The War of Attrition

Last week this blog post highlighted the importance of not allowing complacency to stunt our growth early in our faith journey. This week, regular contributor Jeremy Hoover looks at the lessons we can learn from the other end of the season, the Playoffs.

The NHL season, and in particular the Stanley Cup playoffs, represent a war of attrition.

The entire 82-game NHL season is a war, out of which only half the teams survive. Only 16 of 32 teams make the playoffs. The season is a war of attrition. It wears teams down in an attempt to see who can endure and outlast. Teams may start well, but they also have to end well. One example of this is the Toronto Maple Leafs, who began the season with a very successful start through the first twelve games, only to score points in just eight of their last twenty-two games and fall out of a playoff spot.

The playoffs are a war of attrition. Playoff teams engage in up to four rounds of a best-of-seven games format. This means that the two teams that play for the Stanley Cup can potentially play an extra 28 games, or fully one-third of what they already played in the regular season.

The playoffs are tough. They wear teams and players down. Every year it seems as though one team that was fine-tuning for a playoff run takes a big hit through injury and suffers a playoff loss. One example of this is the Tampa Bay Lightning, who lost their top goalie, one of the best in the league this year, to a knee injury in the last week of the season. This loss was devastating and led to the Lightning being swept in the first round.

The team that swept the Lightning, the Montreal Canadiens, suffered a devastating injury of their own. In game one of the Eastern Conference finals, their starting goalie, one of the top goalies in the league and an Olympic gold medal-winning goalie, suffered a knee injury and is out for at least the length of the Eastern Conference finals.

The playoffs force teams to reckon with the forces of attrition and to find ways to carry on. Often the team who wins the Stanley Cup is the team who was able to endure and outlast all others. The key is perseverance. Teams that keep focused, don't lose their cool, avoid serious injury, and press on are the teams that most often win it all.

Many of our churches look like this. We start well but get bogged down in the middle of our "season." We lose a few games and we begin looking for a quick fix, a blockbuster trade, or something to help. Attendance is low, we struggle to find ministry leaders, or we notice spiritual lethargy and are unsure how to overcome it. 

Perhaps we find our churches gaining momentum at the right time, only to be hit right then with a major injury in the form of a personality conflict, a major fight within the church, or a leadership problem. 

Or maybe we feel poised to make a "playoff run"--there is a specific ministry we targeted to build evangelistic zeal--but we fizzle out because our people became tired.

The key is in these situations, the way to avoid the war of attrition waged against us, is to persevere.

In two different places in 1 Timothy, Paul urges Timothy to persevere. In the first place, he provides Timothy with a list of things to teach, a way of life that will instruct people through action, and an encouragement to be diligent. He tells Timothy to persevere in these things (1 Tim. 4:11-16). Later, he charges Timothy to flee from the temptations of wealth and to "pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness" and to "fight the good fight of the faith" by taking hold of eternal life and persevering (1 Tim. 6:11-12).

If we follow Paul's advice to Timothy, we will be able to overcome the forces of attrition that work against us because our focus will be on the eternal nature of the ministry we provide, not the day to day goings on the physical management of that ministry. Like Timothy, we can persevere to the end.

What helps you to persevere in your faith, ministry, or life when adversity strikes?

Every Game Matters

The middle of May is an interesting moment in the sports landscape.

Baseball season began almost 2 months ago, but teams are still less than on quarter of the way through their scheduled 162 games. At this point in the season almost no one pays much attention to the games and a bad start still has plenty of time to turn around.

Aussie Rules season also started 2 months ago and now approaches the halfway mark of the season. As teams take their byes they have a pretty good idea which teams are premiership contenders and which are the easy beats. Teams (like Carlton) that began the year with a string of losses now realise that it will take a lot of wins in a hurry if they want to make the finals.

Basketball (NBA) and Hockey (NHL) find themselves deep in the playoffs. At this point of the season each game undoubtedly means everything. A team (Pacers) that yesterday looked like it had a comfortable 3-1 series lead is now 3-2 and appreciating that the fourth win won't happen automatically. Every game, every shot, every moment matters. They also know that the importance of each action only intensifies as they draw closer to winning the championship.

Fans who show little enthusiasm for their team during the ho-hum matchups in the middle of the season come to life as the playoffs approach. Now the real business is about to begin. Now the emotions come to life. Now the heart leaps with each shot. Now every moment matters

As I considered the difference between baseball fans and supporters of hockey and basketball teams at the moment I realised the danger of complacency early in the season. There are teams that will miss the playoffs by one or two games. As they look back on their year I wonder if they can identify one or two games or moments early in the year where they relaxed, took it easy, didn't push as hard as they could?

