When I commit to the TeamFCA Competitor's Creed, I realize that "I am made to strive, to strain, to stretch and to succeed in the arena of competition." That is a bold and intentional statement. But I think all competitors truly understand what it takes to strive, to strain, to stretch and to succeed. We must stay hungry to grow and to learn in our sports. That hunger to know the game allows us to compete at new levels. In order to be a hungry competitor we must look at the physical, the mental and the spiritual. A well-balanced athlete or coach knows that it is critical to balance all three areas.

Often I see people working on the physical (lifting weights, running) and the mental (watching game film, practicing), but when it comes to the spiritual, it seems to become optional. We do it only if we have time. As Christian competitors, we need to realize that the spiritual should come first. Without the spiritual training, nothing else matters. We need to strive, to strain, to stretch and to succeed in the spiritual area first. Do you have it: a heart that is hungry for Jesus?

I was shown by my grandfather, Pop, what it meant to be hungry spiritually, even to the very end. I had a lasting encounter with him right before he died. I went to visit Pop in his 79th year, one month before he passed away. As we talked in his living room, I noticed an interesting array of things on his end table. The small table held three things that intrigued me. The first was a large-print Bible. The second, a magnifying glass. The third, a tape recorder. I knew that his eyesight had been failing for years, which accounted for the first two things, but the tape recorder puzzled me. Out of curiosity, I asked him about it. His answer astonished me. "This is where I meet God every morning, and unfortunately by the end of the day, I sometimes forget what He taught me from His Word that morning. So I decided that if I read the Bible AND listened to it on tape, I'd double my chance of remembering it."

My grandfather was hungry till the end and was willing enough to do whatever it took to feed that hunger. What about you? Do you have a hungry heart for the Lord?