Basketball and Ballerinas: When You Don't Think You Can

It was humiliating. It was embarrassing. It was ugly. It was me...trying to play basketball. I tried to tell the college girls basketball coach that just because I was tall, I was not coordinated enough to shoot hoops. He wouldn't be dissuaded. He insisted that since I was tall and I could dance and do gymnastics, then it stood to reason I had to be a potentially good b-ball player...until I showed up at the girls basketball practice. It was funny at first, good natured teasing as I automatically did an arabesque everytime I took a shot. But as the practice wore on, it became painfully obvious - I could not shoot hoops. Not a single shot went in the net. It was pathetic. I think the coach even apologized to me by the end of the night.

Granted, that was not a traumatic, life de-railing experience. Fortunately, my self-esteem, while battered and beaten, was still intact. You see I had told myself all my life that I was not athletic. Sure, I could dance, but I wasn't an athlete and in fact, I was horrible at most sports. That night at practice just proved what I had been telling myself all along - I can't do this.

But recently, a very strange thing happened. I shot ten foul line baskets in a row. Ten. Without missing. It was just a whim; a gorgeous Spring day with a Chuck E Cheese basketball and a hoop that was tied upright with rope to a towering Maple Tree. I was thunderstruck. Incredulous. I was doing what I had told myself (and everyone else) for over two decades I couldn't do. Unbelievable. (For me, at least)

As great as that historic event felt at the time, it also made me wonder: how many wonderful experiences had I robbed myself of because I had told myself "I can't do this." How many limits had I put on myself, on my dreams, on God's plans for me because somewhere inside I had said "I can't do this."

One of my very favorite children's stories is "The Little Engine That Could" I have always loved this story and it's message. It's part of the reason why, as a dance teacher, one of the cardinal rules in NECPAC dance classes is that students are absolutely not allowed to say the words: "I can't do this." A good teacher understands that it takes alot of failures to get to success as a dancer. Whether a student is working on a single pirouette or six fouettes, it is a process and mentally the attitude has to be the same as the Little Engine in the story. Through each failure, each time the move isn't executed correctly, over and over and over - we have to keep telling ourselves: "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can" and all the while we are telling ourselves that, we are picking ourselves back up off the floor and we are doing it again, and again and again. Until one day, we realize, we are doing it! That perfectly executed pirouette, that switch split, those blasted fouette turns - we are doing it!

You see, Jesus especially loved telling people to do things they didn't think they could do. To the man who had been crippled for years he said: "Rise, take up your mat and walk." To his friend who had been lying dead in a tomb for 3 days he said: "Lazarus, come forth!" To his disciple Peter, who had betrayed him 3 times and didn't think he would ever again be counted worthy, he said: "Feed my sheep."

What have you been telling yourself you "can't" do? Perhaps it's time to take a lesson from the "Little Engine that Could." Maybe it's time to quiet that voice that has been saying "I can't do this" and listen for the still, small voice that is saying: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

We serve a great God who has great plans and purposes for your life. Whether it's shooting hoops, mastering fouette turns, or earning a PhD and changing the world - it all starts with trusting the one who loves you unconditionally. It doesn't matter how many times you've failed - don't label yourself a failure. God is calling you to dream great dreams, to live a big life, to make a huge difference in a hurting world.

Do you hear it? I do. It's the echo of millions of voices marching forward..."I think I can, I think I can, I think I can." It's the sound of hope. It's the sound of dreams. It's the sound that will change our world. Join the chorus.