Most people think that serving is the same as service, but I believe that there is a huge difference between the two. Service is something we pay for or something we might come to expect at a restaurant or at a gas station. But serving goes deeper. Serving deals with heart issues, involves sacrifice and meets real needs. We don’t pay for serving, though it can be costly.

Christ did not come to give good service. He came to serve. Athletes are not required to give good service to their teammates, but Christian athletes are called to serve. Coaches who follow the greatest servant who ever lived also have the privilege of serving their teams, not just providing a service to them.

What’s worse: getting beat by your opponent because they’re better than you or getting beat because of strife within your own team? The worst teams I’ve been part of as an athlete or coach were those with internal problems. Preparing for an opponent is tough enough, but trying to “right the ship” from within is a different animal. In the Old Testament, as Nehemiah and his crew rebuilt the wall, they were oppressed by outside forces. They struggled financially and started to fight, creating dissension. Finally Nehemiah had enough. He put his foot down and held an “all team” meeting. I’m sure he did most of the talking.

It was August 1984, at Alamo Heights High School. I burst into the middle of the locker room and yelled, “Who are we going to beat this week?” The room erupted and players and coaches celebrated like we had just won the championship, before we had even played a game! During that excitement my life changed direction. Louie Reiniger, one of our players, got in my face and yelled, “Coach, will you come to FCA tonight?”

Paul uses the phrase “one thing” to bring focus and clarity to his calling. This phrase appears five times in the New International Version of the Bible—once in the verse above in Philippians and four times in the Gospels:

In Luke 10:42, Jesus says to Martha, “only one thing is needed.”
In both Luke 18:22 and Mark 10:21, Jesus tells the rich man that he still lacks “one thing.”
In John 9:25, the blind man who was healed by Christ tells the Pharisees, “One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!”

In sports, how many times have we heard someone tell us to get our game face on? It’s a saying that’s used to bring up the idea or feeling of focus. When a person has their game face on they are ready for competition. They’re ready for the trial ahead of them and prepared to give their all. They are totally 100-percent focused.

As athletes or coaches, most of us would at one time or another in our careers have put on a game face of our own in sports, but what about as Christians? Have we ever thought about a spiritual game face?

When you’re in the midst of a situation that seems hopeless in sports or in life, how do you respond to your doubts and frustrations? As Christians, we all tend to think that doubt should never come to our minds. I mean, we believe that God can do anything, right?

First, let’s all step back and realize that we will constantly deal with the doubts in our human nature, but it’s how we respond to them that makes the difference. In Luke 5:8, Simon Peter responds to Jesus with a tone of frustration and doubt. Jesus had asked him to let down his fishing nets into deep water, but Peter responded by stating they’d already worked hard all night and hadn’t caught a thing.