The Road to J. O. Y.Sýnishorn

Spread Joy

One thing about me is I really try not to use the first person when talking about accomplishments. I’m not an “I” or “me” guy. There are a few reasons for this, but the biggest one is, God is in charge all the time. Like the verse in Isaiah says, regardless of which way you turn, God is there, guiding your steps and leading you along the path toward His perfect will. And so if I’m out there saying, “I did this,” then it takes the focus off of God and puts it on me. And trust me: things will work out a lot better when God is the focus. As a staff, we’ve been fortunate to experience God’s love and the power of the Holy Spirit in some really awesome ways.

Coming off the NIT championship was a real high, both professionally and spiritually. A lot of coaches don’t necessarily give the NIT the same respect or acclaim as the NCAA tournament, and on some level that’s understandable. But if you’re going to give glory to God for all the things He does in your life, your career, and your family, then that means celebrating all of it. So as a staff, we celebrated the NIT championship because God did that—and it was definitely a high point. And the following season would start out on a similar note.

As we entered Big 12 play, God remained in control, even though the winning stopped.

A lot of times, during some of the moments the world would consider to be the lowest, God brings you the closest to Him, making those moments, in hindsight, some of the best.

After doing so well in nonconference play and entering the Big 12 portion of our season 12–1, we lost eight of the first ten conference games we played. Kenny Chery, our energetic point guard and team leader, got hurt, and we just couldn’t find a way to compensate for his absence. David Chandler, a godly man who had been a trainer at Baylor since 1985, was working around the clock to help our players and program. But even he wasn’t able to help get Kenny back on the court.

Kenny and the team were taking his injury and the losses really hard. Our energy was low, but our spirituality seemed even lower. As believers, we are supposed to find joy in knowing that God is in charge no matter what. Whether we turn to the right or left, God is guiding us. We seemed to be relying on ourselves for our joy, and we were routinely coming up empty. That was a problem.

The seventh loss in that stretch was a game at home, to Kansas. We lost by seventeen, and as I stood in the hallway outside the room where we meet with the media after the games, I saw Pastor Brewer walk by in the hallway. Suddenly I didn’t care about the fact that our hopes of making the NCAA tournament were about over. I didn’t care about how many more games we would win or lose the rest of that season. And I didn’t care about any of the criticism that we as a staff were facing after losing so many games in such a short span of time. In that hallway, looking at the stats, none of it seemed to matter. I called Pastor Brewer over.

“We may not win another game this year, and I may be a horrible coach,” I told him, “but if any of these guys leaves without knowing Christ, that will be the real loss.”

Sometimes, when you find that you aren’t having the success you want, ask yourself if what you want is what God would consider success. He’s very clear: His goal is to be known.

Our next game was at Oklahoma. In the lobby of the hotel the night before the game, Kenny Chery was talking with another of our guards, Brady Heslip, and our assistant, Tim Maloney. Coach Maloney, who had been a part of Athletes in Action, was a coach God wanted in the profession, not only because of his servant attitude and basketball mind but even more importantly, because he loved helping young men win the game of life.

Like Kenny, Brady is Canadian. Brady became a strong Christian who would lead Bible studies with the Canadian National Basketball team and was very comfortable talking with people about faith. As Kenny asked more questions about God and shared frustrations about things he’d been dealing with, including his ankle injury, Brady kept talking to Kenny about what it looked like to let Jesus be in charge of your life. At the beginning of the season, Pastor Wible’s theme for the chapel services was “One,” as in there’s only one way to go to heaven. That night in a Norman, Oklahoma, hotel lobby, Kenny Chery told Brady Heslip that he wanted to let Jesus be in charge of his life.

It was the biggest moment of the season, and it didn’t happen anywhere near a basketball court. The next morning, Kenny said he woke up in the hotel, thanked God for letting him wake up, and said he had a whole new outlook on life. “Bring joy to your servant, Lord, for I put my trust in You” (Psalm 86:4).

We lost the game in Norman. But it felt like we were starting to win the battles that really mattered.

Respond

Have you asked Jesus to be in charge of your life? If yes, describe the experience.

List people in your life who would share Jesus with you if you do not know Him or people you know who need to hear about His saving grace.

Prayer

Precious Jesus, thank You for dying on the cross so that we can spend eternity with You!