I recently heard an interview with Rick Carlisle, the coach of the Dallas Mavericks, who reflected that because their playoff race was so close it felt like every game was super important for at least 2 months before the playoffs began. As the deadline approaches we understand and feel the urgency. But if a team needs a certain number of wins to make the finals, it really doesn't matter if they come early or late in the season.

The Indiana Pacers recognise this truth. They had 40 wins to 12 losses at the All-Star break and the best record in the NBA. In the second half of the season the Pacers barely had more wins than losses. Yet they managed to retain the best record in the Eastern Conference. If they had not achieved those early season wins their seeding in the playoffs would have been considerably lower.

I understand the argument that perhaps the effort to get those early wins tired them out and caused some of the late season losses. I also appreciate the importance of momentum and team cohesion going into the playoffs. Those points may make for a future blog post.

All this got me thinking about our Christian journey. We naturally grow more urgent in our desire to avoid sin and please God as we age. Our evangelistic fervor picks up when someone close to us receives a terminal diagnosis.

At the other end of the spectrum I can't tell you how many times I've seen someone give their life to Christ and then be told, "See you next Sunday." We seldom communicate an urgency to grow. We don't emphasis the importance of early victories in our struggles with sin. We're often content to let our newborn brothers and sisters coast along and "get used to the system" without inspiring them to strive for constant growth. We allow them to put their faith on autopilot. It's like they're playing baseball in March instead of hockey.

Our lives don't have scheduled seasons. Jesus tells us that only God knows the day or the hour of His coming or our going. (Matthew 24:36) The Message phrases 1 Peter 5:8 this way, "Keep a cool head. Stay alert. The Devil is poised to pounce, and would like nothing better than to catch you napping. Keep your guard up." Our competition never takes a break and we can't afford to either.

Getting to the Top

March Madness has begun here in the US. Over in Italy a new pope was recently ordained. These random events got me thinking about what it takes to make it to the top spiritually. So here are my twisted sports analogies.

POPE
The selection process for pope seems equivalent to making it to the top of Major League Baseball. You begin in the minors - single A. This equates to time spent in a monastery. Your doing what you have to, but no one's watching. It's like learning the discipline of silent contemplation. You're a long way from the top and must search deeply within yourself whether or not you have the skills and commitment to make it.

Gradually, you work your way up the ranks, but most MLB rookies are considerably older than NBA or NFL rookies because it's a long path through the minors. The pope is usually pretty old too. Then you finally break into the big league. Now it's a 162 game season in the heat of summer and full glare of the public spotlight. Every little transgression hits the headlines.You play golf with an injured teammate? It's mud on your name too. Oh, and you better perform on the diamond too.

After a 162 game season there's now a long playoff schedule as every round is a 5 or 7 game series. This reminds me of the papal conclave. The cardinals get locked in a room and vote four times every day. Each time the fail to reach a consensus they send some black smoke up a chimney. When they eventually make a decision the send white smoke up the chimney to let the world know. It's a pretty arduous process with this many rounds of voting before a champion, I mean pope, is appointed.

Then I got to thinking about some other playoff comparisons...

PREDESTINATION
All those Calvinists out there kinda view salvation like the NCAA Basketball Tournament Selection Committee. You play the regular season as best you can. You may have an impressive record overall, or just excel in your conference. But at the end of the day, your selection and seeding is out of your hands. Like everyone else in the country, you sit around a TV on Sunday night waiting to see if you were selected and the seeding you received. Sometimes it makes sense. At other times the whole process and outcome is completely mysterious.

SUDDEN DEATH
The NFL playoffs and ATP tennis tournaments share an affection for sudden death in determining their champions. One loss and your out! Many Christians view God through this lens. They go through life terrified of making mistakes. Or they're at least terrified of not having the opportunity to confess their sins and therefore of dying before their sins are forgiven. While sudden death makes for thrilling sporting events, it's no way to experience life. It leads to anxiety and a distorted view of a loving, gracious and just God.

ICE CREAM
In truth, there's really no "making it to the top" in our walk with Jesus. In fact, he several times warns his disciples against that ambition (see Mark 10:35-45). Our salvation is more like playing little league where they don't keep scores. (I hate this practice in real life, but it fits this comparison well.) Regardless of whether your team wins or loses. Regardless of whether you hit or caught a single ball all day. Everyone gets taken out for ice-cream after the game. Everyone wins. You just have to be on the team and participate to the best of your abilities.

READ 1 Corinthians 12:12-26

The Voters Made a Mess of That!!!!!!!!!

Monday night's BCS Championship game between Notre Dame and Alabama turned into an embarrassment, not only for Notre Dame, but for the method of selecting the finalists.

