“Pay Close Attention to the Fundamentals”

“Pay Close Attention to the Fundamentals”

 

                Michael Jordan is arguably the greatest basketball player who ever lived.  Yet, even Michael Jordan was cut from his basketball team during his sophomore season of varsity basketball.  Following being cut, he worked even harder at his game and saw that failure as an opportunity to succeed.  Michael once said, “Get the fundamentals down and the level of everything you do will rise.”   I would imagine that Michael worked nearly every day on the fundamentals of the game to improve.  Even as an NBA legend, during his pregame rituals you could find him working on the fundamentals. In Hebrews 2:1 the writer says, “…we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it”.  Could it be that the writer is giving us a warning to make sure we pay close attention to those fundamentals of our faith?  I believe he is; but what are these fundamentals?  If you will notice Hebrews 1 is reminding us of the way that God has communicated with His people over the course of time.  First it was the patriarchs, then it was through the Law, but now it was through His Son.  Maybe the fundamental principle that God wants us to constantly remind ourselves is that Jesus is Lord!  He is better than the patriarchs, He is better than the Law, He is better than the angels and He is better than anything else the world could throw at us.  By constantly reminding ourselves who Jesus is, we continually see who we are not, which will keep us motivated.  Michael Jordan and the writer of Hebrews was right. If we are constantly being reminded of that fundamental concept, every other aspect of our life will be better.