Role Players

[Picking up from the previous post as promised…]

The second sort of player that has impressed me these playoffs in particular has been some phenomenal role players.

For those not familiar with basketball, most teams’ “starting five” is comprised of at least three and often four role players, not “stars”.  In other words, most starting squads only have one or at most two true “stars”, phenoms, basketball beasts.  The only exception I can recall of three or more superstars on the same team would be the Boston Celtics and L.A. Lakers of yesteryear, especially the 1980’s:  Robert Parrish and Dennis Johnson (combined)?  Check.  Kevin McHale?  Check.  Larry Bird?  Ten  check-marks.  James Worthy?  Yep.  Kareem?  Definitely.  Magic Johnson?  Ten check-marks, like Larry.  But teams usually have just one or, if they’re blessed beyond belief, two.  Like Jordan and Pippen (then just throw ANY other three players for the starting squad and any half-dozen for the bench like the Chicago Bulls of the 1990’s did  and you’re sure to bag not one but two “threepeats” – and it no doubt would’ve been “eight straight” had MJ not retired for the two seasons in between).  Or Shaq and Penny (Orlando) or Shaq and Kobe (Los Angeles).  Or, most recently of course, Tatum and Brown for the storied Celtics.

Yes, it’s nice to have TWO superstars… but even then  a team won’t be able to pull off a string of superlative seasons if they don’t surround them (or him,  in the case of Nikola Jokic when the Denver Nuggets won it all last year [since Jamal Murray was out with an injury that season] or Dirk Nowitzki when the Dallas Mavericks won it all in 2011) with great ROLE players!

These are the players who aren’t nearly so celebrated and famous (and well-paid) as the superstars, but are absolutely imperative  to team triumph.

Unsung heroes.

Helpers who show up game after game after game and fulfill one or more purposes for the team.  Perhaps passing for a point guard, or defense and rebounding and blocking for a big man, or a wing who can shoot the lights out from three-point range.  (Or ALL OF THE ABOVE in the case of the Celtic’s Derrick White… or, except for the 3’s, Jrue Holiday, a born-again brother in Christ I’m pretty sure.)

And this year’s Playoffs in particular pressed upon my mind how crucial, how vital it is for us as the Church, the Christian community, to have great ROLE PLAYERS!  Yes, the “superstars” named MacArthur or Graham or Jeffress or Swindoll or Solomon or several others in the past half-century, or Spurgeon or Calvin or Luther, Edwards, Wesley or Whitfield before that, it’s definitely fantastic to have them on the team, great “floor generals” on the spiritual “playing field” for sure.  But where would they be and far more importantly, where would the Church be without the countless – and mostly nameless – “role players” of the past two thousand years, since God used Paul and Peter and James and John to start then expand the body of Christ on earth, the Church?

When you go to church each week or as you’re representing Christ to unsaved co-workers or neighbors each day, please never forget or DISCOUNT the utter importance of role players, plentiful in pews across the country and globe, perhaps deprived of “glory” but it’s even exponentially better to get that in the life to come, in eternity, in heaven, rather than here on earth.

  • “Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them [i.e., motive]; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven. [I.e., God] … And when you pray, you are not to be as the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners, in order to be seen by men.  Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.  But when you pray, go into your inner room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will repay you. … And whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance in order to be seen fasting by men.  Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.  But you, when you fast, anoint your head, and wash your face so that you may not be seen fasting by men, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will repay you.” (Just a few of the verses from Matthew 6:1-21, a potently powerful passage)

And ending by bringing us back to the previous (“Part One”) post, while memorizing the entire Bible for the first time in human history might thrust me into the ranks of a “superstar” in the minds of many, I have and will continue to view myself as a ROLE player… and one who comes off the BENCH at that!  But that truth of the matter is this:

I’m overjoyed and thrilled and honored and humbled just to be on the team.  The team who’s currently being led by MacArthur and company just quoted, and whose Coach is Christ.

The ultimate Substitute per the prior post, and the ultimate Superstar of all time and every aspect of life, even when He was setting aside the voluntary use of His inherent Diety and living as a human like you and me, minus the sin.

What a Substitute.

What a Superstar.

What a Savior.

 

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