Devotional
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April 11, 2006
Set:
“Some of my vivid images of Jerry Rice are him working out at the Pro Bowl. Here you are, after he wins the Super Bowl, he’s played in front of 500 million people. Less than a week later, he’s out there running wind sprints to play in what is our only exhibition game,’ says NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue on ESPN Classic’s SportsCentury series.
Jerry Rice is arguably the best wide receiver in the history of football. Rice had a reputation for training hard. He understood the benefits of taking care of his physical body so that on the field he could perform at a level that surpassed everyone else. He understood the power of training.
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April 11, 2006
Set:
On February 16, 2005, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman cancelled what little was left of the 2004–- 2005 hockey season exactly five months after the NHL lockout began. No compromise was reached between players and owners, and the NHL received the shameful distinction of becoming the first professional sports league in North America to miss an entire season due to a labor dispute.
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April 11, 2006
Set:
The debate over steroid use on the college, professional, and Olympic levels is growing. Allegations of steroid use have cost many athletes their jobs and their lives. When their first priority is to honor and glorify self, some athletes will go to extreme measures. Their hope is in themselves and in pursuing their own glory. If they fail, they feel worthless. Their worth is tied up in being the best no matter what the cost.
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October 07, 2005
Set:
In the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games, sprinter Bob Hayes tied the Olympic record on his way to winning the gold medal in the 100-meter dash. Just a few months later, Hayes was dashing past defensive backs as a wide receiver for the Dallas Cowboys. It was a radical idea at the time: taking a world-class sprinter and turning him into a football player. Hayes’s success altered defensive strategy and changed how football was played.
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October 07, 2005
Set:
As the head women’s basketball coach at the same institution for 26 years, I had just completed a rewarding season. We had a great group of athletes who played their hearts out, got along well and won games. There were many magical moments during the season, and no one wanted it to be over. But all good things must come to an end.
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October 07, 2005
Set:
One of my favorite things about John Wooden’s coaching was that he taught his players each year to put on their socks and tie their shoes properly. You’d think college-aged athletes could already do this, but Wooden took nothing for granted. He paid attention to the little things, which made the big things come more easily for his teams over the years.
Of course, Coach Wooden wanted to teach his players a lesson: If they were going to play in his program, they had to put aside what they wanted to do and follow his plans for the team. That discipline in the small things gave his teams great results, as they won 10 national championships and set an example for the rest of us how the little things make the biggest difference.
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October 07, 2005
Set:
Those of us who watch a lot of sports programs on television have probably seen the St. Louis Cardinals’ “blanket” commercial. It begins with a man who wraps a red St. Louis Cardinals’ blanket around himself. As it turns out, the blanket is the one constant in his life as he grows up. As a child, he uses it as a cape when he runs up the steps, and he drapes it over his bed when he studies. It is on the seat when he learns to play the drums as a teenager, in the trunk when he moves out of the house, and around his girlfriend while they watch a movie. The commercial ends with the man wrapping the blanket around his child as these words come on the screen: “Without sports, what would we hold on to?”
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October 07, 2005
Set:
What does it take to win the game? The answer to this question often dictates the primary philosophy that coaches use as the basis of their decisions. Under ever-increasing pressure to win, every coach and player has been encouraged to bend or break the rules. In the world of sports, why is it so difficult to discern what constitutes cheating?
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October 07, 2005
Set:
In 2001, golfer Annika Sorenstam dominated the women’s professional tour, winning eight tournaments and topping two million dollars in earnings. After that phenomenal year, Annika’s chief rival, Karrie Webb, commented that she’d eat her hat if Annika won eight tournaments in the coming year. The following season, Annika won eleven tournaments and earned nearly three million dollars in prize money.
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October 07, 2005
Set:
Competition is an obvious part of the coaching life, resulting in either winning or losing. But God’s Word reminds us not to get so caught up in the results that we forget to take care of the flock—the athletes—who have been put under our watch.
Of course, we all want to win. Yet if we forget that we’re really working toward an imperishable crown (as Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 9:25), then we’ve lost sight of why we’re coaching in the first place. In other words, just as we live our lives to please the Good Shepherd, so too should we coach our players with the same goal. In the process, we’ll serve as examples to the sheep.
