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During times of trial, a standing joke with my family and myself has been, “Please don’t mention Moses. It seems as if this man had an incredibly long and tiring road with ungrateful people and fair-weather fans (sound familiar?). As if this was not enough, Moses and his clan finally reached the edge of the Promised Land and wandered for forty years, not being allowed to enter. Is this the most encouraging devotional you have ever read?
A soccer player falls in the penalty box after being tackled. She gets back up, walks to the referee who is pointing to the penalty spot, and explains that she just dove to avoid the tackle and there should not be any foul called on the play.
After signing his scorecard, a golfer notices an error, reports it to the officials and gets automatically disqualified after winning the tournament.
Even though her first serve was called inbound, a tennis player, knowing that her ball was out, overrules the line judge’s call and gets ready to second serve.
A baseball centerfielder admits that he caught the ball just after it touched the ground and tells the umpire that the batter should now be on first base, not out.
After having a fairly rough day teaching, my wife calmly reminded me that I must see the children in the same light as God sees me. He is patient and loving with me, even though I am underserving of His favor. I must continuously remind myself that the children I teach and coach should be shown that same favor from me.
There are times that I simply want to lose all my cool and let those who are around me simply know how frustrated I am with them and how pitiful I feel they are. Does God feel that way towards me? I feel God is the most patient, forgiving, gracious being as He showed through Jesus Christ. Forgive them seven times? "Forgive them seventy times seven" Jesus says.
I pray I have that strength to be as patient and forgiving as He.
We’ve seen the commercial more than once—the one where the guy walks around with his cell phone, pausing every couple of steps to ask the question “Can you hear me now? Good.” We are reminded that some companies go to a lot of trouble to keep their communication lines open. We have all experienced areas where cell phone communication breaks down, when we can’t hear at all.
Stop for a moment and think about the effort God has made to communicate His unending love for us. His message is clear. He loves us and wants us to respond by living our lives in the truth—a truth that honors our Creator and loves and serves our fellow man. The problem is that we don’t listen. We are too wrapped up in ourselves to notice His call.
Watch any of the famous Rocky movies and you’ll find a prime example of someone who never gave up in battle. With every movie, Sylvester Stallone’s character, Rocky Balboa, faced an even bigger challenge. Yet through each 12-round beating, he always managed to get back up on his feet and find victory.
Vince Lombardi once said, “Winning isn’t everything. It’s the only thing.” I have never met an athlete who didn’t want to win. Not one. But wanting to win and doing what is necessary to win are two different things. Even
I am a sprinter, both literally and spiritually. When I played sports, I did not have a great amount of ability, but I could run… fast. I ran fast on the football field, on the basketball court, anywhere I played. I really don’t recall ever competing against someone who could outrun me. You see, a guy can run pretty fast when he’s scared!
There are spiritual races, too. Shireen, my wife, has reminded me several times that life is a marathon, not a sprint. She knows about the temptation I have to sprint. Sprinters become tired very quickly. It’s unreasonable to think they can run for long periods of time. In contrast, a distance runner must pace himself so he can finish the race.
Coaches cannot make everyone happy. We hear cruel and untrue remarks shouted at us from the stands every game day. “You’re not playing the right person—you don’t know what you’re doing—I could coach better than that in my sleep!” It is easy to dwell on these comments, respond to them with anger, or lash back at shouters in the stands. The difficult task is to respond as Jesus would respond, and we learn how to do that from his example in Scripture. Responding to ignorance is even more difficult when we are criticized for seeking to live godly lives. The Apostle Peter teaches us that actions speak louder than words when it comes to bearing witness before those who ridicule us.
In sports, you hear a lot about two very different kinds of athlete. One is labeled an “underachiever”—an athlete who has a ton of talent but gets by putting out the minimal effort. The other is referred to as an “overachiever”— someone who makes up for a lack of physical giftedness and athletic prowess with an abundance of hard work, determination, and drive.
A workout partner is someone who will be there for you. It is a person who has your same desire to succeed. A workout partner is someone who can't wait to train with you. It is someone who can't wait to be energized by your energy level.
Paul was writing to the church in Rome. He couldn't wait to see them and spend time with them. Paul was excited to help them train. He was excited to tell them about Jesus. Paul was excited to train with them and be mutually encouraged by them.
Ever hear, “If you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying”? As an offensive lineman, I would justify holding by saying, “It’s only cheating once you get caught.” In football, holding by an offensive lineman is considered the same as driving a little over the speed limit. Yes, it is breaking a rule, but it is expected and everyone does it.
As a player, I held almost every play; and as a coach, I taught how to not get caught. Then a colleague informed me that allowing my players to hold is allowing them to be lazy. Holding can compensate for slow feet, lack of strength, and poor technique. Premeditated holding is ethically wrong, a form of cheating, and creates a slacker attitude. God wants, expects, and deserves our best.
Cell phones . . . how did we live without them? At the touch of our hands, we can be in contact with anyone, anytime, anywhere. What a great communication tool.
As a coach, I used to wish I had cell phone access to my players on the floor. Often they would not hear my voice or would choose to ignore it when they did not like what I said. But if I could have called them during a game, I know they would have answered the phone.
OK, that would be a little strange, but spiritually we have that kind of access. Anytime, anywhere, we have direct, open-line, no-towers-down communication with God through Jesus Christ. It is not long distance, but hopefully a local call if we are in constant contact with Him.
