Passing on a Passion

“Dad, can I go shoot baskets?”

This is what Graham and Isaac were asking me after lunch one day at the MK sports camp we hosted here in Kara last week.

Now, if you know me, you know my answer to that question was an emphatic ‘YES’! I don’t think I thought to check their plates to see if they had eaten any of their food and I know I didn’t care about my kids starting a mass exodus from the kid’s table before other parents were ready.

“Let them shoot all they want,” I thought. “They can shoot until the sun goes down and still keep shooting.” Which is exactly what they did. (Check out Isaac’s follow through in the picture.) And, as I watched those two shoot (and make) baskets, I caught myself making the biggest, cheesiest grin I’d made in a long while. To me, that was pure joy and I knew for sure that if the boys show interest in my favorite sport, they’ll get about as much grace and help as one pop can muster, with pleasure.

Then, in a brief spiritual moment, I had the thought, “This is what God must feel like when we find pleasure in the things which he enjoys. Which may be why he heaps so much grace, love and mercy upon us… to help us find, and love, those things he loves. Pretty cool.” Well, I know I’m not that close to being God-like, but it was fun to find that connection to God with Ike, G, me and basketball.

So now I’m trying to find a way to get an adjustable hoop put in on our basketball court. (The boys still shoot on our 10-footer, but it was the 7-footer at the camp that really got them going.) After that, we could have some flood lights put up… just for the boys, of course!