If you watched the tournament, or any news afterwards, you know that State played a terrible game. 10 turnovers in the first half, no points from Scott Wood til 34 minutes into the game, and an 18-point deficit to recover in the second half. Well, they did recover those 18 points, but they couldn't hold on in the end. They just didn't have enough to pull out the W.
I was disappointed. I had picked them to win the first game in a couple brackets I'd filled out (no recliner for me!), and of course, I was wishing for some sort of crazy streak like they had back in '83. Dad was really disappointed. He'd watched ESPN's "30 for 30" show on the Wolfpack the other day, and he was convinced that this was the year we'd go all the way again (Never give up!). Everything was aligned just right. "Calvin" (not to be confused with C.J.) was gonna show up, Scott was gonna light up the 3's, Howell was gonna do his normal amazing, but quiet, thing and get a million rebounds and put-back's. But it all crumbled in just 40 minutes.
In the post-game conference, the press peppered seniors Scott Wood and Richard Howell with questions, demanding answers for how a preseason #6 team, picked to win their conference, could not only lose this game, but do so by playing with seemingly no emotion. People had been counting on them. "What happened?!" Wood, Howell, and Coach Mark Gottfried expressed their own disappointment, and then quickly moved onto the hopes they have for next year's team. This one failed, yes, but next year---well next year's team will be left in good hands. Scott was confident in Coach's leadership, and in the crew of young men he and Howell would leave behind. Yeah----next year---that's the year.
Coverage switched back to the other games being played. Who else would be upset that day? Which teams had the gumption to push through to the final game? And, as I watched hours upon hours of basketball, and team after team get knocked out---many players, especially seniors, crying with heads buried under towels, refusing to shake hands with their opponents---and hope after hope dashed, I thought, "This is not so unlike reading through the book of Kings."
In the book of Kings (1 and 2 Kings, really) we read account after account of the kings of Israel and Judah. With each new king, you are filled with a sense of hope, and you think, "Is this the one?? Will this be the one to lead the people in following God wholeheartedly? Will this be the one God said would come and set His people free?" And some of them start out so well. Smashing down false idols. Teaching the Law to the people. Gathering the nation to consecrate themselves to the LORD anew. "Walking in the way of their father David". But, at the end of each account is disappointment. Even those kings who seemed most devoted to following the LORD end up failing. They enter into an unlawful alliance and forget to depend on God. They marry a woman they're forbidden to marry and they start worshiping her false gods. They refuse to humble themselves before God, and they die stubborn and hard-hearted. And, enter the next king, repeat the cycle. How depressing, right!? Unless...
Unless you already know that there's no hope in man. Or basketball teams. Even the best king, or the best run through the NCAA tournament, will satisfy for only a moment. That king will die. That team will graduate, or fail miserably next year. And then what? No, those things fade. But, there is a King who has come, and is coming again. That King will never die. He defeated death!! He is our hope. He is our peace. He is our heart's desire. He is everything we've wanted. He is forever. He is good. He is Jesus, the Christ.
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