Lessons From An Eagle

 Last week our team was fortunate to have Lane Widick spend a few minutes with our team in a devotional before our game.  I wanted to share my notes from his message to our team.

"Adversity"--we can learn a lot from it.

Lane said he's always been fascinated with nature and how God puts certain instincts in certain animals.
For example, the eagle.  In Israel, there is a mountain range at 10,000 feet elevation where eagles nest.
Eagles do not build small nest (3"-4" branches).  There was once a 2 ton eagles nest found in Florida.

They then line the nest with soft leaves and the mother plucks her down from her own body to make sure it's soft.

The mother never helps the bird through the egg process.

After 6-7 months she teaches the young eagle how to survive.  Flaps her wings around the nest....Tears up the nest, so that it's not as comfortable.  Baby then learns to balance itself, etc.

God does similar things to us.  We often get too comfortable with people and things.  Moves us towards something at some point.

"Have to leave the comfort of the shallow for the depths..."

How does God stir our nest?
1.  Someone who's a tormentor in our life.
2.  Burden on us, that we don't know how to handle.
3.  Emotions to be overwhelmed.
4.  Hope of renewal.

God puts a relentlessness in us.
A spiritual hunger takes over our physical desires.  God puts this in us to find.
Stirred up and it's not about us.
Complacency yields to compassion.
Have to be broken before you can be fixed.

There is a day when the mother eagle pushes the baby out o the nest at 10,000 feet..As the baby free falls flapping and right before it hits the ground the father eagle (who has been circling and watching) swoops below to catch it.

God always catches us.

The lesson of flight comes without warning.

There is value in adversity.

Take away the struggle and you take away the strength.  Without the struggle there is no strength.

Great men of the Bible had struggles--Abraham, Moses, David, Solomon

Struggles can be helpful.

Renewal through adversity...

Psalm 103

How an eagle faces true adversity--
Storms in his life.  Many animals have a "6th sense" when they sense storms approaching and they try to run from the storm...However, an eagle has the best "vision" and sees the storm coming, waits until the storm comes and simply flies high above the storm, while other animals try to run and hide..

So we have two choices---Run away or Rise above

2 Cor 4:17-18--fix our eyes on the unseen
2 Tim 4--fight the good fight

How will you help your teammates going through struggles on the court, in academics, relationships, etc.
Rise above? or Run Away?

Eagles are solitary creatures, God created us to be with others.

Think of how Christ rose above adversity....

Arete--Skill & Competence & 10 Keys To Excellence

If you have ever been around Coach Meyer or a Lipscomb basketball camp, you have seen and heard the word "Arete".

As we continually work to define our culture (What's Us/ What's Not Us) we used the following today as our Team Devotional.

The devotional comes from John Maxwell's Leadership Bible.

The text is from Psalm 78:72--"...and David guided them with the integrity of heart and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands."

As a verse, the message jumped out at me both personally and as a coach.  Skill and the Heart must go together.  Without both, there is no way to pursue of commit to excellence in our "mind, body and soul" as the Greeks used the word Arete.

Maxwell says that David's leadership succeeded through a two sided coin: his hands and his heart.  We must all have that combination.  To have one without the other, Maxwell asserts leads to failure.

Maxwell discusses Skill and Competence and the 10 Keys To Excellence
1.  First value excellence
2.  Do not settle for average
3.  Pay attention to detail
4.  Remain committed to what really matters
5.  Show genuine respect for others
6.  Go the second mile
7.  Demonstrate consistency
8.  Never stop improving
9.  Always give 100%
10.  Make excellence a lifestyle

Rick Majerus Thoughts

There have been so many great stories about Coach Majerus over the last few days, I wanted to share some thoughts from my Majerus notebook.  I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to be around him several times.  From working his camps, to spending time with him and Coach Meyer, there was always something to learn.  Below are just a few thoughts from my notebook:

1.  Coach them every day.  Show them everything you know.
2.  To his team:  dive for balls, take charges, set screens, rebound, look for the open man.
3.  Team is built on players supporting each other.
4.  Must be a defensively skilled team.
5.  Can't score enough points to make up for a bad defense.
6.  Rebounding, Hustling and Defensie effort are determining factors.
7.  "To those who don't think defense is important, you'll get the best seat on the bench."
8.  You win transition on the first 3 steps.
9.  Spend an hour a day just thinking.
10.  Nothing is more important than academics.
11.  Academics and being able to speak. Don't cheat yourself.
12.  "I never travel with the team, too focused, too intense."
13.  Everything begins with a great effort.
14.  Filmed practice from 3 different camera angles.
15.  Your body language always displays your attitude.
16.  Great players have a slowness to their game.
17.  Maximize your abilities by being fundamentally sound.
18.  Technique--Technique--Technique
19.  There's a diference in being open and being open for a shot.
20.  Sacrifice speed for technique when learning.
21.  Setting a screen--Be Low, Be Wide, Be a pain in the butt.
22.  Do simple things right.

I remember being in the offices the summer of 1998.  Coach Majerus told me I was welcome to anything I wanted to watch, read or look at.  He said feel free to write down anything you find, just don't make any copies.  I was thrilled to go through their notebooks, scouting reports, etc.  But I asked assistant coach, Jeff Strohm, why he didn't allow copies.

Strohm replied that Coach Majerus knew that guys would take more care of their handwritten notes than just making copies to stick in a notebook or leave on the ground.