Jake's Thought for the Week

Each Monday I will be posting Jake's Thought for the Week which he sends out to all the parents of the players in his All Iowa Attack program.

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. Hebrews 11:1

What follows is an excerpt from Faith & Doubt by John Ortberg

FAITH VS. DOUBT
I have to live. I have to make a choice. I have to spend my life praying or not praying, worshiping or withholding worship. I have to be guided by some values and desires. And then I have to die. I must give my life in total, in full, without the luxury of holding something back for the second hundred years. My life is a ballot I cast – for God or against him.

My brain cannot provide the certainty that I’m betting my life on the truth. My morality will not provide the luxury of waiting until I know for sure. There is one road to certainty – through a door marked “death.” Then I will know, or there will be no me left to know. But I need to decide how I will live on this side of the door. Once we have been born, trying to put off deciding what to do about God is like jumping off a diving board and trying to put off actually entering the water.

When I think about this urgency, I’m reminded of a saying my friend Kent the drummer told me about. The background for this saying is that all musicians are torn between the desire for perfection and the demands of reality. They would like to know before they sing a note that it will be pitch-perfect. They would like to know before they hit the drum that the beat will fall in perfect rhythm. But musicians are thwarted by reality. There are no guarantees for the perfection of their choices. In fact, to the contrary, there is the guarantee of imperfection. Kent tells me that no one has ever sung on perfect pitch; no drum has ever been struck in perfect time. So Kent has a saying that reminds him of the need to actually play a note in the face of potential imperfection: “You have to put it somewhere. If I refuse to sing a word or play a note until I’m certain of perfection, there will never be music.”

If you don’t want to go to the grave with all your music in you, you’ll have to take a shot. You’ll have to roll the dice. You have to accept limits and uncertainty and risks and mistakes. You have to put it somewhere.

Go Attack!
Jake Sullivan