When I was playing professional lacrosse, I was the only Christian on my team (as far as I knew). I was outspoken about my faith during my four years of playing, and I never had another player share with me about their faith in Jesus. I felt God had placed me on the team to be a light. As the token Christian player, my teammates selected me to do the team prayer. Usually, if it was a big game, I would have a player say something like, “Pray a GOOD one Dan. This is a huge game!” The mentality was that a “good” prayer would lead us to victory; a “bad” prayer would lead to defeat.

Back when I was in college, I would always get excited about Thanksgiving break and getting to go home and be with family. I would be excited for turkey, football, and, of course, sleeping. What I found, however, was that I tended to rely on those activities to refuel me over the break. I would find myself thinking that if I could just get through the week before, then I would have rest and fun with my family.

It’s hard to simplify life. Narrowing the focus seems impossible. Over this past year, you may have been asked hundreds of times, “How is it going?” Your response was probably something like, “I have been SO busy!” You never hear someone say, “I’ve had so much time on my hands, and I’m looking for something new to do.” That person doesn’t exist.