But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For it is the gentiles who seek all these things, and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. – Matthew 6:30-33 (NRSVUE)
Did you watch LeBron James break the NBA career scoring record last week? I would not have missed it. It is one of the most important records in American professional sports, so it was an important moment for a sports fan. The previous record holder, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, had held the record for nearly 40 years. It was the kind of moment that does not come about frequently. More than just historical, though, I found it to be a somewhat emotional moment to witness. I’ve never been a true LeBron fan, but I have always appreciated his skill. Even more than his scoring, he has always been an excellent passer and defender, and so I have high regard for his all-around game.
More than my thoughts on him as a player, though, a significant part of the power of the moment was more personal. It is the way that his career has coincided with my adult life. The summer he came to national attention heading into his senior year of high school in Akron, OH, I was in seminary and spending the summer living in Akron while getting clinical experience as a hospital chaplain in Cleveland. He became a professional as I was finishing seminary. He has moved to different teams at similar times to my moving between calls. It is not that there is much of a parallel between his career in basketball and mine in ministry. Rather, the timing of his career has fit with years that I am most able to pay critical attention to it and so be able to appreciate it appropriately.
It is funny how we find these ways to connect to events going on in the world. We place ourselves in relation to others; we make sense of our lives in correspondence to headlines about things that are really quite distant to us and yet can be used to shape and define us. It was quite striking to watch that game on Tuesday, then on Wednesday lead a time introducing centering prayer and then talking about prayer with the confirmation class on Thursday. The key theme in talking about prayer is that in prayer we allow God to be the center. We are not the center of the universe; not everything revolves around us. In prayer we allow ourselves to be moved to the side so that we can be defined by God rather than all of the loose connections that we make to tie ourselves to what seems important. In prayer we are freed to let God be most important and what shapes and defines our lives. This does not mean that basketball records are unimportant, but it does remind us of how easily things that are of lesser importance are able to move to the fore of our lives. Enjoy the basketball, but seek first the kingdom and put your trust in God.