Basketball has been a love of mine for many years. On my twelfth birthday my parents gave me a basketball hoop for my birthday. I’m a March birthday, so the ground was still cold and frozen at that point in time, but that didn’t stop my friends and me from going out to the driveway to attempt to dig the hole needed to get the pole upright. We wore that hoop out. Almost every day, neighborhood kids would come over to our house to play ball. Hot or cold, rain or shine, I wanted to get out on the court and work on my game. As the famous Gatorade commercial used to say, I wanted to “be like Mike,” Michael Jordan that is.
I have long since realized that my dream of playing professional basketball at any level was slightly less than realistic, but I am still a big fan of the game and follow various teams at all levels. Over the past several years, I’ve found myself taking a particular interest in Lebron James. Whether or not you are interested in basketball, there is a solid chance that you have heard that name. He is, without question, the best basketball player in the world at this moment. And, for the first time in my life, I find myself wondering if he might actually be the best player to ever play the game. He has certainly earned the right to be in the conversation.
I recently read an article about Lebron that caught my attention. In it the author writes, “Greatness can be defined in many ways. When it comes to Lebron James, his greatness lies in making the extraordinary look ordinary, the remarkable look routine and the unprecedented look customary.” I don’t believe a higher compliment could be offered about a person.
I found myself asking this question, what must one do to reach the point when exceptional is the expectation? There are multiple factors that determine the answer to this question, some of which we can control and others which we cannot. Natural talent, genetics, and socio-economics play a big part in determining our potential or lack thereof. However, I would argue that an even bigger part of the answer lies in the question itself; exceptional becomes the expectation when we begin expecting the exceptional from ourselves.
Exceptional becomes the expectation when we begin expecting the exceptional from ourselves.
Too often in our Western world, “good enough” has gone from being barely acceptable to being the goal. Nowhere is this more clearly seen than in our local churches. At some point, we shifted from expecting God to do the exceptional in and through us to striving for survival. It demonstrates a very small view of ourselves and, even more problematic, a depressingly small view of God. We claim to serve the God who created the Heavens and the earth. We claim to follow the Savior who raised the dead to life and who Himself rose from the grave. We claim that the Holy Spirit of this God is living in and through us. If this is true, then the source of every exceptional thing we have ever seen, heard, or otherwise experienced is active in our lives. Not only is the exceptional possible from the church, it is to be expected.
I believe that God is still in the business of doing the exceptional in and through His people. I believe God still has a plan and a purpose for His church in the world today. As a result, I don’t want to settle for “good enough” in myself or the church I help lead. I want exceptional to be the expectation. My hope and prayer is that God will move so powerfully in and through us on such a regular basis that “the extraordinary look ordinary, the remarkable look routine and the unprecedented look customary.”
