the Common Blog

Everyone knows who Michael Jordan is, even people who have no interest in sports, whatsoever. In fact, you don’t even have to say his full name and people know who you’re talking about – all you have to say is “Jordan”.

Michael Jordan was the greatest basketball player ever and few (coherent) people will argue against that and when you span his career it’s kind of hard to argue against that.

Six-time NBA champion (1991-93, 1996-98); MVP (1988, ‘91, ‘92, ‘96, ‘98); 10-time All-NBA First Team (1987-93, 1996-98); All-NBA Second Team (1985); Defensive Player of the Year (1988); Nine-time All-Defensive First Team (1988-93, 1996-98); Rookie of the Year (1985); 14-time All-Star; All-Star MVP (1988, ‘96, ‘98); One of 50 Greatest Players in NBA History (’96); Olympic gold medalist (1984, ‘92).

Most people thought that he tarnished his legacy when he came out of retirement (for the 2nd time) to sign with the Washington Wizards but even at the end of his career when he was beyond “a veteran”, he was better than most guys in the NBA, averaging over 20 points a game.

I remember the last year that he played, he made the all-star team but he didn’t get voted in as a starter, instead, Vince Carter did. It was cool to see the rest of the Eastern Conference starters who were willing to forfeit their starting position to Jordan as a sign of respect to an NBA legend.

I remember the networks always showing Wizards games, tracking Michael Jordan’s farewell tour. It was interesting to see the respect that he got on road games from the fans, the same fans that most likely had their hearts broken by him at some point during his career.

I was at Michael Jordan’s last game at the United Center when he was with the Wizards. They introduced Michael before the game started, but they introduced him as if he was starting for the Bulls – you know “from North Carolina…!” The place went crazy! It took about about 5 minutes before he could even get a word in.

Finally, we all got a little quiet to let him talk and then he’d say one thing and everyone would go crazy again. The fans delayed the start of that game by at least 15 minutes.

It was really cool being there. Growing up as a young Bulls fan from the chicagoland area it seemed appropriate to be at the United Center that night along with thousands of other Bulls fans giving Michael his due praise, thanking Michael for all the years, all the memories and all the championships.

It’s curious the kind of praise we gave to a guy who was real good at…a game.

When you read the Psalms you’ll often come across phrases like this -

“Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name” Psalm 96:8

“Praise is due to you, O God” Psalm 65:1

“I will give to the Lord the thanks due to his righteousness” Psalm 7:17

What kind of praise do you think is due God?

What do you think should be our appropriate response to an eternal God who created this universe, this world and us with a word from his mouth?

A God who set-out to rescue even his own enemies after we rebelled against him by leaving the comforts of heaven to become a man?

What kind of praise should we offer to a God who made our sin, which was our responsibility, his responsibility, in order to pay its price in full in our place on the cross?

A God who came on our behalf and took on our biggest enemies of Sin, the Devil and Death and defeated them through the sinless life, sacrificial death and triumphant resurrection of Jesus.

Give God the glory that is due his name.