As I approached the third hurdle, I knew that I was a little too far away to take it with my right leg. So in a split second, I decided to alternate and go over with my left foot leading. I had done this a thousand times in my career, but this time when I landed I felt my knee shift out of the socket. I had hyperextended my knee, and I knew my running days were over.

Surrounded by my teammates, I was faced with a choice. My team knew me as the person who had led them in Bible studies and professed Christ, and now they waited expectantly to see what was going to proceed out of my mouth. In a split second their anxious eyes received the answer when I screamed, “Hallelujah!” I yelled it from the sheer pain I was feeling.

Their comes a point in life where nothing just seems to go right. We get bad grades, we have to deal with injuries while we play a sport, we're not fitting in with the right crowd, or something just as simple like "I don't belong here." Trust me. I've been through my fair shares of these plenty of times. But no matter how dull life may seem, or how unlikely your luck is to turn around, you can't lose your Faith. Even when you think that everything seems impossible, it's not. Luke 1:37 states that NOTHING is impossible with God. More people need to believe this saying, because with all of the difficulties we face in the world everyday, I don't see how any of us could get through life without Christ.

Former Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne said, “I’ve found that prayers work best when you have big players.” Maybe when it comes to football, big players do make the difference in prayer. In the game of life, I’ve discovered the bottom line to getting prayers answered. As I look back on the times God has answered my prayers, I know why I got the answer. It was because I prayed the right prayer. I was specific with God when I prayed.

In Malachi 3:10 the Lord says, “Test Me in this way…See if I will not open the floodgates of heaven and pour out a blessing for you without measure.” Here we see the power of God to provide when we test Him. The way to test God is to be specific.

Recently while I was fasting for a major FCA event we were hosting, I came to the realization that fasting was much like carbohydrate loading. As a marathon runner, I have used various forms of this tactic before my races. One way to “carbo load” is to deplete your body of energy-producing carbohydrates (sugars) for a few days, and then on the day before the activity, consume primarily carbohydrates. The idea is to use your maximized energy sources when you need them for your competition.