I love to watch the big guys at our football practices. Today many of them are almost 300-pound giants whose names will never be called out over the speakers at games. In the winter they spend time in the weight room getting bigger and stronger and building the stamina they need to push against the opposition. At practices they spend time working on their footwork and making sure that every step puts them in a position to make a solid block. Their names don’t show up in the stat sheets for yardage or touchdowns, but no team will ever win without them.
John the Baptist could be considered as the greatest lineman Jesus had in front of Him. John's actions were never about seeking glory for himself but about doing everything he could to clear the way for Jesus.
As a player, some of my worst games came on the heels of a good game, a game where I performed either up to or beyond expectations. I guess that’s why, as a coach, I was always wary of the game following a big win. Would the team still keep their edge, or would they approach the next game with a little less urgency? Confidence is good, but overconfidence can make a team vulnerable.
God warns us of becoming overconfident spiritually. Through Christ we have everything we need to live the Christian life, but often we’re the most vulnerable to temptation when we appear at our strongest. That’s when we often let down our guard, relying on our own strength instead of on Christ.
Marquette’s football team was 10–0 heading into the final game of the season, facing the possibility of the program’s first championship. But a few days before the game, the coach received a call: sixteen of his starters had been arrested for underage drinking! Team rules dictated alcohol use as punishable by suspension. The next week the coach watched his team’s hopes evaporate into a 63–0 loss while sixteen regular starters stood on the sidelines.
A Christian athlete speaks throughout the community about his faith and then gets arrested for drug use. A Christian coach prays with his team before every game and then it is discovered that he has been illegally recruiting players for years. A pastor builds a church from 200 to 2,000 members and then leaves his wife and children to run off with the church secretary.
I don’t know about other neighborhoods, but when I was younger we had the “do-over.” If our feet went out from under us or we miskicked the ball in a kickball game, what were the first words out of our mouths? “Do-over!”
Amazingly, God gave us a do-over! Paul wrote to the church in Corinth that when they accepted Christ, they were a new creation. The same is still true for us. When we accept Christ as Savior and Lord, we are a new creation. This means that no matter what our lives were like before we knew Christ or how many times we slip, we get a chance to do it again, completely free of charge.
My older brother Steve whooped on me on a regular basis. He was bigger, stronger, faster, smarter, and better than me in everything! We would play football, baseball, or a form of these from sun-up to sunset in the summer; and during the school year, from the final bell of class until the sun was long gone. Steve always beat me until he saw I was about to quit, then he would let me win so he could keep playing.
I fantasized of what it would be like to have Steve’s skills and size, but knew it was a waste of time. Fantasy got me nowhere. Steve was so good that I never really beat him for years. I gave it all I could but to no avail. But I kept coming back . . . kept working.
He had to make a choice. After the big win, all of his teammates were going out partying and drinking. How would he choose? Sound familiar? What about Noah?
“Lord, You want me to do what? Build what? An ark? And all those animals will listen to me? Right . . .” Noah had to make a choice. Build a big boat and obey, or don’t and tread water for a long time. He counted the cost and made the right decision. Noah did not choose what the crowd or his friends wanted him to do, but was loyal and obedient to God. We can be encouraged by Noah to take a stand and not be afraid to do something against the grain. The words “everyone is doing it” must not keep us from obeying God!
Since 1997, MasterCard has received hundreds of awards for their catchy ad campaign featuring the slogan “Priceless.” As Christians, I think the slogan for our relationships with Christ should be “Serving Is Priceless.” Most people think that serving is the same thing as service. I disagree. I believe there is a huge difference between the two. Christ did not come to give good service; He came to serve. As an athlete, I am not supposed to give good service to my teammates—I am to serve them. As a coach, I serve my team; I do not provide them a service. Service is something you pay for or something you expect, such as courteous and prompt attention from the employees at a restaurant or gas station. But serving goes deeper.
Momentum is the one thing that can turn a game completely around. This game-changing element can happen in any sport, but the one that comes to mind immediately is basketball. How often, while watching a game on television, do you hear the announcers start screaming, “Coach so-and-so better call a timeout soon”? They realize that if coach so-and-so doesn’t stop the game and allow the team to regroup, things will soon go from bad to worse. The same can happen to us as coaches when situations catch us by surprise, making a timeout needed. What’s a surprise situation? It’s one of those situations where nothing is going the way we’d like and our emotions get the better of us, causing us to react in a way we later regret.
The gym was packed with screaming fans. You could cut the tension with a knife. It was late in the fourth quarter and Luke had just come into the game—his first game as a varsity player. With time slowly ticking away, the ball was passed to him. He began to dribble toward the basket and . . . bounced the ball off of his foot and out of bounds. I am so out of place, Luke thought. Why did Coach put me in the game?
Many of us struggle with the constant pressure to be perfect within athletics. We get caught up seeking unreliable affirmation through our performance, so when things don't go our way many times we feel discouraged.
Tryouts are a great example. We work day in and day out to prove we ARE worthy of a spot. Summers we run sprints in the heat, nights we lift in the weight room and it feels like every second is spent honing our skills.
All that work leads to the moment tryouts finish and we run to the gym door to see if our name is one of the few listed on the final roster. Usually making the cut is a long process that requires hard work, focus and countless hours of training. To win a spot on the roster YOU have to earn it.
In ancient times, a soldier was only as good as the equipment he had. His only source of protection was his armor and his sword. In ancient warfare, there wasn’t the option to carry out attacks from miles away like we can today. It was always up-close, in a large crowd with hand-to-hand combat, and you needed armor that could protect you from every side.
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