OFFENSIVE EXECUTION

People say that defense wins basketball games but I disagree. On the real, if you don’t score points you won’t win. In the NBA, the athletes are so athletic, so talented that you have to have a strategy for getting around guys, isolating situations that present an advantage. When the Denver Nuggets play the Lakers, the plan is to prevent the Lakers from dominating inside the paint with Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum. On the other side, you know what the Lakers are trying to do and it all starts with the “Mamba” (#24).

But an old rap song called “Everyday Struggle” reminded me of something yesterday as it depicted the hardship of growing up poor in the inner city. It’s no secret that a sordid array of menacing pollutants plague our communities. And in every community resides sages admonishing the young people to straighten up and fly right. Enter the offensive execution parallel. The revelation from the song for me was that my job with all this character mumbo jumbo is to help people hear their own voice advising themselves. In other words, Mrs. Simpson up the street could have told you a million times to be honest, stop running with those miscreants, to leave those drugs alone, etc. Nevertheless, a quick nod and “Okay, Mrs. Simpson” and the kid is right back at the shenanigans.

If people are going to transform who they are, who better to speak the words of wisdom than themselves. There’s much to be said for helping people acquire their own voice. Prescribing and demanding that people change doesn’t seem to be working, likely because of how OFFENSIVE prescription can be. But what if Mrs. Simpson asked that young fella some questions that reveal motive? What if she asked, “Are you afraid of being poor for the rest of your life? Afraid of the gangs? Afraid of being laughed at?” I’m always amazed at how much can be revealed by a well EXECUTED question. And there’s something about hearing your own voice speak truth about your own life that makes it resonate. The truth is always offensive; that’s a truth in and of itself and I’m fine with it. But if it can be executed through God’s gift of reflection so that we hear ourselves speaking it, fly right we will.