One of the most pleasant surprises of this year so far has been following the Minnesota Timberwolves. Growing up, basketball was my all in all, and one of my favorite things to do was to go to games with my dad and read about them in the Minneapolis Start-Tribune in the morning. My dad can account, that before he would go to work every morning, he would leave the paper on the table, and the only section I would touch would be the sports section.
The past five years, it’s been hard to be a Wolves fan. We’ve been consistently finishing as one of the worst teams in the league, and there’s been no hope in sight. This year however has been quite different. With the addition of 2009 draft pick Ricky Rubio (a crafty point-guard from Spain), a breakout year from Kevin Love, there’s hope on the horizon for a team that has showed no promise for the half decade.
Last night the Wolves lost a heartbreaker to the New York Knicks, 100-98. The Knicks have also been turning things around this year, and throughout the past week, media from around the world has been honing in on the Knicks’ newest sensation, Jeremy Lin.
I had never heard of Lin until about a week ago, but his story is compelling and encouraging. He’s a 2009 graduate from Harvard, and was only recently added to the NY roster to support an injury-ridden team. He’s been inserted into the starting line-up for the past four games, and has single handedly started turning a lost season into a promising one. The Knicks are 4-0, and Lin has tallied 109 points, the most ever by a player in his first four starts.
The most heartening part of Lin’s story for me is his faith and attitude. He’s a humble, unashamed Christian, and when I see how his life has been transformed over the past week, I think of 2 Corinthians 12:9,10:
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in my weakness, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Christ’s power to transform lives is incredible. Two weeks ago, Lin was an unknown entity in the N.B.A., just trying to do his best on a modest temporary contract. He went from being a guy who was sleeping on his brother’s couch in the east side of Manhattan to one of the most popular players in the N.B.A. within a matter of days! When asked about his success, he’ll give all credit to his lord and savior, Jesus Christ. Lin, Tim Tebow, and others around the world are excellent living testimonies of the power of Christ. When we are humble, rooted, and content in Christ, we are strong.
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