Point Guard Vision

The shot goes up. She turns. Making contact with her opponent, she lowers to the ground, ready to jump, anticipating just how the ball is going to bounce off the rim. She jumps for the rebound, grabbing at the ball with one hand. As she pulls the ball toward her, before her feet even hit the floor, she knows which way she must turn to avoid the defender, which hand she should use to dribble the ball out of there, and which of her teammates have already taken off down the floor.
She turns, dribbling the ball low to the ground with long, quick strides.Wait.

Her eyes are only on the rim ahead, but  she still sees two teammates up ahead; one to the right, and one to the left.
Two defenders  are up ahead too, back pedaling as she approaches.

Wait.

 

The defender on the left commits to her, thinking she is heading for the basket. Having waited for just this moment, without even turning her head, she releases the ball with one arm, for a long pass to her teammate for a layup.  The basket gives her team their first lead all game, and the other coach calls a time out. 

 Everything there took place in about 5 seconds. It happened more quickly than you were able to read the words, yet those were the thoughts, and the rationale behind her every move; my every move. That is a very familiar story to me from my playing days.My husband would tell you that my super power is point guard vision. We joke that when it is activated, I can weave in and out of traffic, anticipating cars that will turn, or slow me down, and avoiding them, and red lights. On the weeks we drive separately to church, I, in my  mini van, can beat him in his manual transmission Elantra, home on pure instinct and anticipation of what the other drivers might do.

It occurred to me while my husband was driving us to church this Sunday, all together in the van this time, just how beneficial this type of vision can be in our daily lives and relationships…if we will only turn it on.

We all have goals. We all have aspirations. We are all trying to get somewhere in this life. But when we do it with blinders on, we miss out on the rest. We miss out on the journey. We miss our teammates.

 

An adrenaline rushed 5 seconds can heighten all of your senses into feeling everything around you, and yet, so much of our lives we are trying to move as fast as we can, while tuning everything out. On the roads, we are in too big of a hurry to let other drivers in. We use excuses like, “Well, he didn’t use his turn signal!” or “He knew that lane was ending this whole time!” In reality, we are all trying to get to the same goal; our jobs, our homes, our commitments, and we want to arrive there safely. That’s the main goal; not the destination, but rather our health along the way. We tend to have blinders on to the rest of the world, as though our final outcome is all that matters. 

We are children of the light. We have been called out of darkness! Yet, by the example we still set, we often remain blinded in so many ways. The girl in the story above saw the goal. She wanted a basket badly. She never lost her focus on that rim, but she didn’t shut her teammates out of her line of vision on her way. She knew exactly where they were, and exactly when to give them the ball in the best position for them to be successful.

 

We are all on a different path to the final destination. We can attempt our daily lives one on one, us against the world, with our eyes fixed on the end goal, or we can broaden our view, activate our peripheral vision, and see the teammates around us. Don’t close yourself up in darkness, unwilling to fully experience the journey. In your hurry, you will not only miss out on the opportunity of relationships, but you will be turning off a light that others might really need to see their own path too.