basketball every night. And the night after that. And the night after that. It was like I was having basketball practice with God . . . for a year. He was building my confidence and sharpening my skills . . . apparently.
I’ll never forget it – the day came. We were playing in the summer. I was a lowly Freshman about to become Sophomore. I was always intimidated by the older girls because some of them were already All-State. One day I got the ball, and after the first second of intimidation, I remembered what we had practiced (in my dream). I did a shot fake and post move, made a jump shot with one of those All-Staters guarding me, and it went in! They just looked at me like, “What happened to you?” I smiled and knew that my life had changed.
I kept working hard, with my eyes on the goal of winning state, and being the best I could be and encouraging the others to do the same. It takes a team to win! After all of the miracles God pulled off for me as a basketball player, I ended up becoming the MVP of the team the last 2 years of High School and was awarded a full scholarship to a Junior College. Later, after my big conversion, I became a Youth Director at a local church, and those basketball skills really paid off. THEN to top it all off, I can still occasionally play basketball as a Religious Sister!
What am I getting at? I experienced a miracle. Only God knows how bad I really was back then. He used basketball to help build my faith and build the Kingdom at the same time. God is SO good. His mercy endures forever!
Today I do not play very often. My body is not cooperating as much as it used to for this sport. I can still play with the youth once in a while. For sure, I can still shoot! Most importantly, I have confidence that GOD CAN DO ANYTHING!
This paragraph copied and pasted from Wikipedia on “Nazareth, Texas” as of 1/23/2022:
The Nazareth Swiftettes basketball team have won 24 state championships in a 44-year span (1977-2020), a current public school national record. In 2020, the Swiftettes won their 6th state title in 7 years, and 4-peated for the 5th time in school history. The Swiftettes have also represented their region in the Final Four of the Texas state tournament 29 times since 1976. A 2007 article on ESPN.com documented the town and the women's basketball team.[8]
