Lessons From USC
USC is imposing sanctions on its Men’s Basketball Team for violating NCAA rules involving former player O. J. Mayo. The university submitted to an internal investigation and found rules were violated during Mayo’s one season with the Trojans in 2007-08. The severe self-imposed sanctions include: 1) One year ban on postseason play, 2) a loss of one scholarship for this season and 2010-11 season, 3) a loss of one coach permitted to engage in off campus recruiting during the summer of 2010, 4) twenty less recruiting days allowed during the 2010-11 academic year, 5) vacation of its 21 victories during the 2007-08 season when Mayo competed, and 6) returning to the NCAA tournament money it received through the PAC-10 in 2008.
Athletic Director, Mike Garrett, said: “When we’ve done something wrong, we have an obligation to do something about it, and that’s exactly what we’re doing here.” I think it is commendable that USC was willing to suffer embarrassment and loss in order to maintain the integrity of its school and basketball program.
I wonder how different your life, my life, and our churches would be if we were that radical in maintaining the integrity and purity of our hearts before God and others. The way USC has handled these violations has caused me to ask several questions about when I violate God’s standards and when the integrity of my heart is at stake:
1. Am I willing to submit my life to a spiritual investigation by the Holy Spirit and God’s word?
2. Am I willing to acknowledge and confess the sins that God’s investigation reveals?
3. Am I willing to change my mind about that sin(s) and realign my behavior to meet God’s standards?
4. What radical inward and outward actions am I willing to take to prove my repentance?
5. What am I willing to lose to prove my repentance and to maintain the integrity and purity of my heart?
What other lessons can we learn from the USC saga? Are there other questions that we can ask to help us maintain integrity and purity of heart before God and others?
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January 5th, 2010 at 3:32 pm
Good questions. I'm reading the opening chapters of Deuteronomy right now and what is hitting me is that God is calling out His people to submit to a radical new ethic of relating to God and to one another. I think it is significant that he begins with confession.
In chapter 1, Moses rehearses Israel's rebellion against God and the consequential 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. But the purpose of confession is not to keep one in a perpetual state of guilt, but to do just the opposite. Confession forces us to take personal responsibility for our actions and their consequences. Confession also empowers us to move ahead by laying our sins at the foot of the cross, accepting God’s forgiveness and not taking those burdens with us into our future. Take note of the number of times God tells them to “go”, “get moving”, “set out”, “advance” (depending on your translation). He tells them to stop wandering, to break out of their holding pattern of past failure and move into the blessing that He has in store for them. He further adds that there is also no need to live in fear or discouragement. I believe this applies to both the past (no guilt) and the future (no worries because God is in control as He has already proven).
Action Step: Admit it, quit it and get on with it.
From USC we can learn that confession is a necessary first step from moving ahead into our future without the weight our our past failures.