{"id":16703,"date":"2026-03-10T13:17:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T13:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gpbookstore.org\/articles\/uncategorized\/a-reflection-on-choosing-and-being-chosen\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T06:02:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T06:02:10","slug":"a-reflection-on-choosing-and-being-chosen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gpbookstore.org\/articles\/daily-devotions\/loved-ones-devotions\/a-reflection-on-choosing-and-being-chosen\/","title":{"rendered":"A Reflection on Choosing and Being Chosen"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every day, the humiliation began anew. At the Jewish high school I went to in Manhattan\u2019s Lower East Side, we didn\u2019t have a gym teacher. For PE, we all lined up, as if facing a firing squad. The two most athletic boys picked teams for basketball.<\/p>\n

The best players were chosen first, a rigid caste system that seemed passed down by Moses. I looked on, hoping God would make another miracle happen and let me not be the last boy chosen.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot him,\u201d I heard the other boys whisper. \u201cNot Joe.\u201d It shattered my self-confidence. Through four years of high school, I never touched the ball.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t blame the guys. I was a total klutz. The ultimate benchwarmer. Hopeless at any kind of manual dexterity. I was a whiz at math, but figuring out the area under a parabola wasn\u2019t going to win me any friends. Not like basketball could. I loved the speed, the back-and-forth, the smoothness of a jump shot and the drives to the basket. But my Brooklyn, New York, neighborhood of Orthodox Jews had no courts to even practice on. I was never going to be one of the jocks. During senior year, I took a job aptitude test. The results: accountant or engineer. If only I could be a gym teacher\u2026 <\/em>If I were in charge, I\u2019d make sure that kids like me weren\u2019t excluded. But to be a coach, first you had to be an athlete. As if that would ever happen\u2026<\/p>\n

So I became an engineer. I got hired by Hughes Aircraft in California. I designed circuits for NASA\u2019s Surveyor program, which in 1966 began sending unmanned spacecraft to the moon, setting the stage for Neil Armstrong\u2019s giant leap for mankind. For the first time in my life, I was in demand. I got hired by another major defense contractor and helped create a system for sending messages across a computer network, a big deal at the time. But that\u2019s not how I saw myself. I was still awkward, physically and socially. I worked 60 hours a week and didn\u2019t do much else.<\/p>\n

Then one day I went for a run. In California, in the 1980s, that\u2019s what everyone was doing. I made it only a few blocks. Still, I hadn\u2019t tripped over my own feet. I felt alive, rejuvenated. I started running more, a mile or two every day, my legs slowly getting stronger, more agile.<\/p>\n

When I told my neighbor Mark, he said, \u201cCome play basketball<\/a> with us. We have a pickup game every Sunday.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou mean, I\u2019d actually play?\u201d I said.<\/p>\n

Mark looked puzzled. \u201cOf course,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat else would you be doing?\u201d<\/p>\n

This time I didn\u2019t have to wait to get picked for a team. \u201cJoe\u2019s with us,\u201d Mark said. There was only one problem. I had no idea how to actually play. I spent the entire game running madly around the court. I never touched the ball. I didn\u2019t care, and no one else seemed bothered either. I was in seventh heaven.<\/p>\n

For some 10 years, I played every Sunday\u2014until Mark injured his knee and dropped out. My skills never really improved, but my self-confidence grew. I made friends. I tried other sports: tennis and skiing. I even joined an Israeli dancing group. If that wasn\u2019t a miracle, I don\u2019t know what was.<\/p>\n

Work was a grind. I\u2019d never wanted to become an engineer. I fantasized about chucking it all and pursuing my dream of working with kids. I\u2019d seen what sports had done for me. If I could take up a sport, anyone could. They just needed the right encouragement, the chance to play against players of similar ability\u2014the thing I\u2019d never gotten in my pickup games. But I had no experience coaching. Was it too late to chase my dream?<\/p>\n

