by Kevin Burton
Perhaps you noticed that all the teams in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA basketball tournament this year were from the Big Four conferences.
That and Kansas losing in the second round has dialed my enthusiasm down very close to zero.
A pox on all 16 of their houses I say.
But my post-season basketball focus this year was already on the NIT, The Little Dance.
Wichita State and Dayton both got invitations to the NIT and accepted them – not a given these days. They are the underdog teams from my two home states, Kansas and Ohio.
They both won two games in the NIT, then lost the third, one step short of the NIT Final Four. Not too bad I say. But they are done, so I am done.
Making the Big Dance is big of course. But making the Little Dance is not little. Not in college basketball and not in life.
In college hoops there are more than 250 teams not good enough even for the Little Dance.
And in life? I suspect there is a lot of dancing going on in the world, far away from the bright lights and cameras. I’m doing some of it myself.
I’m not talking about chucking your high aspirations. I’m talking about being contented where you are and keeping it all in perspective.
This reminds me of a Bible story.
In the Old Testament book of Ezra is the story of Israel’s second temple. Solomon’s magnificent temple had been destroyed by invaders who took the people of Isreal away into captivity.
When Isreal got its freedom years later, they built a second temple, much smaller in scale than the first one. There was mixed reaction to the new temple.
“When the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests stood in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise the Lord, according to the ordinance of David king of Israel. And they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the Lord:
“For He is good,
For His mercy endures forever toward Israel.”
“Then all the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid.”
“But many of the priests and Levites and heads of the fathers’ houses, old men who had seen the first temple, wept with a loud voice when the foundation of this temple was laid before their eyes. Yet many shouted aloud for joy,so that the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people, for the people shouted with a loud shout, and the sound was heard afar off (Ezra 3:10-12 NKJV).
For Israel, there was no reduction in the size of their God, just the size of a building. So the ones praising God and shouting for joy got it right.
My forced analogy? Wichita State Shockers fans who remember the Baker-VanVleet Final Four era should not forsake the day of small things, and should be happy with this year’s NIT team.
But let’s forget basketball. How many of your hopes and dreams from young adulthood came to pass? How many things are in your life now that you never would have thought of back then, which are now way beyond precious to you.
In some areas, life has downsized your high hopes into, just hopes. And that’s OK, right?
“Better is a little with the fear of the Lord Than great treasure, and turmoil with]the treasure. Better is a portion of vegetables where there is love, than a fattened ox served with hatred” (Prov. 15: 16-17 NASB).
Maybe you haven’t eaten any ox this week. I haven’t either. But you get the point.
Socrates said, “He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have.”
If you would like to argue with Socrates, be my guest. But I think he would sign up for the Little Dance. I think I will too.
Page 7 