Each Monday I will be posting Jake's 'thought for the week' which he sends out with the weekly announcements to all the parents in his All-Iowa Attack program. Here it is for this week:
Doubt! Do I need to say much more? We all experience doubt each day. It can be as simple as making that decision of what to eat for dinner, or what friends to hang out with on a Saturday evening. How about the doubts that surface when you are setting out to accomplish your goals and instead of moving ahead you decide to give up and move to an easier path with less resistance.
We all face doubt; but what do we decide to do with it when it creeps into our every thought? Most of us choose one of two options.
Option 1: We attempt to ignore it realizing that it will never really go away and thus we allow it to zap all of our enjoyment from the particular activity that we are taking part in. We are too stubborn to actually quit so we just plow along day after day never really accomplishing what is right there within our reach.
Option 2: This is the more likely choice we just decide to quit, not do anything, right it off as a bad idea, and all in all avoid the item that provides the thing that causes the most uncertainty and doubt. We walk through life scared to take that next step because of the what if’s that keep us tossing and turning at night.
I am no different than many of you. I can remember all of the doubts I have had in my little journey of life. I doubted many times that the hard work to become a college basketball player was really worth it. Many Friday nights alone in the gym I was asking myself what I am missing out on? What if I don’t accomplish my goal? What if I get an injury and all of these hours that I have spent in the gym comes to mean nothing?
Sure, I had doubts when I turned down a job in the Iowa State Athletic department and dropped the MBA program at Iowa State one day before class began after I finished playing at Iowa State in order to start up the Attack program. My entire education was going to be paid for and the only thing the Attack program had going were 18 local kids with 9 boys that managed to only lose by 50 points to Kevin Love and Kyle Singler. Let’s say I had a few doubts.
Today, doubt will often consume my thoughts and make my stomach turn while constantly asking God at 1 in the morning while I am scrambling to finish all my work for the day; are you sure you want me to start this Kingdom Hoops Foundation? Are you sure you want us to venture into a new facility in Ankeny? Are you sure I have to create a basketball academy in Africa? God, why is the past accomplishments not good enough and why are you asking for more?
Each day those uncertainties and doubts certainly make me question things and make me want to say I CAN’T DO THIS, OR MAKE ME FEEL THAT THIS JUST MUST NOT BE RIGHT THE PROPER PATH FOR ME! However, when we take a minute to reflect back on all of those times that we have doubted, and all of those times we stood firm and did not quit and did not ignore the path that God was calling how much we grew from those experiences and how those journey’s are the ones we take the greatest pride in.
God has created us all to doubt not so we would quit or not to bury our head in the sand as the world zoomed by. Doubt was created so we would have to push a little harder than we have ever before. Doubt was created to makes us sacrifice a little more, trust a little more, and give a little more. Doubt was not intended for us to be scared or to quit. Instead God created us to have doubt in order for us to persevere while facing our greatest opponent so we could become mature and complete not lacking in anything.
As we go into this new year I pray that as a program we become known not for what we did not do because of the doubts that held us captive, but instead be known for believing a little deeper, working a little harder, climbing a little higher, jumping a little farther, trusting a little more in each other and the one who has created this mountain for us to climb together.
Matthew 25:14-28
Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. So also, the one with the two talents gained two more. But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money.
After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. The man who had received the five talents brought the other five. 'Master,' he said, 'you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more.' His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!'
The man with the two talents also came. 'Master,' he said, 'you entrusted me with two talents; see, I have gained two more.' His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!'
Then the man who had received the one talent came. 'Master,' he said, 'I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.' His master replied, 'You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest. Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents. For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'
Go Attack !
Jake Sullivan
Jayla is currently 7 ½ months old. She can now say ‘na na na’ and she is getting very good at grabbing objects with her fingers….which is a good reminder that she will get to start on some light finger foods in about another month! She is starting to show shyness by being bashful when others talk to her….if she is being held and has a shy moment she will smile and then quickly tilt her head into the shoulder of the one holding her. She often does this when she looks into a mirror too. If someone is talking to her and she is interested in them, she will lean forward towards them, almost as if to ask them to pick her up. Jayla LOVES JJ and keeps her eye on him at all times. He can easily make her laugh now, and has a few tricks up his sleeve that he knows will always get her to have a laughing attack. He is interacting with her a lot more now…some of his favorite games are to ‘steal her nose and eat it’, tickle her, play peek-a-boo, and stack blocks for her so that she can knock them down. Jayla loves hearing familiar tunes, like the jingle on JJ’s DVD that he watches every morning. Once she hears the “Fireman Sam” song start, she flashes a huge smile and stares at the tv. Jayla still loves to study faces. She can stare at someone long enough without cracking a smile that it makes them uncomfortable and wonder ‘Do I have something on my face?’ She has it down to an art! 
This is my son’s blankey…..tested, tried and true. It is no longer a bright baby blue, but a tarnished and dusty brown-blue. It is no longer soft and cozy, but thinned and worn. It has been lost and found, dragged across gym floors, thrown up on, ripped, snagged, and yes, washed countless times. I remember when JJ was 6 months old sitting in his carseat. We were getting ready to leave and I held this blanket and swayed it up in the air to put it on him….for the first time I saw his legs kick in anticipation of the blanket coming, and when it did he grabbed it with his little fists and pulled it up to his chin…..'ahhhh, sweet relief' he seemed to say. At that point I knew this blanket would be something special to him. Where does this type of attachment come from I asked myself one day? Is it a phase? Is it learned and enabled? Does it stem from deep emotional reasons? Is it genetic….hmmmm….I think of Jake’s childhood blankey….sitting downstairs in our keepsake trunk….tattered, torn, yellowed, full of holes. Maybe. Or, possibly, just a little piece of childhood....a treasure, of which only one person knows the worth. Cheers, to all the blankeys of the world. 