The Moment That You Know!
When Frustration Turns To Joy
Senior guard Liz Carroll was sick that night with a winter cold and low-grade fever, but there was no way that she was going to miss playing against neighboring rival Ooltewah High School. One of Grace's primary scorers, she was frustrated throughout most of the first half and into the third quarter. Fouled hard going in for a layup, her frustration was visibly turning to anger.
Awarded two free throws, the official handed her the ball for the first. Bending her legs she flicked her wrist as she raised up toward the basket. When the ball passed through the hoop and splashed the net, there was an explosion of sound as people began to come to their feet applauding and cheering. Liz Carroll had just scored her 1000th point...and didn't know it!
What happened next was almost comical. As had been pre-planned with the official, he began to walk toward the bench to hand the ball off to be awarded. But Liz didn't get it! "I still have another shot," she yelled. "He's taking my shot!" she exclaimed to her teammates who were already surrounding her by now. "What are you doing? What's going on...?"
As her fellow seniors gathered around her, Co-captain Kyndall Blake excitedly told Liz, "You just scored your 1000th point!" The camera captured the transitional moment as the words broke through... and frustration began turning to joy!
Sometimes we don't realize how close we really are to some goal or accomplishment because we have been so focused on the frustrations. But when those things finally do happen, how sweet and special they are!
Three weeks ago we started a campaign to raise $35,000 this month toward a matching gift. We are now at $28,000. We have seven days to get $7,000 for the full match. Successfully matching the entire amount would bring us to a grand total of $100,000 going into March.
It will certainly be one of those special moments when construction on the Grace Fitness Center finally begins. But it will take a series of 'moments' and short range accomplishments to get there. Meeting this goal would be a 'moment' of celebration as well as the most important step we can take right now toward our ultimate goal!