Another signing day has passed in college football. The rankings are out and once again colleges like USC, Oklahoma, Florida State and Michigan have locked down the "best" high school athletes in the country. "Blue chippers," high school All-Americans and All-Stars have made their decisions, and now coaches and fans will begin to celebrate their recruiting "victories."

Every team has them. Most of us have even played the role ourselves, but no one really likes to. It’s the role of the bench-warmer.

There are only so many players who can play at one time, and every team has players who sit on the bench more than they play in the game. But does this make them any less of a team member than one of the starters? No way! The role of a bench-warmer is simply different than that of a starter. Bench-warmers have big roles in contributing to practices, developing team spirit, and in giving necessary breaks to the starters.

I still remember being a 12-year-old aspiring basketball player and hearing NBA Hall-of-Famer Adrian Dantley teach about basketball’s “triple threat.” I learned that when you first receive the ball, you are in a great position with three potential options: dribble, shoot or pass. I wouldn’t soon forget the power of the triple threat. It changed the way I played basketball, and it even helped me beat my older brother in one-on-one a few times.

As followers of Christ, we also have a “triple threat.” Our opponent, Satan, wants to defeat us and take us out. He doesn’t want us to win and is working overtime to make sure you and I are discouraged and overwhelmed. We start believing that the goal in life is to just survive—just get through one more day.

Have you ever had a bad game? One in which your shots just weren't falling, or when you had a hard time completing a pass? How about one in which your pitches were off? The list could go on and on. 

Everyone has had those games when, no matter how hard you try, it seems as if nothing goes your way. It's a part of athletics; it's a part of life.

No one likes to perform poorly, but it's in these moments when God is clearly seen. We must recognize that even our best efforts are ultimately useless without the Lord; we can accomplish nothing without Him. We can also learn another thing from these times--that all of our abilities, our talents, everything we have is a blessing and that they can all be taken away.

My first three seasons as a varsity boys’ basketball coach were very successful. We won many games and advanced deep into the tournament each year. I remember having a very good attitude during those years. The next four years, however, weren't quite what I expected. My attitude deteriorated as I faced losing teams, losing jobs, moving my family and being rejected by friends.

I stood at his grave in a beautiful cemetery. His grave was inconspicuous. The marker was very simple, with only his name on it. It was a moving experience for me.

I had first met this man eleven years before his death. For years I had watched and admired him from a distance and never dreamed I would get to meet him. In fact, I actually got to be with him on several occasions over the years. I cannot say I knew him well, but I was as impressed after getting to know him as I was prior to knowing him. He was a man of character, integrity, and humility. He was real. He was down to earth.

Imagine playing your sport without a ball when one is needed. You walk 18 holes swinging a club aimlessly without once striking a golf ball. You shoot baskets without feeling the ball release from your fingertips. You drop back to throw a 50-yard bomb to a wide open receiver for a game-winning touchdown, but there’s nothing in your hand. Yes, it sounds ludicrous to do these things. It would eliminate the game itself. Most sports require a ball in order to fulfill the goals and objectives of the game. Simply put, a game without a ball is not even a game at all.

As competitors, we understand the law of the harvest. What we sow or plant today will produce a harvest at a later time with a greater result. We understand that the training we do today will not produce results today, or even tomorrow, but will produce great results down the road. It will even produce something greater than the training itself. For example, in basketball, working overtime on shooting will produce not just a better shooter, but a better player for the team. The law of the harvest is about later and greater.

Scripture is the basis of our faith. But, sometimes, I think we get so caught up in life that we start to look at familiar verses and almost label them as cliché. As sad as that sounds, we hear verses like John 3:16, Philippians 4:13 and Jeremiah 29:11 and simply pass them by or say to ourselves, “Oh, I’ve heard that a thousand times.” While that may be true, it doesn’t take away the relevance of Scripture!

A high school coach of mine once said that when things go wrong, it is important to go back to the basics—to the foundation of the game—and to re-establish a routine. He was talking about softball, but I think this relates to our faith in a profound way.

When you go into a game, athletes have to think they will win. They can’t think they might win. They have to think they will win. If that happens on both sides, it means that there will be two teams entering the game thinking the same thing, and only one will get to live it out. No matter how much we wish we could all win, in the end, one of us will lose. And a big determining factor in who comes out victorious is the infamous game clock.

No matter how much we wish we could, we can’t put more time on the clock in any game. Each game we play is set up to be played in a certain amount of time. Whether it is counted by seconds and minutes or by innings or sets, each game has a set time frame. What we do in this amount of time determines the outcome of the game.

John was the man. He was the star of every team he played on at his school. Had the best car, the best girl, the best of everything. On the outside, he lacked nothing. Everybody wanted to be like John. His lifestyle was fast and furious. He played hard and partied hard as well. Most people thought it was good to be John. But John was not content. He knew he was missing something in his life. After practice one Wednesday, Bill, a teammate of John's, invited him to come to FCA that night. Bill thought John would never come, but he showed up. John heard the Good News of Jesus Christ, and it made him think. He asked Bill if he could come to church with him that Sunday as well. Something was happening in John's life.