Hunger, Habits, Humility

For IWUHoops, each season is a journey of men in the program trading the pursuit of me for the pursuit of 3.  Through intentional prayer, Bible study and community, God has continued to reveal new depths of an IAm3rd life.  

The 2016-2017 journey was one of a team filled with apathy learning to live a life marked by hunger, habits and humility.  Read Coach T's thoughts on this transformation HERE  

This offseason and preseason have seen IWUHoopers pursuing 'hunger, habits and humility.'   A pursuit of Hunger sets you in motion.  Habits keep you in motion.  Humility puts others in motion.  This pattern has taken some of the men in the program beyond mere growth and into transformation.  Over the next few weeks, we invite you to check back on the blog often to hear the stories of what the team is learning and who the players within the program are becoming.

Becoming A person of humility

Humility on the basketball court has always been one of the more difficult things for me to grasp.  

Being a humble ball player was tough because it is a competitive sport.  Personally, I hate losing more than I enjoy winning.  In order to win, I usually had to play a decent game.  It was hard for me to understand how I could want to win and also try to not be selfish and make the game about me.

My first two years at IWU, deep down I cared most about how many points I could score. I said I only wanted to win, but really a loss didn’t matter if I scored 20 that night. While I had some success doing that, it was not very fulfilling.

As I matured as a player, I realized that making others around me better was the difference maker. That is when humility really started to become a part of who I am.  As I continued into my senior year, there was a lot of pressure, but the pressure was self-inflicted. I began to shift my perspective of what basketball was to me. I can’t sing, dance, or play an instrument, but I could play basketball really well. I realized that my greatest form of worship was on the basketball court. Approaching the game in this way led to more personal success than ever, and we finished with the programs first ever national championship.

Growing up, the dreams of winning a national championship and being a professional basketball player were at the top of my list. As a result of the championship, I was presented with an opportunity to play professionally, allowing me to see both of these dreams fulfilled. To an outsider, getting paid to play a sport would have seemed like a dream come true. However, I quickly realized there wasn’t fulfillment in it that I had been expecting.  The game became about the individual again, and like my first few years at IWU, I wasn’t finding the joy and worship in the game that I had later in my career.

I came home from playing hungry to be surrounded by the IAm3 culture again. Here I am, back on the IWU coaching staff as the graduate assistant.  I am the lowest guy on the totem pole, making less money than I ever have.  Despite that, I have never been filled with so much joy and happiness. God used the emptiness of my professional career to show me that true joy and happiness won’t come from my own performance.  I had to become a person of humility, truly living out the IAm3 life.

I was very blessed throughout my four years of playing here to play have a lot of success with my teammates and coaches. But as I reflect on all those wins, championships, trophies, and awards… there is nothing more valuable than these lessons I have learned about humility and the IAm3 life! 

-Assistant Coach Jordan Weidner