Lions are remarkable creatures. I have always been in awe of their ferocity. The King of the Jungle. Lions represent power and strength and fearlessness. But as the lions rule over the animal kingdom, we are ruled by just as fierce a King. But we'll get to that in a second.

 I've coached basketball for going on three years now, man how the time has flown by. I will say, 9th grade was a rough time for me, and it hasn't changed for the girls that I get to coach. But as I transitioned out of my time as a player and into the role of a coach, something else began to shift. The mindset of the girls I played with started to look a lot different than that of the mindset of the girls I coach now.

I always like to talk about how basketball is a game of mental toughness. Yes, you need skill, at some point, the ball does have to make its way into the basket, but basketball is so much more than that. Basketball is learning to defend the goal just as hard as you work to get to it. Basketball is about learning to trust your teammates when you face a difficult challenge (or a really tough team). Basketball is dusting yourself off when you fall but learning not to be afraid to let others help you up. Basketball is learning everything you need to know about life with people who are learning right alongside you.

I'm still learning. Every. Single. Day.

I'm learning what it means to coach in a way that my girls get to see Jesus. I'm learning to be patient after repeating myself for the millionth time. I'm learning what it means to challenge and inspire but also comfort and encourage. Coaches learn things too, and truthfully, I don't think they should ever stop.

 But now it seems I'm faced with an impossible task. Inspiring players to change their mindsets. How do you teach a fourteen-year-old girl that winning isn't everything, but it takes everything to win? How do I teach my girls to want to push through hard practices and tough games when in reality I'm teaching them how to deal with tough days at work or a difficult loss? How do I teach them that it's okay to make mistakes as long as they work as hard as they can to make up for it?

How do I teach them to change their mindset?

I'm so thankful for the time I got to play basketball. I LOVED every opportunity to step on the court, and I still do today. But what I didn't know as a player was that the lessons I learned and the tough things I faced then were only practice rounds for God to teach me how to handle the real deal when I met them in the real world (or as real as my world is at 20). What humbles me is that the lessons basketball taught me are the ones I'm still relearning today. The lesson I'm most thankful for in this season (both in basketball and life) is one my high school coach tried every day to teach us.

If you don't play like you have a dog in the fight every time you'll lose before you've begun.

It didn't matter if we were playing the best team in our conference or the worst team in the world but what Coach Harris taught us was that as long as we believed we had a shot to win, we did (have a shot at least). Something else I picked up from Coach Harris was his constant questioning of his players. These questions weren't in the sense of him questioning our judgment or decisions (there were times this happened, but that's beside the point), he questioned us in preparation, in order to prepare us. "Are you ready?" he would say, and if your response was anything less than a confident "Yes" you gave the wrong answer. You see, he was preparing us to believe in our abilities, to believe in what we had worked for and put the time in to make the best we possibly could. He wanted us to believe in us.

But why?

Why does the mindset make that big of a difference?

Why should we teach the mindset of a champion?

Why?... Because it changes the game.

It changes the way you walk into a gym. It changes the way you drive to the basket. And it changes the way you make a mistake. When we play with the mindset of a champion we play the game free from the weight of expectation, free from the weight of our mistakes. No, we are not free from the consequences but, the mindset of a champion is one that means we can make mistakes because we will make up for them. It means that when something happens we didn't plan for or that is out of our control we do what we know how to do. We leave everything on the court so when the final buzzer rings, we are champions, regardless of the score. We're champions because we gave our all.

In Revelation 5 we see Jesus as the Lamb who was slain. The imagery in this chapter is beautiful. But there is one phrase that catches my eye, it comes from verse 5.

And one of the elders said to me, "Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals."

-Revelation 5:5 (emphasis mine)

We worship a God who is both the Lion and the Lamb but what does it mean for Him to be our Lion? It means we get to be courageous (Joshua 1). It means He is our strength and defense (Psalms 118). It means He watches over us and we have nothing to fear (Psalm 23). Because Jesus is our Lion, we get to live in reckless abandon. We are freed from the chains of expectations, He bears the weight of our world, and He died for our mistakes. The same way we get to play the game of basketball unafraid of our opponents, un-wavered by our mistakes; with the mindset of a champion.

That is so reckless.

It is reckless to not worry about the opponents we face or the mistakes we make. To believe in yourself that much, reckless. While the basketball gym is far, far removed from the Kingdom of God, the mindset isn't. Knowing that a perfect man who was also perfectly God gave up His life for worthless sinners. Now that is reckless. But Jesus is our Champion. He gave His all so that we don't have to. And the same way we get to play free of the weight of everything on the basketball court, how much more freely can we live because of what Jesus did on the Cross?

Mindset matters.

It matters because it changes everything.

Lord, thank you for being our champion. Thank you for the freedom that you provide. Thank you for what it means to live with reckless abandon but even more so reckless love. Thank you for giving up Your life for mine. Thank you for your reckless love.

In Your Son's Name. Amen.

All my love,

Kaitlyn