Start with the basics

From The Pastor’s Pen – By Brian Horrobin

Last week we learned about the advice of the late UCLA basketball coach, John Wooden, who emphasized playing to your strengths instead of focusing on your weaknesses.

Related to that principle is the wisdom of starting with the basics.

Hall of Famer, Kareem Abdul-Jabar, who played for Wooden at UCLA, remembers a practice when he first started there.

When he arrived he and the other players were told to sit on the floor in a circle.

When they scoffed about this they were told that they would be removed from the team unless they cooperated.

They were then told to take their shoes and socks off.

More scoffing and another warning followed.

Coach Wooden then proceeded to show his players how to properly put their socks on so that their feet would not get blisters, and how to tie their shoes so that the laces would not come undone.

Jabar mentioned that he followed these simple steps all the way throughout his NBA career.

What seemed at first like an insulting regimen for seasoned players who thought they knew better turned into a valuable piece of advice that brought results.

We sometimes despise starting with the basics because we have a higher view of ourselves than we ought to have, thinking we are beyond such trivialities.

However, a humble heart is a learning heart, and a learning heart will gain in wisdom and benefit from what is learned.

Jesus said in Luke 16:10: “Whoever is faithful with little is also faithful with much…”

Let’s learn from that and not despise or skip over the basics.

They are an important building block to that which is great.

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