Core Values

  Jack Ingold scored the last bucket in Lipscomb University’s first-round game in the NCAA
tournament against Iowa State. 

    It would have been really cool if the senior from West Virginia had hit a three to win the game at the buzzer. That isn’t how it happened. It was an uncontested layup. The outcome of the game was not in doubt, nor was it really ever in doubt. Lipscomb was a 14-seed in the tournament; Iowa State was a 3-seed. Fourteen seeds were 23-133 in the first round going into this year’s tournament, and Lipscomb did not shock the world. Their season is over.

     So is Jack Ingold’s college career, I suppose. He wasn’t a star for Lipscomb, or even a starter; he played the last two minutes, when both teams were emptying their benches. There won’t be an NBA contract in his future. But he can say he did something that few people who play college basketball can; he played in and scored a basket in the Big Dance, the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.

     Pretty good for a guy who started his career as the team manager. Jack wrote just over a year ago on the Lipscomb athletics website about “falling in love with basketball” as a kid and wanting to play basketball at Lipscomb since he was in the fifth grade.  He also writes honestly, 

“Through tears, fits of anger, and fear of the future, I shut out the world. No one would ever understand me and what I was willing to do in order to reach my goal. In my heart I knew I would reach the top of that mountain and I longed for the day I would stand proudly looking down on all those who said I wouldn’t."

     The Covid pandemic affected his senior year of high school, and he had no offers from colleges to play ball. He went to Lipscomb anyway, and tried to find a way to be part of the basketball team. “Basketball was not something I did, basketball was who I was,” he wrote. “Without it I was lost, the time I used to fill with basketball became filled with anxiety, poor decision making and insecurity. I was falling down the mountain and had no way to stop myself.”

     Jack eventually earned the opportunity to be the team manager, with a promise from Head Coach Lennie Acuff that if he did well in that role he could dress for games and play some the following season. By his junior year, here’s what Jack had learned:  

“All these years someone much greater than myself was writing my story and guiding each of my steps. The Lord did not bring me to Lipscomb to play a sport, but instead graciously provided me this avenue to share of His goodness. My life has become much bigger than basketball. I'm called to serve, love and share the story God has given me.”

     For most of us, maybe, there’s something in our lives that, if we lost it, we’d be rudderless. What we all need to learn, I suppose, is what Jack Ingold learned: That Jesus wants to be that for us. And that, because of him, our lives are bigger than whatever else gives us satisfaction, joy, purpose, and identity. In Jesus, our lives are bigger than whatever else we might fall in love with. We’re part of his story in the world, called and given the responsibility of serving, loving, and sharing the stories God has given us.

     Our world needs that. Where love and compassion are seen as weaknesses, our world needs us to double down on them and show their strength and power. In a country whose leaders are right now shutting people out, cutting people off, and ending programs that help people who will otherwise fall through the cracks, in order to benefit the few who already own most of the wealth and power in the nation, we simply must remember that Jesus is our first love. 

     John wrote that there’s no other way to love than by laying down our lives, the way we’ve learned from Jesus. When others demean compassion and care for others as being “woke” or “politically correct,” we must remember that the only way to love genuinely is by our actions, in generosity and kindness. It demands persistence, single-mindedness, and a willingness to put others above ourselves.

     It may even require that we let go of what we love most in the world, and discover someone even greater to love.

     Jack Ingold actually got a lot of camera time in the last two minutes of Lipscomb’s game this weekend. That’s probably because of this video, which kind of went viral back in December at the beginning of basketball season months after Jack's post. I won’t spoil it for you; just make sure you watch it somewhere it won’t be awkward if you tear up. 

     Listen to the words that describe Jack: “You are selfless…thankful…humble…driven…committed…responsible.” Those are what Coach Acuff refers to as “core values,” and they have to do with a lot more than basketball.

     May we all pursue those core values in everything we do.

     And may we love Jesus and the kingdom of God above all else.