I love college football and everything about it. I love watching a good offense, but there is nothing like a strong front line on the defensive side. There is nothing more intimidating to me than having a great front four that doesn’t let anyone advance down the field. They are the rock of their defense — a mighty fortress, so to speak. Nothing can penetrate them when the offense tries to advance. They stand firm. What an awesome sight it is to see nothing cross the line of defense.

In the parable of the talents, the ruler blessed three of his servants with different talents, and they were to do something with them. One buried his and didn’t do anything with it and the ruler came back and basically said, “Wicked man. You didn’t do what you were supposed to do.” Of the other two—one multiplied his talent a little bit and the other maximized his to the fullest. That’s where I feel like I sit.

One of the earliest lessons I learned in competition was that no one came to our home field and defeated our team in front of our family and friends. It was always motivating to deny the visiting team victory on our turf. There’s something special about being the home team. Teams now have slogans like “Not in our house!” and “Not in our backyard!” There is a responsibility to secure and protect home-field advantage.

The 1996–97 season was both victorious and sorrowful for the Detroit Red Wings hockey team. In this triumphant year, the team had won hockey’s greatest prize—the Stanley Cup. But joy quickly turned into tragedy as a car accident claimed the career of a leading player on their team.

Hockey Chat:  You don’t hear of penalties given for blocking the goalies view even though they hate when someone stands in front of them “screening” and then a puck trickles in unseen.  There is no rule in the rule book about that therefore it’s an OK tactic.  The goalie would like to make up that rule but if everyone got to write up their own rules for the book the game would be a mess.

My brother, Stu, was a wrestler in high school. His junior year he won 14 and lost 10, which is not bad, but he wasn’t happy with the results. So, he decided to spend one summer at various camps to get better.

Stu knew one of his weaknesses was wrestling in the standing position. He was terrible at takedowns. When he went on the offensive, he usually ended up on the bottom. His defensive strategy usually yielded the same results. At the camps he worked hard to overcome these weaknesses. He sought good coaching, made tremendous efforts, and then implemented the new strategy. The next year Stu ended up with 24 wins and only six losses!

My dad loved to engage God daily and passionately challenged others to do so as well. It had not always been that way. Eighteen years ago he was an overcommitted businessman who would squeeze in a two-minute devotion in his car before running into his office. That changed when Brad Curl saw that my dad, who was on many ministry boards, was skimming with his devotions. To get his attention, Brad grabbed my dad and said, “Ed, stop playing with God. You are a Christian leader. Start diving into God’s Word and get serious! No more giving God leftovers!” That day marked my dad. No more two-minute devos! My dad’s life transformed as he feasted on God’s Word first thing every morning.

It had been a long day of doing things for my summer job, and it had thrown my schedule out of whack. The time I had put aside to do my lifting and running for football also got messed up. And if having my day split into pieces wasn’t bad enough, the aches and pains from the grind of summer workouts was beginning to wear down on me. That’s when the clouds rolled in and the rain started to fall.