What Can A Girl Do?

I always loved playing basketball with my brother and my dad in the driveway...

But my greatest frustration was that we did not have a nice cement driveway like my other friends did in subdivisions.  No, we had a gravel driveway.

Rocks, sand, and gravel made it very hard to dribble without the ball flying out of control and having to chase it down.  I think I could have scored on my older brother more if I had a cement driveway. (that's my excuse)

A real pain in the side (literally, keep reading) was the fact that my mom planted a cactus nearby at the front of the yard.  So when the basketball unexpectedly went in the opposite direction of the way I was going, I had to chase it down before it landed in the sharp cactus. 

I do not know if cacti have a magnetic force, which pulls anything leather bound toward it, but it never failed...my basketball would head straight for the center of the cactus patch.  

I remember carefully freeing my ball from the cactus’ grasp and trying to... oh-so-stealthly... take out each needle stuck in my ball.  However, I lost my grip one time and the ball fell against my body and the needle went into my side. (hence the "pain in the side" comment)  

I was in quite a predicament.  The ball was now stuck to me by a cactus needle.  

How was I ever to become a basketball star in these conditions!?!  

It was just too hard.  
I’m chasing after ricocheted balls and risking my life to save a basketball from being inflated by the evil cacti.

What can a girl without a gymnasium or a cement driveway do, but to go out again the next day and....

keep shooting, 
               keep driving, 
                                    keep dribbling on rocky, uncertain surfaces. 

Learn how to quickly pick herself up when she loses her footing. 
Find a more effective way to get to the ball before her opponent does (ie. cactus).

You get smarter.  You get tougher.  

In your frustration, you get more determined.  You find resolve. 

You become better without even knowing it. 

You become a better player because of it.

Oh, how I wished & dreamed for a flat surface to play hoops on, but little did I know that the rough terrain in my life was the very thing that made me the player I dreamed of being.

I was at Grandma Lucille’s house when I looked in the newspaper and saw pictures of several high school basketball players, selected and recognized as the Girls All-State Team.  In that moment, I told myself (and maybe grandma too) that I was going to be on that team someday.  A dream was born inside.

 It wasn’t until my senior year - my last chance to reach my dream - that my small Nampa Christian team made it to the State Tournament.  And all that awkward dribbling on the bluff, all the ways I sacrificed my body for the protection of the ball, and all those hours of shooting  in front of the garage on the gravel driveway paid off.  

Due to the conditions, I could have given up and chosen another activity like roller skating.  I could have done that in the detached 2-car garage. But then I may not have ever known what I was made of  - the drive God was forming in me, the determination He was refining, and the talent He was crafting within.

The spiritual lessons here are numerous for me and timely.  

I’m reminded today to TRUST.  

Each day is training ground...instead of asking “why these conditions”, I simply and beautifully trust the process with God.  I still hold on to dreams; however, the way to those dreams look a bit different than I expected, but there is no need to give up.

I pick up my ball and head outside and keep shooting! I can’t sit on the sidelines in frustration.  I am a player, and I have a team to lead.   Lead with courage and trust.

  

“Everyone who competes in the game of life goes into strict training.”

1 Corinthians 9:25

My fabulous team at Nampa Christian High School!

1991