When NASCAR drivers head to Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee, they know that they will need an extra dose of patience. Going into the 2004 Food City 500, Kurt Busch, looking to win his third consecutive race at Bristol, said, "There's no real reason to get in a hurry at all." Easy to say until you find yourself going 140 mph on the short half-mile track with forty-two other cars. Busch seems to know a little about winning there, holding off Rusty Wallace for his third win in a row and fourth of the last five races at Bristol.

How do you prepare for a game? For a season? For a test? Do you spend time making a game plan that will work, or do you just hope for the best? Watching teams play over the years in many different sports, you begin to wonder. You see some teams work their plans to perfection, and you wonder if others just roll the balls out in practice while the coach takes a nap. Now, we know that never happens, but in preparing for a contest or upcoming season, much time is devoted to the details it takes to make sure you are ready to compete. Then it comes — the final day before the games begin. Will the team be able to put into practice what they worked so hard at perfecting? Physically they may be ready, but what about mentally, or better yet, spiritually? Spiritually prepared?

Abby was on cloud 9. She was a freshman who had just made the varsity girls' soccer team. She played hard her freshman year, but when tryouts came her 10th grade year, she put no effort into what she was doing. She thought she was guaranteed a spot on the team. Abby got cut.

This story can easily be paralleled with the Christian walk. So many times we become complacent and feel that since we've accepted Christ, we've done our job. It's easy to sit in FCA or our youth groups, but what really matters is how we are pushing ourselves to become better Christians. Halfway doesn't cut it with God. In Revelation 3:15-16 God tells us He'd rather us be hot or cold. We have a world to save. We can't afford to be complacent.

March Madness has arrived. How did these 64 teams and 64 head coaches arrive in the tournament? Some teams had it easy, some had a tough road, and still others charted new territory as they brought their team to the tournament for the first time in years. Early in the season, many coaches had to decide if they were going to dance to the madness or become miserable as their hopes were dashed by defeat after defeat. One such Coach took the road from misery to March Madness to ministry. Lorenzo Romar, head coach of the Washington Huskies, found the right road to take.

March Madness has arrived. State and College basketball tournaments have begun and many are finished. In our state (Illinois), the girls' AA tournament just ended. Once again, Naperville Central won the state crown, led by Coach Andy Nussbaum and athlete Candace Parker. Candace tore her ACL last summer and missed many games before Christmas, but since her return, they have gone undefeated all the way to back-to-back state championships. She was the difference-maker for her team. She will be heading to Tennessee to play for Coach Pat Summit next year.

She was a cute and happy kindergartener in the very first PE class I taught in 1987. I knew she would grow up to be quite a young lady. Seventeen years later, Kristen is a senior playing basketball for a Christian college in Indiana. Coming off an outstanding high school career, Kristen has had a hard time finding success at the next level in most people's eyes. You will not find a harder worker or a more disciplined ball player than this young lady, but for some reason her number is not called too many times. Many players in her situation would have quit by now, but not Kristen.

Mike is one of my best friends. What you need to know about Mike is that he is a natural-born athlete. I, on the other hand, am a natural-born glutton for punishment. When Mike and I were in college and graduate school, we spent a lot of time working at our neighborhood pool during the summers. When there was a break in the action, we'd play some basketball on one of the hoops that was set up adjacent to the pool's tennis courts. I never beat him head-to-head. Let's just say that he was the Kevin McHale of our neighborhood, while I played basketball like the swimmer I was. Sometimes, though, one of Mike's best friends from college, Jeff, would stop by for a visit.