NCAA football and basketball are unique around the world by having their rankings determined by votes. First the NCAA football gurus select 115 media and football personalities to rank the top 25. Then 59 coaches also rank the top 25 teams. Finally, 6 independent computer formulas rank the top 25. These 3 scores are combined and averaged and result in the official NCAA Top 25 List. This list is then used to determine which teams play in which bowl games and eventually the top two teams meet in the BCS championship game. (Study the details here or here...if you're feeling brave!)

The reason for all these polls and computations arises from the ridiculous number of teams in the same competition. No where else in the world do 120 teams compete in the same competition. Of course, there's no way they can all play each other, so any system must be intrinsically "unfair".

The closest comparison of a field that size that comes to my mind is the field at a tennis major which starts with 128 players. But in tennis each round is an elimination match that halves the size of the field. Players can also compete every second day making the entire tournament last just two weeks.

So for many years college football championships have been decided by voters, and more recently by a championship game. As this year demonstrates the "experts" don't necessarily do a great job of making this decision. In fact, during the "Bear" Bryant era ('64, '73) Alabama was twice voted national champions at the end of the regular season and then proceeded to lose their bowl game! In fact, in 1973 Notre Dame was the team that defeated the national champions in the Sugar Bowl.

How I picture the voters casting their votes.

As an outsider, one reason I see the voters seem to make these mistakes is that they give too much weight to an undefeated season. Of course, an undefeated season is a major accomplishment, but an undefeated season against weak opponents does not automatically make you a better team than a 2 loss or 5 loss team who played stronger teams. Even after the bowl games were played the voters still ranked Notre Dame above Georgia. That makes no sense considering how close Georgia played Alabama compared to the Fighting Irish.

I'm not saying Notre Dame is a bad team, but during the regular season they only played one Top 10 team compared to Alabama's three. Plenty of other teams also had a tougher schedule. Stanford, for example, also played three Top 10 teams during the season.

It's not all Notre Dame's fault. USC was ranked #2 when Standford played them early in the season, and outside the Top 25 when Notre Dame played them later. But who's responsible for the schedule isn't my point. The simple truth is that others had a more difficult schedule and losing doesn't make them a worse team.

All of this just reinforces the difficulty of making judgements. 115 football personalities and 59 coaches plus the mathematicians and computers all operating within their area of expertise couldn't correctly identify the best 2 teams in college football in 2012. BRING ON THE PLAYOFFS!!!! Even 4 teams is sooo much better than what we have now!!!!!

So when we're tempted to poke our nose into other people's business and criticise the way they're raising their kids, working on their job, attending church services, or whatever it is, we need to remind ourselves that we're not experts and we'll never have all the necessary information to make a completely accurate judgement. Of course we need to care for people, listen to them, encourage them, support them and occasionally within the church we even need to reprimand them, but we should always do so with an attitude of humility, leaving the final judgment to God.

For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.
Romans 12:3

The Wildcard

I'd write about Carlton missing the finals and firing Brett Ratten and the terrible run with injuries we've had this year... but I'd just spill more tears in my keyboard.

Instead, I'll write about my US sports team still shooting for a shot in the playoffs: "MY" St. Louis Cardinals. As I write, the Cardinals hold down a wildcard spot with a one game lead over Pittsburgh and San Fransisco. BUT only because MLB added an extra wildcard team to the playoffs in 2012.

This year each conference will have TWO wildcard teams. (The two teams with the most wins who failed to win their division.) These two teams will play one, that's right one, uno, one game to determine who will advance to the playoffs proper.  The fact that the rest of MLB is built around 3 & 4 game series in the regular season and 5 & 7 game series in the playoffs apparently doesn't challenge the integrity of a one game playoff.

I understand that this winner take all game will add tension and excitement to the playoffs. It also rewards the teams who win their divisions by giving them some additional rest. It also gives an additional fanbase some hope and more teams will have something to play for. They're all great reasons for holding this game. (Did I mention TV ratings and revenue?)

But after playing 162 games over the course of the season. After playing multiple games in each city the team visits to test the depth of the pitching staff and ensuring the cream really rises to the top. Despite heralding the effectiveness of a 5 or 7 game playoff series in determining who really is the best team. Now Mr Stern wants to convince us that a sudden death playoff is a great way to decide a playoff spot! That just doesn't make a lot of sense. (Although, I will be pretty pumped if "MY" St Louis Cardinals squeeze into that extra spot!)

It's not just baseball that's illogical with its playoff system. Since I opened with an Aussie Rules comment I guess I can close with one too. (Read the complete list of VFL/AFL finals variations here.) The old VFL for many years just had the top 4 teams make the finals. Then in 1972 this changed to the Final Five. In the wake of Brisbane and West Coast joining the competition the finals were expanded in 1989 from the Final Five to the Final Six. In 2000 the league moved to the current Final Eight as there were then sixteen clubs.

