The Altar Shouldn’t Be Your Pivot

When playing basketball, your pivot is what holds you down as you figure out your next move. You protect the ball and you read the defense to see how people are moving.

If you know anything about basketball, you know that sometimes that pivot is your last resort because if you’re mid-dribble and you misread, you’ll end up trapped.

I believe Jonah is a good example of this, but it’s better we get into Jonah. Check this out: your coach draws up a play for you, but your mind is not set on the play. You’re just focused on how YOU’RE going to win the game. You get down the court, and the defense presses you to where you have to pivot in order to find an open teammate or finesse your way to a shot. You could’ve had an open lane, teammates to help you, but your lack of awareness and focus led you to working 10 times harder than you needed to.

The altar shouldn’t be your pivot. It shouldn’t be your last resort. Pivoting is “…a sudden change in direction or strategy…” which isn’t always a bad thing, but understand that it can cause you to waste time.

While pivoting causes you to think, what if you didn’t have to? What if the plan was already written for you?

The altar should be where the game plan is drawn, and if your ears are open, your mind is clear, and your heart is postured correctly, there’s no reason you should take the wrong turn or run the wrong play.

Jonah was given a game plan, but because he didn’t follow it, he ended up somewhere else where he was stuck and had to pivot.

“The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai: ‘Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it because their evil has come up before me.’ Jonah got up to flee to Tarshish from the LORD’s presence. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. He paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the LORD’s presence.”

— Jonah 1:1–3 CSB

• God gives Jonah the game plan, but he chose to head in the opposite direction of where God sent him.

Jonah’s disobedience led him into a storm that eventually left him inside the fish.

Jonah being stuck led him to cry out to God. He’s in the wrong place, wrong position, but found a way to make that his altar right then and there.

Don’t wait until you’re out of ideas to turn to the Coach and plead for a new game plan. Time is wasted, and you regret not following instructions.

…

“The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time: ‘Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach the message that I tell you.’ Jonah got up and went to Nineveh according to the LORD’s command. Now Nineveh was an extremely great city, a three-day walk.”

— Jonah 3:1–3 CSB

After pleading with God, God answers him and gives him the same exact game plan.

Don’t be like Jonah. DO NOT MAKE THE ALTAR YOUR PIVOT, PLAN B, OR LAST RESORT.

Listen the first time because the Coach sees the things that you can’t.

The initial plan should always be the altar. The direction given there is what gives you stability, as your steps are ordered. It makes your path much smoother, and it strengthens your weaknesses.