“Therefore encourage one another and build each other up.” – 1 Thessalonians 5:11
I don’t think I cared an inkling about the game of volleyball, would not have expended the energy to flip the sports page to read about it or pushed a button on the remote to watch it on TV, that is until our thirteen-year-old granddaughter Corrina began to develop into quite an amazing volleyball player in recent years. Not only watching her play – because she is my granddaughter after all – but witnessing her passion for the game and her dedication to improving her skills and abilities has inspired me to learn more about the game and gain a greater appreciation of it.
The unique characteristic I have observed watching our granddaughter’s teams is that unlike other team sports that are often led by one or two stand-out players (and she is one), the real star of a great volleyball team is, without fail, the teamwork itself. The best teams, in fact, always seem to be the ones that work best as a team, who have a rhythm about them on the court as if dancing together. When you see it, it is amazing to watch!
But there is another characteristic that has sort of baffled me, at least it has been true with the teams Corrina has played on. At the end of every play, regardless of which team scores the point, the team members all high-five each other, which is understandable if they win the point. But even when they lose, maybe especially when they lose, they still high-five, even with a player who may have blundered. Because my focus has always been on my granddaughter’s team, and Corrina in particular, I have not paid that much attention to other teams, so I don’t know if this is a tradition of the sport, or a peculiar characteristic of my granddaughter’s teams. Either way, I have wondered why that is.
Several years ago I was facilitating a board retreat where Timmy Newsom, former great running back for the Dallas Cowboys (1980-1988) was a participant. Timmy revealed something about himself that I will never forget, that in all his years playing football he never worried about losing yardage on a play because there was always a chance to do better on the next one. Hmm! So that’s why those girls always high-five.
“Therefore encourage one another and build each other up,” the Apostle Paul said. Couldn’t we all do a little more of that – and do with receiving a little more of it too?
5assi2