Today and tomorrow are the first round games of the NCAA Division One Men’s Basketball Tournament. Better known as the Road to the Final Four. This is also the time of the year that high school teams in Missouri are playing for the state championship. The NBA season is beginning to move towards the playoffs as well. I love this time of year. I especially love watching March Madness.
All of this reminds me of Coach Armstrong. We would be talking about the games we watched. The players that were making the biggest impact. I was always looking forward to our conversations. No matter what it was we talked about, they were full of life lessons. One thing he used to say was, “You better have your ducks in a row.” Basically saying, you better be prepared. You never know what’s coming. Not only was he talking about basketball, he was talking about life. And he was spot on. If you fail to prepare, you prepare to fail. Preparation in basketball takes practice. Perfect practice. That’s how you get better. Hard practice leads to easy games. The same can be said about life.
We aren’t promised tomorrow. We aren’t promised the next few minutes. We never know what’s coming around the corner. Or when the end is going to be here. When we are born, we are “guaranteed” one thing. There will be an end. So maybe we need to look at our lives. Maybe we need to take inventory and make sure that we are prepared. And the only way to be prepared for eternity is to have Jesus in our lives. That’s the only way to ensure that we are ready. If you don’t know Jesus, let’s talk. Let’s make sure you are prepared. Let’s make sure you are ready for when life here ends. If you do know Jesus, make sure that you are living life like he wants you to. Love him. Love others. Serve the world.
