March Madness and Rising Tides

Please give me One Shining Moment. Somebody. Just one. Like these:

Bryce Drew, Valparaiso, 1998. The Play. Stunning upset of Ole Miss on the way to the Sweet 16.

Drew Nicholas, Maryland, 2003. Nicholas' crazy, running, flopping 3 from the baseline at the buzzer saved the defending national champs from a huge first-round upset at the hands of UNC Wilmington.

What's with the name Drew, by the way?

My point is, of the 48 games played this weekend, can anybody name a buzzer-beater to win the game? Sure, Vermont and NC State hit some big shots late to take leads, but Syracuse and UConn blew their chances to win or tie the game on buzzer shots in those games. Maybe my memories of the good old days are glowing in comparison to the haze of my general cynicism for the things of today. But it sure seems like everyone is busy losing games these days rather than winning them. Somebody hit a shot, for crying out loud.

There is a point to all this, believe it or not.

I have been impressed over the past month by the brilliance possessed by so many of my web-friends. They have challenged me not to settle for a comfortably steady plodding towards truth, but to pursue it as for a hidden treasure. "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge," spoke the prophet Hosea in chapter 4, verse 6. But what knowledge? A brief scan of the book shows that people perished for lack of a knowledge of God.

Perhaps the NCAA tournament is no less exciting if games are lost by missed shots rather than won by made ones. But if rising tides lift all boats, surely ebb tides lower them all, as well. I'm convinced that we (I) have allowed ourselves (myself) a life of comfortable ease. We've satisfied ourselves with Solomon's vanities because we're still pretty erudite and passionate about our faith compared to the culture of Barna's evangelical world. To those of you who have challenged me: Grace, peace, and thanks to you. To myself: Don't allow a dumbed-down world to let you settle for floating slightly above low tide. To us all: Let's not define our success as being more dedicated to truth than the rest. Hit the shot. Succeed through success, not just by less abysmal failure than our neighbors.

P.S. Bitzer was a banker.