Michael Jordan--The World Is Not Enough

Michael Jordan was the greatest basketball player to ever lace up a pair of sneakers. I used to love watching him play. My bachelor party was me a two buddies of mine going to see Space Jam at a run down theatre in Scottsboro, Alabama the night before my wedding for Pete's sake. He wasn't my favorite player but he was one of them.

However, when I read about his Hall of Fame induction speech, I came to realize how much it must really stink to be Air Jordan. After all his awards, championships, records, and highlight reels he's basically just a miserable old man who is bitter to his core. The dude flew up the man who was kept on his high school team when Jordan was cut from that team just to take pot shots at him and that coach. How sad.

David Durham over at Christ and Pop Culture has written a great article that sums up exactly where the problem is in Jordan's life.

I am reminded of basketball legend Pistol Pete Maravich. Maravich was a legend too and after his game came to an end he had only one thing to say, “I wasted my life!” Now here was a man who had won awards, championships, and been, himself, inducted into the Hall of Fame. So why did he say that? Because he had, late in life, come to know Jesus and saw, in reflection, not a life lived for Jesus on and off the court, but a man who played a game. Jordan is coming to the same conclusion, only he doesn’t have the Son of God to fill the void left by this game.

But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, Philippians 3:7-8