No I Don't Play Basketball

I'm really tall. Maybe you can't tell from this Bridesmaid photo, but that's because I have on flats, my oldest friend Burl Womble (who is 5'11") is squatting and everyone else has on heels.  But you get the idea.  I'm really tall.  Like, I can see over the bathroom stalls tall...I can never go to the grocery store w/o someone asking me to get something down tall...And if I had a dollar for every time someone asked me if I play basketball I'd be rich tall.No I don't play basketball.Mr. Craig was our b-ball coach in middle school and high school.  He was legit. Our players were too and he wanted me on the team. He called me Big Bird and one year even bought me the stuffed animal in hopes of recruiting me.Naturally, I continued on as captain of the cheerleading team.Some things in life we can't control.  Our height, for instance.  The color of our hair (negotiable, I know), the city we're born in, who our parents are, our foundational years as a baby and child, some of life's circumstances.  What do we really have control over in this life?  It makes me think of an old Proverb that says, "Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring."Perhaps the one thing we get to hold authority over in our lives is the ability to choose.  I have a choice.  You have a choice.  We have a choice.  We choose how we respond to our history.  We choose how we respond to authority.  We choose how we respond to opportunity.  We choose how we respond to what we can't control.  We even choose to waste a perfectly good 74 inches by not playing basketball.Sometimes the circumstances around us back us into a corner.  Do you know what I mean?  Our jobs, our families, our peers, our habits, our hurts, our transitions seem to be squeezing us so hard we'd do just about anything to relieve the pressure - or really, the pain.  So we react - we're irritated, frustrated, confused, depressed, discouraged, indifferent, prideful.  And that reaction manifests itself a thousand different ways depending on who you are and where you've come from.  We eat, gossip, whine, blame, have sex, do drugs, ignore, deny, pretend... this list could go on for days - what's important is that we know what triggers us and why, as well as our typical response to the trigger.I've started to appreciate the circumstances around me more as I get older because when I let them change me instead of me striving to change them, God uses life to coach me to be more like Christ.  I've learned to thank God when circumstances back me into a corner, because I know that ultimately if I am yielded to Him, He will use all these things together for my good, if I endure and obey.Has life backed you into a corner?  Before you explode, remember, you still have a choice.  Your reactions, attitudes, thoughts and emotions are still your own.  It's not about hiding, pretending or denying, its about honesty, candidness and kindness, so we can change and grow.Unresolved pride in our lives has many offspring. So call a spade a spade, ask God for help, share with a friend and deal with the attitudes in your own soul...before they deal with you.