| David Jay Jordan's I Got a Standing Ovation Testimony The year was 1969, I had invited myself to the Canadian National Basketball try-outs because I wasn’t invited by the coaches and staff. I paid my own way there and because at that age I could run like the wind, and jump as if I was black, I was the last cut from 60 try-outs to the 12 man rooster. And then …… we were off to the Pan American Games. I was quite short, at 6’4” and because the competition was so tall, they made me a guard. Oh well, I would do anything to stay on the team, Besides I was the youngest and probably the most naïve one on the whole team. Anyway, we were playing Brazil in the Arena with a packed house and the game was reasonably close. The first half was winding down and the coach to my surprise came down to the far end of the bench, and said, ‘Dave, get in there’. ‘All right’, says I, thinking this is my big chance, just go in there and give it everything you got. My check was a little fast guard, who I could barely keep up with, but then their center came out high and blocked me, meaning his check took my guard, and I was NOW checking this literal giant, of about 7’ 6” probably only comparable to goliath and a few others. His hands were enormous and he towered over me as if I was from another league or another race. He drifted down low into the key area, near the basket. I stayed close, and then the ball got passed into him. He immediately took one step towards the hoop, and I said …Oh No you don’t, and I went up to block his shot ….I soared upwards and hit his hand and a bit of the ball, and then he slammed the ball through the hoop. And then a loud crunching sound bellowed through the arena as I hit the floor flat on my back after being annihilated by the giant. I hit with such a resounding thud, that I still remember an almost complete hush and silence coming over the stadium. Surely they all thought I was dead and gone to be with my Basketball Maker. And then I moved, ….first my hands and then my legs, and then sat up in shock. The place erupted in cheers. It was overwhelming, I still remember it. And as the team doctor took me stunned and wanting more back to my bench position, the whole arena gave me a ‘standing ovation’. ******************************************************** So that’s the day I got my standing ovation and though you think it might not be such a great testimony, maybe we should all think again. For isn’t this the kind of testimony the Lord admires and the type of ‘standing ovation’ the angels give us every time, we get up after a seeming defeat. For at least we tried and gave it our all, and we had not given up and were still in the game, even if at a later date. We can’t look at the size of the enemy and the impossibilities but the possibilities, and we may be the only one that can stop an atrocity or prevent the wrong side from scoring and defeating the Lord’s people. We have to at least try…… For didn’t Don Quixote who had great faith, say … For what is sickness to a knight errant, for though he fall, yet shall he rise and WOE to the wicked. And doesn’t the GOOD BOOK say ……Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, …… and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. (Hebrews 12) For if we do what we have to do, for the Lord, then His well done thou good and faithful servant is all the ovation we’ll ever need to hear. IMO David Jay Jordan |