Everyone wants to win. As coaches, we are probably more conscious of winning than most. After all, many times our livelihood rides on winning and losing. But we must be careful that our desire to win does not become our only emphasis with our athletes. We cannot push our players to win “at all costs.” The great coach John Wooden once said, “I don’t know whether always winning is good. It breeds envy and distrust in others and overconfidence and lack of appreciation very often in those who enjoy it.” How important it is for coaches to walk that fine line between wanting their teams to succeed, and acting as though winning is the only thing.

If we consider what Christ has done for us and what we can do through Him, we will realize that with God we are more than winners. In Luke 10:19, Jesus said, “I have given you the authority…over all the power of the enemy.” We know we will face many different enemies—family troubles, financial hardships, peer pressure—in our Christian walk. It would be much easier to just succumb to them, but through God’s wonderful grace we can be “more than victorious” (Rm 8:37).