Why are Timeouts Important?

“Help, God—I’ve hit rock bottom!

    Master, hear my cry for help!

Listen hard! Open your ears!

    Listen to my cries for mercy.

If you, God, kept records on wrongdoings,

    who would stand a chance?

As it turns out, forgiveness is your habit,

    and that’s why you’re worshiped.

I pray to God—my life a prayer—

    and wait for what he’ll say and do.

My life’s on the line before God, my Lord,

    waiting and watching till morning,

    waiting and watching till morning.

O Israel, wait and watch for God—

    with God’s arrival comes love,

    with God’s arrival comes generous redemption.

No doubt about it—he’ll redeem Israel,

    buy back Israel from captivity to sin.

SOME BELIEVE DAVID

wrote this Psalm while being persecuted by King Saul; or perhaps while in great distress over his affair with Bathsheba. Others think it was written by Ezra during the time of Israel’s captivity. Whoever is the author, Psalm 130 is a genuine “Timeout Prayer” for anyone when in need of grace and mercy.

So last week, after reading this Psalm, I asked the group of men with whom I meet each Wednesday morning —

WHY ARE TIMEOUTS IMPORTANT?

It seemed an appropriate question since this group of 20+ individuals, ranging in age and wisdom from their 40s to 80s, were beginning a 15th year of Wednesday’s, and we were together “in the flesh” for the first time in a COVID-19 year. A few had joined in via Zoom as is often the case with those who travel, because being together is important.

Most of us had been watching our ‘March Madness’ favorite basketball teams live out their own answers to this question, so I expected the answers from our guys to go there. Surprisingly the very first responses had to do, not with basketball, but with timeouts for children as a means of discipline, punishment, and behavior adjustment.

DID TIMEOUTS WORK

for our kids? Do they work for our grandkids? How long should timeouts be? Some say a timeout should last between 2 and 5 minutes for toddlers and preschoolers. A good rule seems to be 1 minute of time-out for every year of the child's age. This means that a 2-year-old would sit in time-out for 2 minutes, and a 3-year-old would have a 3-minute time-out. (Of course it was pointed out if this rule were applied to every year of my life, I’d be in the corner for a very long time.)

SO THE QUESTION REMAINS

whether a family team or a basketball team, what is hoped for in a timeout?

Timeouts are utilized to allow a team to rest if the pace has been too hot; a good thing for family ‘coaches’ to remember when team tempers rise. Timeouts help teams learn how better to prevent or add to scoring, depending on whether the timeout is called by the defense or offense; and when a family goal is in view, timeouts are moments for teaching the team how to score ‘winning points’ together.

Timeouts are also for the team to determine strategy and build morale; it is a great time for family discussion and collaborative decision making. Timeouts are used to stop the game clock; once in a while everything needs to stop as a family takes a deep breath (even Joshua needed to a timeout once when the battle was raging[1]). And sometimes timeouts are called to gain advertising revenue; the promise of ice cream cones and forgiveness can make a family timeout end in happiness.

AND THERE’S ONE MORE THING

in basketball. It’s known as the “5-second rule.” It is called when a player has been closely guarded for 5 seconds or more without passing, shooting or dribbling the ball. It doesn’t happen often to good players, but it does happen. The rule is always there and everybody knows it.

What if the ‘game ball’ in our spiritual life were the ‘Good News?’ What if we were called for holding onto the ‘game ball’ too long without passing it on by sharing Jesus within our family or with someone else? What if we never took time to pray or journal or recall the blessings of God to our lives in ways our ‘Coach’ would know we had been listening?

When this happens in the game of basketball ball, the ball is turned over to the other side. If the ‘Good News’ were your game ball or mine … well, let’s just not ever let this happen.

Remember, when you watched Stanford and Arizona play for the Women’s National Championship yesterday, or you sit in front of your television to see Gonzaga and Baylor battle for the Men’s National Championship tonight (Monday), whatever happens to these teams will slip into history … but the team you are on as a follower of Jesus is a team that lives forever.

So pass the ‘ball.’

And may Jesus keep us close.

[1] Joshua 10:12-14