Chaos

CHAOS

Part six of seven devotions in The World of Jealousy series

James 3:16

“For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.”

Chaos [KA-os] means disorder, confusion. Ten year olds, Chester and Wally, drew a crowd of older guys wanting to play basketball on the playground next to the public swimming pool. “Why have you two been coming here?” fourteen year old Dirk asked Chester and Wally.

Wally said, “I just wanted to lose some weight. Chester offered to play basketball with me.”

OK. Let’s choose teams then,” Dirk said. “We can all go swimming after Wally loses some weight.”

“Are you ready for your workout, Wally” Chester asked.

“I may not have a choice,” Wally said. “As long as I can shoot layups...”

Wally and Chester were chosen to play on opposite teams. The thirteen and fourteen year olds chose Chester, and the eleven and twelve year olds picked Wally. First chance Wally had to score a layup, he got hit in the face and the ball blocked by a thirteen year old. Chester called, “Foul,” as Wally’s nose spurt out blood.

The older classmen refused to let the younger team shoot free throws for fouls made against them. So everyone stopped playing fair. Before long, an onlooker would have thought he was watching rugby, or hockey. Disorder between rival basketball players resembled two angry mobs fighting for no apparent reason.

Everyone forgot they were playing basketball, and forgot good sportsmanship. Priorities changed from play to survival when one fourteen year old punched an eleven year old in the face. Their focus became to attack the one with the ball. No one was having fun. Cursing and swearing could be heard inside the swimming pool fence.

Police officers arrived, but no one was taken to jail. The policemen just broke up the game, dispersing the crowd. Then everyone went swimming.

Chester and Wally bought ice cream, and sat down on a bench to eat. As Wally licked his cone, and Chester spooned hot fudge into his mouth, they talked about what just happened. “We get a good workout playing one-on-one,” Wally said. “But I don’t think what we just went through counted as a workout.”

“What just happened isn’t basketball!”

It all began with jealousy—and losing weight.

Take Home Nugget

Wally recognized the difference in attitude and purpose with the older guys’ basketball challenge. Suddenly, how to lose weight became Wally’s focus. He forgot his shame for being overweight. He was just glad for his friendship with Chester.
The emotion jealousy is never good.

Holy Lord, Remind me what’s important before I get carried away with proving a point that’s really not important, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

J.D. Griffith

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