NBA Player, Chauncey Billups, said, “To be a good leader, at some point you have to be a good follower. I was always a good follower. I always followed the right people and listened to the right things.
Those helped shape me as a leader.” So, are you a good follower?

I can’t tell you how many times I have heard “Are you a leader or a follower?” when I was growing up. A subtle principle was communicated through that question: “be a leader not a follower!”

Recently while reading a book, I was reminded of the parable of the hidden treasure. This lesson from Matthew 13:44 offers a powerful message in just a single verse of Scripture. The beginning of Matthew 13 says that Jesus had been standing in a boat, teaching a crowd on the shore. Then, in verse 36, we are told that He left the crowd and went inside a house. When they were inside, the disciples asked Him to explain one of the parables He’d used, and once He’d finished that explanation, He offered another two-sentence parable.

A few days ago, I went out for a long training run. It wasn't a particularly pretty day, and I wasn't exactly looking forward to the run ahead of me. About four miles in, it started to drizzle. A mile later, it was raining. I found myself looking around realizing that I was the only one out there running in the weather. My mind started to harp on how miserable it was, how much longer I had to go, and how I could probably just take a shortcut and go home. Then I felt God speak to me.

“That’s never been done here before.” “We’ve never been to the state playoffs.” “We’ve never beaten them before.” How many times have athletes looked at past seasons as the standard for the current season? The past can be a great thing when kept in perspective.

Football coach Vince Lombardi once said, “Winning means you're willing to go longer, work harder, and give more than anyone else.” That's so true. To be a winner you must make a commitment to sticking with a task and following through with it. We all want to be winners, but many things, including the many temptations to make bad choices, stand in our way. Those choices often keep potential winners on the sidelines.

Life is full of trade-offs. The bad choices you make today are the down payments on your problems tomorrow. It's all a part of living under God's law of sowing and reaping (Galatians 6:8).

Baseball is often a game of controlled failure. Failing 7 out of 10 times can be considered a success. Unfortunately, this isn’t the same in our relationships.

In a large local tournament, one of our top players chose to play with a stronger team—a choice he was allowed to make. I was glad for him because he made a decision and stuck with it. Some families were offended because they felt we could win the tournament if we had him with us.

Whether it’s grading films, evaluating staff, or being evaluated by a superior, we’re all familiar with some standard of measurement—systems by which we determine how things are going. God has a system too. His system is called the Ten Commandments, found in Exodus 20. If we have broken even one of these commandments, the Bible says we’re guilty of breaking them all (Jms 2:10).

Friday night at a high school football game, I saw something that doesn’t happen very often: an offense had a first-and-goal opportunity at the one-yard line and they failed to score. The opposing defense came up big and made a huge stand to prevent the touchdown that probably would have lost them the game.

In life, how often do we feel like we're down-and-out, like Satan and his team have marched the ball straight down the field until they're standing with first-and-goal on our one-yard line just about ready to punch it in and score? Often, when we're at our weakest, winning seems impossible. The devil attacks hoping for the easy kill.

As Thanksgiving comes around, I am getting so ready to go home and be with family. I am excited for turkey, football, and, of course, sleeping. But with all these activities I tend to rely on them to refuel me over the school break. I find myself thinking that if I can just get through this week then I will have rest and fun with my family.

When I step back, I realize that I have started trusting in my activities to get me through this grueling week rather than relying on the Lord. I am trusting in my family, food, football and fellowship more than I am trusting in God. But God is a jealous God and wants our full attention and for us to completely trust in Him—to understand that He alone can bring meaning to our life.