Spent the last couple days at the Pekin Holiday Tournament.

16 high school basketball teams from around the area competing for three days...serious fun. I went to the championship game tonight with Ryan Kohler (BridgeWay drummer), Sam Dever (bass player from a youth band I play with), and a handful of friends from BridgeWay and Pekin Church of the Nazarene. We had a great time, even if the basketball game was not all that close.

I went in expecting Washington to blow out Moline, but was shocked when Moline went up by 9 in the first 5 minutes and by 15 at the half. The thing that impressed me the most was how well prepared the Moline team was for the strengths of Washington. They shut down Washington's biggest scoreing threat, and played great defense and hustled all over the court...there was no way they were going to lose this game.

I wonder if I can't learn something from this as a pastor? I believe that being well prepared spiritually is the key to winning in life. I think that too often we just "skate" through life on our talent or on our strengths, never really developing inner discipline and a God inspired gameplan for life. Look for more on these thoughts on Sunday and throughout the next series of messaged at BridgeWay.