How to Be Perfect by Brett Meador

Let's get to it, Philippians chapter three.

Question for you, what parts of your life have you made perfect? Oh, it's funny.

You know, there's moments, especially when you're young, you think you're perfect.

You know, I was part of something perfect.

I had a perfect season when I was in junior high and there's still a plaque on the wall in the gym and my name is on it at the... a little tiny red brick schoolhouse in Applegate, Oregon.

We had an undefeated season.

I was the forward on our team.

I wasn't the reason we were undefeated to say the least, but I was starting forward and we were undefeated, nine games, zero losses, perfect season.

Then I went to high school.

And I was so excited, cause you know, coming from such a good team, I thought, oh, I'll play basketball in high school too, you know? And so, you know, some of you already kind of know that story.

We had a perfect season there as well.

In fact, we had three perfect seasons in a row, not one win for three whole seasons.

40 games in a row we lost at Hidden Valley High School.

And it's funny because, you know, when you're coming from the junior high of all the wins, it was kind of disheartening, but that wasn't the worst.

And by the way, some people doubted me on this story, because I've told this several times, but, you know, it was a big thing for us.

It was kind of traumatic because after 40 losses, It went national.

There was a big national article, the whole nation, you know, and it was the losingest team in America.

And we made the front page, you know, kind of thing.

And it was kind of discouraging.

But I'll never forget the thing about that that's even worse.

My buddy, Ty Burrell, we...

Some of you guys know him as a movie star, but he and I were buddies in junior high.

We played basketball together at Applegate, that little one-room schoolhouse kind of school.

And he and I played there, but we were also together on the losing-est team in high school.

And nobody believed me, but then Ty was on Conan O'Brien's show years ago and Conan interviewed him and they went into this whole thing about the losing his team.

And I had like 80 Greekers calling me, hey, you weren't lying.

That's a true story.

It's true.

Now, what was interesting is, What brought us out of our losing streak was, this was kind of cool.

Coach Jack Ramsey, Dr. Jack, you know, the coach of the Portland Trailblazers, he saw the article and he heard of this poor team in Southern Oregon that was losing his team in America.

And so he wrote us a handwritten letter and it was really a great letter.

And it was just encouraging.

He said, you guys can do it.

You know, you're going to win this next game.

And man, we were like really pumped.

And so our next game was our arch nemesis, Grants Pass High School, the cavemen.

And to make it worse, I was dating a girl named Debbie that went to that horrible school.

And she was a cheerleader for the other side.

But we played Grants Pass, and that was our first win.

Man, we felt wonderful.

It was like we won the greatest game of all time.

It was awesome.

And I, from time to time, like to remind what is now my wife, Debbie, how we defeated the most losingest team in America, defeated her team that she was cheering for.

I just like to remind her of that, just from time to time.

Now...

You know, perfection, once you think you have it, you know, then you realize not only do you not have it, but you're the loser.

You're the losingest person.

And what, you know, it's a slippery thing trying to achieve perfection.