PASTOR DAVE’S MUSINGS FROM THE HEARTLAND

September 6, 2023

5 P’S

Recently Nojel Eastern, sophomore guard for Purdue’s basketball team, was interviewed by the Big Ten Network.  The interviewer asked concerning Eastern’s foul shooting.  The first half of the season Nojel had difficulty making his foul shots.  At the end of games if an opposing team was losing it would foul Eastern knowing he would probably miss.  The latter half of the season Nojel’s foul shooting improved dramatically.  The interviewer wanted to know how Nojel accounted for his improvement.

Eastern said that at the beginning of the season he lacked confidence.  He remembered the 5 P’s that he had been taught by an earlier coach: “Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance.”  Nojel started shooting 200 free throws a day.  He got to the place that making foul shots almost became automatic.  Then when he went to the foul line, he would clear his head and just shoot, relaying on all of his proper preparations.  The results speak for themselves.

Proper preparation can take a number of forms.  There is the physical preparation of appropriate practicing.  It can also involve scouting out the opposition.  Proper preparation includes developing a good game plan.  If one wants to avoid a poor performance, one needs to pay attention to diet, rest, and training.  While proper preparation is no absolute guarantee of preventing a poor performance, it can go a long way in making sure it does not happen.

The Boy Scout motto is “Be Prepared.”  The scouting program is designed to help one properly prepare for a successful life.  There are few who reach the rank of Eagle Scout who does not succeed in life.  They have learned how to put into practice the traits of being trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent.

One can find many examples of the 5 P’s at work in the scriptures.  I Peter 3:15,16 says, “Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and reverence.”  How does one stay ready?  By proper preparations.  Jesus tells a crowd, “For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete?  Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’” (Luke 14:28-30) The success for any construction project is proper preparations.

In the Book of Judges the Lord calls Gideon to drive out the Midianites who are menacing the land.  Before going to battle the Lord make the preparations that will assure victory.  He begins by having Gideon reduce his forces.  The final test of those to be chosen is how a soldier drinks from a stream.  In the end only 300 men are chosen to defeat a mighty army.  The Lord instructs Gideon how to carry out psychological warfare on the enemy.  They put the enemy to rout with torches and trumpets.

The “5 P’s” is good advice for all of us as we go about our daily tasks.  Proper preparation goes a long way to prevent poor performance in many areas of life.  Tasks which are hastily done have a tendency to fail.  Like Nojel Eastern with his foul shooting, proper preparation helped to build confidence.  Very often we only see a person’s performance.  What we do not see is all of the preparation that went into making that performance a success.

(This article was originally published March 10, 2019.  Comments may be sent to davidh15503@embarqmail.com.)