One of my favorite parts of sports, as a player and later as a coach, is the pre-game locker room speech, especially those given before a big championship game.

As you know, there are several famous pre-game speeches from great coaches, and I'm sure you can recall bits and pieces of some of them. One of my personal favorites is from Herb Brooks, head coach of the 1980 USA Hockey Team. Prior to one of the team's biggest games, Brooks said, "You were born to be a player. You were meant to be here at this moment. You were meant to be here at this game." And as you probably know, that USA hockey team went on to defeat the Russian hockey team in one of the great wins of all time.

Sometimes people want to say something to a friend, but chicken out at the last minute because they think it might be silly or embarrassing. Often, they later regret not saying it. What does God think about such situations?

Proverbs 25:11 states: “A word spoken at the right time is like golden apples on a silver tray.” We all know the value of gold and silver, even if we can’t afford them. We also know how sweet to the taste apples are. How valuable and how sweet to our souls would apples of gold be? Certainly they would have great value, especially when served to us on fine silver.

This year I have decided to run my second marathon. Currently I am in the middle of my training and have hit a wall. Actually my training buddy and I both hit a wall. After putting in over 50 miles of running a week for 8 straight weeks, our bodies are tired and our motivation is lacking.

Why is it that when we can’t do something, such as not compete due to injury, we would give anything to get back to where we were? Yet when we are in the best shape of our lives, we take for granted the precious gift God has given us.

Last summer at FCA Captain’s Camp, high school athletes were pushed to their mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual limits. Thankfully, my job was simple – I was the “Waterboy”. When I was a high school athlete, waterboys were often treated as the “least” important part of the team. They did the job no one else wanted to do.

But Jesus never views those who play a seemingly “small” role as unimportant. He never looked down on those who served behind the scenes or did the jobs nobody else wanted. In fact, Jesus flips that concept on its head. He says the least among us will be the greatest. Those we consider great – the best players, the best coaches – will only be considered great in God’s eyes if they serve like the Waterboy serves.