Day 14 : Look it in the eye

Larry Bird’s scary hope

At age 18, Larry Bird is a kid who hates crowds and attention. He flunks a class because he won’t stand up and give a speech. He doesn’t like his name in the paper for starring in a high school basketball game. He’s the kind of guy who stares at the ground and won’t look you in the eye. You meet him and never hear a word from him. This is his scary.

He doesn’t want to be famous. He wants to play basketball against good players and win. This is his hope.

He goes to Indiana University to play basketball. The school is only fifty miles away, but ten times bigger than his whole hometown. He has no money, no clothes, no courage. The star of the team hazes him. The coach ignores him. When told he owes a $60 fee he can’t pay, that’s it; he hitchhikes home and lets his family call the coaches. The scary part wins.

Avoiding the scary means you avoid the hope

Back home, he rides on a garbage truck and paints park benches. He’s up early, he’s outside, working hard, with no stress. Today he says, “I loved that job.”

Coaches come looking for him to get him to their school. He makes his mom shoo them away and tell them he isn’t interested in college. Most coaches don’t want to pursue a player who doesn’t care.

One coach is persistent. He finds Bird and his grandmother leaving a laundromat. The grandmother forces Larry to be polite and meet the men at her house. Larry wants to drop her off and come back after they’re gone. She insists.

Sitting on her sofa, he won’t look at the coaches. He stares at the floor, listens, but hardly answers. Larry tries to get them interested in a friend in town. “He would have been good if he had gone to college,” he tells them.

Small moments can have big consequences. You never know until later. This is one of those moments.

Bird hears the coach answer, “Someday they’re gonna say the same thing about you if you don’t go to school.”

Embrace the hope, accept the scary

At this moment, Larry Bird’s hope becomes stronger than his fear. For the first time, he looks directly at the coach. He doesn’t say yes or take any big heroic steps.

He just looks hope in the eye.

The school he would eventually attend is big, too. Farther from home. He’s still poor, and shy, and hates attention. Nothing changes except what is inside him.

When you stare at your hope, the scary is still there. But hope is bigger.

When you stare at the scary, hope is still there. But fear is bigger.

You stare at your fear, or you stare at your hope

Whatever you stare at, wins

It’s a universal, spiritual law of the universe:

But the Lord helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like a flint – Isaiah 50.7

When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem – Luke 9.51

For the joy set before him, he endured the cross – Hebrews 12.2

--------

Today is day 14 of 31 Days of Scary Hope: encouragement to go from IS to COULD BE. You can start at the beginning HERE. To receive each day delivered to your email inbox, or to subscribe in a reader, click HERE.

Comments

[Rae]

Thanks for this! Hope/Fear is something I've been thinking on lately - I'm glad to find your 31 days series. I'll hang around!

[emily freeman]

one of my favorite posts of yours.