After inheriting a team that had won only four games the previous two years, Ron Zook set out on a course to turn the University of Illinois football program around. While the record didn't change as quickly as Coach Zook would have liked, winning just two games in each of his first two years, the 2007 Illini have won eight games including wins against No. 5 ranked Wisconsin and No. 1 Ohio State. "If you believe in something, and you know you're doing the right thing, you've just got to stay the course," Zook said.

The principle of staying the course has application both in sports and in our spiritual lives. I love how Coach Zook says, "If you believe. . .you've just got to stay the course." If you truly believe in what you are doing, then staying the course is the only option.

Jesus tells a story of a farmer who goes out to plant some seed and parallels seed that falls on rocky soil to people who profess to have faith, but their faith proves to be superficial and artificial when trials come. In contrast, the seed that falls on good soil is like those "who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop" (Luke 8:15).

One abandons the course, the other stays the course: which will you be? It all depends on whether or not you truly believe what you say you believe.