God Bless the Crimson Tide by Ed McMinn

Author:Ed McMinn
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2007-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

DAY 49

Small Seeds

Read Mark 4:30–32.

“[The kingdom of God] is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs” (vv. 31–32).

Intercollegiate basketball came late to the University of Alabama.

As Clyde Bolton noted in The Basketball Tide, intercollegiate football started at Alabama in 1892; baseball was even older. Basketball did not arrive until 1913, and then primarily because of the efforts of D. V. Graves. He came to Alabama in 1911 as the coach of athletics, which meant he coached everything. He had played college basketball at Missouri, so he set about building a team.

The student newspaper noted that Alabama was “the only school of consequence in Dixie to neglect this rapidly growing branch of college athletics.” The paper admitted, however, that this inaugural team was “more in the nature of an experiment to see if the interest in it will be sufficient to justify the athletic authorities in continuing the sport.”

The first game was played at the Tuscaloosa YMCA against the Bessemer Athletic Club. Alabama lost in overtime 22–20, but basketball was here to stay.

Still, the crowd at that game was not as large as the ones that gather in the two-acre complex that is Coleman Coliseum today to watch the Crimson Tide play. Decades later D. V. Graves and those pioneer players would barely recognize the game they launched and would surely be surprised and delighted at how Alabama’s basketball program has grown.

Most worthwhile aspects of life take time and tending to grow from small beginnings into something magnificent. A good marriage is that way. Your beautiful lawn didn’t just appear. And children don’t get to be responsible and caring adults overnight.

Your faith, too, must be nurtured over time. Remember those older folks you revered as saints when you were growing up? Such distinction is achieved, not awarded.

In life and in faith, it’s okay to start small. Faith is a journey, not a destination. You’ll keep growing, always moving on to bigger and better things in God.

Everybody is looking for instant success, but it doesn’t work that way. You build a successful life one day at a time.

—L OU HOLTZ

Faith is a lifelong journey of growth.

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