What enters your mind as you read the verses above, knowing that God hates the behaviors listed there? Do you find yourself thinking of times, perhaps even recently, when you have done something that God abhors? It’s interesting (and convicting) that the Lord puts shedding innocent blood and spreading strife among brothers in the same list. To the world, shedding innocent blood is certainly considered much worse than creating conflict. But just what does it mean to stir up “trouble among brothers”?

It doesn’t matter how good or how bad you are at sports. God is love. It doesn’t matter whether you have all A’s or all F’s on your report card. God is love. But what exactly is love?

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails" (1 Corinthians 13:4-8, NIV).

There is a great Peanuts comic strip that shows Lucy about to catch a fly ball. At the last minute, she loses sight of the ball and misses it. Lucy turns to Charlie Brown and says that she is sorry, but the “past” got in her eyes.

It is easy to let past mistakes get in the way of a good performance. We remember what we have done wrong at the worst time in our lives and end up making the same mistakes again. Then we begin the cycle of rehearsing that mishap over and over in our mind.

As a Christian, instead of letting the past get in your eyes, turn your eyes to the present and to the possibility of doing things the right way. Remember, you are a new creation in Christ and you don’t have to keep making the same mistakes.

After injuries to ligaments in both knees cut his 2001 and 2002 seasons short, Oklahoma quarterback Jason White wanted desperately to get back on the field with his teammates. “For a while, it didn’t seem like it would happen,” White said.

White not only got back on the field in 2003, but he also led the Sooners to a 12-1 record and won the Heisman Trophy, the highest honor in college football. When reflecting on the grueling rehab that he had gone through to get to this point, White said, “I’d go through it all again.”

As I approached the third hurdle, I knew that I was a little too far away to take it with my right leg. So in a split second, I decided to alternate and go over with my left foot leading. I had done this a thousand times in my career, but this time when I landed I felt my knee shift out of the socket. I had hyperextended my knee, and I knew my running days were over.

Surrounded by my teammates, I was faced with a choice. My team knew me as the person who had led them in Bible studies and professed Christ, and now they waited expectantly to see what was going to proceed out of my mouth. In a split second their anxious eyes received the answer when I screamed, “Hallelujah!” I yelled it from the sheer pain I was feeling.

We were having an intersquad scrimmage and I was standing among a group of athletes, waiting to find out which team I would be on. I was sure that I would be placed on the team with the best athletes in the school, who were also my best friends. But instead, I was chosen to join a team that was considered to be the underdogs. In my anger and disgust, I told the coach that I was going to quit and began walking off of the field.

To my surprise, the coach let me go. I had been so sure that he would try to stop me, but he didn’t. As I continued walking away slowly, I started thinking, What am I going to tell my parents? And what are my friends going to think of me?

There had not been an undefeated Kentucky Derby winner since Seattle Slew did it in 1977. Fans watching the 2004 Kentucky Derby saw a Pennsylvania-bred horse named Smarty Jones, with a trainer and a jockey who were both rookies, end the 27-year drought by winning the race, running the horse’s record to 7–0. Jockey Stewart Elliott later said:

"It is just unbelievable. We bunched up a bit on the first turn but things turned out great. It was a good trip. I crossed the wire and I can’t explain it; there aren’t words to describe it. At the three-eighths pole, I knew I had a loaded gun underneath me. I was just going to sit until he straightened up and switched leads. He really went to running."

One of the common questions posed to sports fans is, “Who do you follow?” Most people answer with a city, school or mascot: “I’m a Denver fan.” “I follow the University of North Carolina.” “I’m a Hoosier.” No matter how you phrase it, we all follow one team or another. This applies to our lives in Christ as well.

It is not uncommon today to hear believers ask, “What are you?” Some say, “I am a Baptist.” Others claim to be Methodist, Lutheran, Catholic and so on.

When the 2004 NBA Western Conference semifinal series between the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Sacramento Kings began heating up, tempers started flaring. Kings guard Anthony Peeler hit former teammate Kevin Garnett in the face with an elbow during the third quarter of Game 6 and was immediately ejected from the game. “It was retaliation after [Garnett] hit me with an elbow,” said Peeler.

Retaliation is a natural response when we feel we have been wronged. If others hurt us, we want to hurt them back so that they know how it feels. We want them to feel the pain we feel. However, as Christians our desire is to live as Jesus did, so we must look at how He handled injustice. The Bible addresses this in several places, one of which is 1 Peter 2:21,23: