New Name Blog

By Eric Abney

I was headed to go do some grocery shopping when I passed a little boy playing basketball in his front yard.  He was by himself and I saw him take what looked like a free-throw shot.  With great effort he squatted to the ground, his buttocks touching the heels of his shoes and then lift-off, he pushed the basketball up and through the air toward the basketball hoop.  The ball hit the backboard, fell onto the back of the rim and rolled into the hoop, at which point the little boy leaped with vigor and excitement.  He jumped up and down holding his hands high in the air.

I knew what was happening.  In his mind he was dreaming.  He was imagining himself not as a little boy but as an athlete playing the most important game of his life.  He was in the final seconds of the game and it all depended on him.  This final free throw would determine the game’s end and as that little boy took that shot in his own front yard he viewed himself as a man taking a shot on a hardwood basketball court with hundreds if not thousands of onlookers.  That little boy made that shot and in his mind he was dreaming of what it would be like to be a hero, to be somebody that others could depend on, to be someone his teammates and others could believe in.  He was in that moment a winner, and nothing could strip him of this mental image as he danced around his front yard screaming and trotting with raised arms in celebration of who he really was and who he wanted to be.

What has happened to us as men?  What has happened to the dreams we once dreamed?  When we were young we lived as dragon slayers, cowboys, indians, and heros.  The heart of the boy wonder has been lost somewhere in between our adolescence and manhood.  We are men now and most of us are nice guys but we’re not heros.  The last thing we’ve won was the junior high basketball trophy or maybe “most likely to succeed” in high school.  We go to work, we punch a clock, we live mediocre lives, and in the middle of “getting things done” we’ve lost our hearts.

What does it take to get all of our heart back?  I think first we must realize who we are.  We were born with the desire to be heros and winners because that is who our heavenly Father wants us to be.  When we step into that role we were meant for, our lives become clear and we see that there is something to fight for, there is something to win, and there is an adventure to be lived.  All of this just must be looked at in the right context.

What is it that we are fighting for?  When you go to work everyday are you not fighting for your family and the opportunity to provide for them?  We fight for who we are as men and we fight against the world that tries to steal it from us.  We fight to see the adventure in the mundane as we serve our families.

Could it be that the very thing that you have been designed to win is the heart of your spouse.  Sure you sought to win her heart when you were dating, but after you got married did the dating stop?  The heart of your woman is never truly won.  It is always a prize to be chased after, and a treasure to be sought after.  Purpose in your heart that the dating will never stop, and that you are a winner and you are destined to be the winner of her heart.

When it comes to adventure, have you ever looked at cutting the grass as an adventure?  What about the small duties of taking out the trash or washing dishes after a meal?  The adventure is seeing the honor in our service, seeing the mundane as having meaning, so much so that you don’t do the mundane just to get to the important stuff but rather realize that the mundane carries meaning into the important stuff.  It is an adventure, we must live it.

God open our eyes to see that everything has meaning, and our lives are not meant to be mundane and mediocre.

Be Challenged and Live Adventurously,
-Eric

New Name Blog

~ by Eric Abney on May 24, 2010.

Posted in Eric Abney
Tags: Adventure, Dream, heart, Hero, meaning