This crazy situation means that until Gold Coast joined the competition in 2011 you only had to finish in the top half of the competition to make the finals! Hardly a standard of excellence. But realistically, it's all about making money, not creating a fair system. I guess really, the most fair system is the English Premier League which simply rewards the team with the best record at the end of the season: No finals.

The fact that only one AFL team has won the premiership after finishing fifth (Adelaide 1998) only adds to the futility of expanding the number of teams in the finals. At least in baseball 5 wildcard teams (including "MY" St. Louis Cardinals in 2011) have won the World Series demonstrating that it's reasonable for them to be competing.

Although the movement is always to allow more teams to qualify for post-season play, it still irritates me.  Making the playoffs should be a reward for a top season, not a right for being slightly better than average.

I'm so glad that God's gone 2000 years without any changes to his requirements for qualifying for "post-life" experience. It must be tempting to change the standards and let more people qualify. After all, we know that God doesn't want anyone to miss out. (2 Peter 3:9) But God is consistent. Jesus is THE way, truth and life, "No one comes to the Father except through him." (John 14:6).

Play the Playoffs

The NBA Conference Finals are both exceptional series.  Both series feature young teams with no championships (Thunder, Heat) challenging the veterans with championship experience (Spurs, Celtics).  Both series were tied at 2-2 and it seems that every game has been close.

I don't know about you, but it makes we want to play basketball.  To be part of it.  (And I don't even have a favourite team left in the playoffs.)  I don't have to take the final shot, but I bet I could make the pass that leads to the winning basket!  But that will never happen.  I'm not good enough.  Only 10 guys or so per team are good enough.

On the other hand some teams are really crappy.  (Hello New Jersey!)  I think I could play for them.  Seeing incompetence also makes me itchy to get in the game.  Again, it's not going to happen.  I'm nowhere near as good as I think I am.  :-)  I'd struggle to run up and down a court more than once.  Talk about incompetent.  But that doesn't stop me wanting to give it a go.

So why is it in church that so often we're happy to be spectators?  Is the church like the NBA?  Does it exclude me because I'm not talented enough?  Or do I just not get the itch of brilliance that I get watching the Playoffs?  Is it possible I just don't enjoy church activities as much?

Is it the church's responsibility to motivate me?  Or is that something I need to find inside myself?

I think we do have a responsibility.  We get excited about Playoffs because we invest in the event. We know the rules.  We know the players.  We hate LeBron because he left Cleveland.  We want to see Duncan match Kobe for rings.  Or not. We hate the Thunder because they were stolen from Seattle, or we love that OKC finally has a big league team.  We want to see Boston's Big 3 get another last chance ring, or we think Boston's already had enough success.  And we love that the games are close and the tension builds.

I'm pretty sure that if we invested similarly in the lives of people around us, at church, or in our community and were familiar with their stories we'd feel God's itch to get involved in his work.  We may not get to Play the Playoffs, but we can get off our bleachers!

Revenge

It's official.  The Commish suspended Udonis Haslem (Miami Heat) one game and Dexter Pittman (Heat) three games for their hits on Pacer players.  I don't think it will help the Pacers tonight as Wade & James seem to be on fire at the moment.  However, Haslem has been a pain in the butt and scoring some important points for the Heat in the last couple of games.  (As for Pittman... who's Pittman?)

The suspensions seem fair to me.  Hansbrough's foul was at a minimum careless.  But coming after Hansbrough's foul, Haslem and Pittman were clearly acting with the intent of payback.  Pittman's wink pretty much sealed the longer suspension for him! It may have seemed like a good idea at the time, but somehow I don't think their coach and teammates are too thrilled with them now!


It got me thinking how revenge comes so naturally to us and motivates us so strongly.  Whether we act in response to our own hurt, a family member, or a teammate, we take irrational steps that we wouldn't consider without provocation.  God knows we're wired this way.  In the ancient Israelite legal code, God gave someone who injured or killed a person the chance to run to a designated "city of refuge" for protection, under the assumption that a friend or family member would be looking for revenge.

NBA Commish - David Stern

Ultimately though, God directs people to trust him to take the ultimate revenge, and avoid our own hot-headed antics in the meantime.  Be bigger than the moment.  Something that doesn't come naturally.  Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. (Romans 12:19).

I think the Commish agrees.  Can't you picture David Stern saying "My dear friends, don't take revenge, let me take care of it for you.  Is it really worth missing the next 1-3 games when your team needs you in the playoffs? "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Commish. Also, his name just seems appropriate for this type of statement - even if he is smiling in this picture!!