In 2005, I retired at 62. I took a class at Santa Monica College called Beginner\u2019s Basketball, designed to teach the basics of the game. I learned how to shoot, diagram a play, grab a rebound. Then, for two years, I took courses at California State University, classes on kinesiology\u2014the science of human movement\u2014how to teach athletics, how to run a class. I worked with kids in schools as part of my studies.<\/p>\n

I volunteered to help with gym classes at an elementary school. It had eight full-size outdoor basketball courts. Every day at recess, I watched the star athletes take charge. Kids who had been playing on elite travel squads since second grade. The kids who were lousy watched silently from the sidelines.<\/p>\n

\u201cCouldn\u2019t we dedicate one court for the kids who like sports but aren\u2019t very good?\u201d I asked the principal one day.<\/p>\n

He scowled, staring at the sea of pintsize LeBrons. \u201cThen there wouldn\u2019t be enough courts for the ones who can actually shoot,\u201d he said. \u201cDumbest idea I\u2019ve ever heard.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Cal State instructor suggested I talk to someone heading up the basketball league at a local park. I found Randy Rosen. \u201cBasketball for the athletically challenged?\u201d Randy said when I told him my idea. He was clearly a jock. I waited to be shot down. \u201cI like it,\u201d he said instead. \u201cHow else are they going to learn? Let\u2019s put it in the schedule. We\u2019ll call it Benchwarmers.\u201d<\/p>\n

I got to the gym early that first night, giddy with excitement. One eight-year-old girl showed up. \u201cYou\u2019re going to need more players, aren\u2019t you?\u201d her mother asked. I worked with the girl one-on-one for two weeks before pulling the plug. All those years I\u2019d dreamed of being a coach, all the time I\u2019d put into learning the game. Maybe it had been a dumb idea all along.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t give up,\u201d Randy said. \u201cWe\u2019ll try again next season. It\u2019s going to take some time to get the word out.\u201d<\/p>\n

A year later, eight kids signed up for Benchwarmers Basketball. Just looking at them, I could tell they had way more enthusiasm than talent. One boy tripped walking out to center court. Perfect, <\/em>I thought.<\/p>\n

After a quick shootaround, I divided them into two teams. No big welcome speech. No vision statement. I wanted the focus to be on playing basketball.<\/p>\n

I tossed up the ball for the tip-off, and the tallest boy slapped it to a teammate, who promptly dribbled it off his foot. The ball almost rolled out of bounds before another boy snagged it and hurled it toward the basket, missing the backboard by two feet. The kids were awful. It was beautiful. I\u2019d never been so happy.<\/p>\n

Each week for 10 weeks, they came back for another game. I didn\u2019t give much instruction, but every week they got better. They learned by doing. The smiles on their faces were my reward. \u201cThis is fun,\u201d one boy said. \u201cI didn\u2019t even know I could play basketball!\u201d<\/p>\n

The parents couldn\u2019t stop thanking me. \u201cThis program saved my son\u2019s life,\u201d one mom told me. \u201cHe didn\u2019t think he was good at anything. You\u2019ve helped him believe in himself.\u201d<\/p>\n

I remembered how rejected I\u2019d felt in school. How could anything good have come from that? And yet I would have never related to these kids otherwise. I had <\/em>been chosen<\/a>, from the beginning, for a position I was perfect for.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been 11 years since I started Benchwarmers Basketball. Today more than 40 kids play, divided into two age divisions, over two 10-week seasons. It thrills me to see their self-confidence, as well as their athletic abilities, grow. The truth is that the Benchwarmers inspire me. Every week, I play in a pickup game I started for klutzy adults. I\u2019ve gotten better too. And I\u2019m taking piano lessons, a challenge for someone with no manual dexterity. I\u2019m willing to take it slow. I\u2019ve learned our greatest gifts aren\u2019t necessarily the ones that come easily.<\/p>\n

Interested in starting a Benchwarmers program in your community? Contact Joe Bock at joebock3@yahoo.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

For more inspiring stories, subscribe to <\/em>Guideposts<\/strong><\/a> magazine<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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