This morning, I attended the National Day of Prayer in Durham at the Durham Convention Center. I can’t say that I am a regular at these types of meetings, so I didn’t know what to expect. We had a great breakfast, and it was good to meet some people in our community. Even though it was early, I was pleased to see about 500 people come out to spend the morning praying for our city, our families, our government, our churches, and our troops together. Our friend, Michael Page, led the prayer for our churches, and our own Ian Howes, elder at CHBC, concluded our time in prayer. After being led in prayer, Bobby Jones spoke to us about his journey as a follower of Christ.
Bobby Jones was a UNC basketball star and played 12 years in the NBA. He now works for a Christian School in Charlotte as the basketball coach and athletic director. Bobby is a humble man who shared with us his journey of becoming a follower of Christ. After telling the obligatory stories about coach Dean Smith and about life in the NBA, he shared with us a story that has stuck with me today.
As a player in the NBA, he made it his mission to live as a witness to his teammates, coaches, and fans. After his conversion, Bobby described his desire to live a life worthy of the gospel. He shared with us about being an intense competitor, and his battles over being a witness on the court. Over time, the referees came to respect Bobby and sometimes relied on him to help them make a call on the court because of his integrity.
One game, he was lunging for a ball headed out of bounds in front of his team’s bench, but was unable to recover it. Because the referee was standing behind Bobby, he did not have the right angle to see if Bobby did or did not touch it. As the referee came to the sideline to retrieve the ball, the ref asked Bobby, “Did you touch it?” At that point, Bobby had a decision to make. Was his integrity worth a possession in a basketball game? Bobby came clean and told the ref, “Yeah, I touched it.” His coach heard the conversation and was furious with Bobby.
This little story about telling the truth in a basketball game is a small example of what it means to live a virtuous life. As a result of Bobby’s truth telling, he received an earful from the sidelines. His coach told Bobby, “That’s the ref’s job! Let him call the game!” That’s when it struck me that my desire to live a virtuous life shouldn’t be because there is someone out there watching me who can penalize me and my team if I do something wrong. I need to live in vigilance for my own actions, words and thoughts. I am not virtuous just because I didn’t get caught. I should live a life of virtue because I am convinced that living by virtue is the only way to truly live. Bobby’s testimony of telling the truth in the heat of competition encouraged me to live a life worthy of the gospel…especially in the small ways.
Pray with me that we will be a community of virtue that doesn’t sell out our integrity for a seeming advantage to get ahead in life.
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