He came out of nowhere. And overnight became the buzz of the NBA.
A few weeks ago, hardly anyone had heard of Jeremy Lin. Now he's everywhere. When the struggling New York Knicks finally played him, he lit up the scoreboard with amazing performances, game after game.
He's not your typical professional basketball star, that's for sure. He's a Harvard grad. He's Asian-American. He's refreshingly humble. Oh, and he unashamedly loves Jesus.
He doesn't "Tebow." But he wears a bracelet that reveals where his heart is. It says, "For Jesus' name I play." Sure, he plays on the New York Knicks. But he plays for Jesus.
Which suggests a good self-exam question to be asking, even for a sports klutz like me - "Who do I play for?"
That probing question demands that I stop and take stock on two fronts - whose glory am I playing for and whose approval am I playing for?
The Bible lays it down straight on the glory issue: "Whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God...I am the Lord; that is My name! I will not give My glory to another" (1 Corinthians 10:31; Isaiah 42:8).
So how much of what I do is to get people to notice me, to give me strokes? That's not a question any of us can answer once and for all. We've got to answer it before every "game." Can I honestly say it's "for Jesus' name I play" - that I want Him to get all the attention, all the credit? At the moment I catch myself thinking, "Ain't I somethin!" I've got to aim the spotlight toward heaven and say, "No! Isn't He somethin'!"
The alternative is to hijack God's glory. And He just isn't going to let that happen.
But it's not just the "whose glory?" issue. There's the "whose approval?" thing.
I'm a firstborn child, but otherwise normal. They say we oldest kids grow up wanting to please mom and dad - and get real good at it. Soon we can intuitively figure out what it will take to please a teacher...a boss...friends...people in general. We're not alone in being people-pleasers, but we are pretty good at it.
It's easy to become an approval junkie, playing to get people to like you, to validate you. But ultimately, it's a life of slavery and fear. You become, to a large extent, shaped and defined by other people's expectations. A slave. And then there's the fear - of rejection, of not being liked. Which will, at some point, keep you from doing the right thing. People-pleasing becomes the gateway drug to sinful compromise - of the truth...your integrity...your purity...your convictions...your Savior's name. It's a price too high to pay. The Bible nails it again - "Fear of man will prove to be a snare" (Proverbs 29:25).
The Bible writer Paul asks disturbingly: "Am I trying to win the approval of men, or of God?...If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ" (Galatians 1:10). Ouch. "Should you then seek great things for yourself? Seek them not" (Jeremiah 45:5).
If Jeremy Lin's playing for Jesus, then he's a free man. Free from the dead-end street of stealing God's glory...free from the bondage and insecurity of making everyone happy. Life's a lot less confusing and conflicted when you've got only one person to please. The Person who loves you unconditionally, unendingly, unsparingly. Jesus - who abandoned His glory in heaven and the acclaim of angels to rescue you and me.
I'll never forget the lesson I learned the day my young son was helping me with yard work. I was mowing, while he was clipping. At one point, I flashed a smile his way. A few minutes later, he came over and shouted above the mower noise, "Daddy, could you please do that again?" I turned down the mower and asked, "Do what again, son?" "Could you just smile at me again, Daddy? It's your smile that keeps me going."
That's what I want. To live for one thing - my Father's smile.