Disclaimer: This is not a sports blog. I promise.
On April 6, 2016, the Philadelphia 76ers, a professional basketball team, effectively fired their general manager after three less than stellar seasons. Sam Hinkie, the now former General Manager, was originally brought in to be the “saving grace” to the struggling NBA franchise. He had a lot of success in his previous professional stops, and was thought to be the type of intellectual mind that the club needed. Besides his blatant tanking (see past blog post) he was trying to resurrect a team that was plain bad by acquiring assets the slow way (drafting college players and not signing/playing skilled players), essentially being satisfied with mediocrity with the hope of one day being good.
The people of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania were not happy, and demanded that he be removed after 3 futile seasons. They wanted to win now and were sick and tired of him preaching patience by telling them to “trust the process”, as he commonly would say. They ultimately got rid of him, which brings us to the beginning. One may ask where I’m going with this story. I’ll be glad to tell you.
When I first heard the news of what happened with Mr. Hinkie, my initial reaction was a shoulder shrug and a “eh, he must have seen that coming”. But as I started to look deeper at what unfolded, I started to see the state in which our humanistic minds lie.
In this “microwave” society in which we live in, where everything is heated up and handed to us in an instant, we have become accustomed to not waiting and trusting in anything. We will not trust THE process or any process for that matter. We anger when things don’t go our way, or we question God when we feel like our prayers go unheard. I for one have fallen victim to this type of thinking as I am not above reproach, but I do see the need to change daily when I turn on the news or when I interact with my fellow brethren. One of my favorite passages from the Bible is found in Proverbs 3:5. It says to “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him and He will make your paths straight”. How are we to trust God if we are not giving him the time to work?
One of the differences between us and God is that we think we know how time works, whereas God is the one who invented time. You see, we cannot rush to have a guaranteed timeline of our life and expect God, the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and end, to pencil our plans into his calendar, when that time-frame may be booked with other blessings that He may have in store for us. He says in Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future”. This proves that God has a planned approach for us, as He can see the end result of what truly matters: a closer relationship with Him.
Although the road to get to that plan may be broken, or the waters may be too rough for sailing, we must remember that God loves us and knows what is best for us. If we were blindfolded for a surprise by someone we loved, and led through the forest by that vision-abled person, we might get scratched and cut by the branches throughout the process. But, are we not to trust the one leading us if they can foresee danger? This is how our relationship with Jesus may be. We may not see our journey the way we want to, but Jesus is not only our guide but our wonderful counselor, in that He wants to guide us in the right path.
For all of the sports purist who would like to know what happened to Sam Hinkie’s dreadful 76ers, they are now one of the most talented, promising young teams in the league.
I guess the process was worth it.
– Joas D.