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After defeating Sonny Liston to win his first title in 1964, Muhammad Ali proclaimed to the press, “I am the greatest!” The sports world has given Wayne Gretzky the nickname, “The Great One.” But what exactly does it mean to be great? Is it determined by winning percentage? Championships? Fame? In the passage above, Jesus explained that greatness is being a servant. Today, I’d like to focus on three ways to serve your teammates:
Most know the story of Job and how he lost all of his children, property, and possessions. What was he like
before he lost it all? He was blameless, had complete integrity, feared God, and stayed away from evil. I believe that athletes and coaches often live dual lives—one way on the field and another off the field. We justify it saying they are two different areas of our lives that shouldn’t cross over. Job wasn’t like that. Job was blameless. No one could accuse him of wrongdoing. If he did wrong someone, he kept a short account and asked forgiveness.
A few weeks ago my family travelled to San Francisco to support my dad in the Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon. The athletes actually swam 1.5 miles from Alcatraz Island to the shore, completed an 18-mile bike ride and then finished with an 8-mile run.
I was getting ready this morning, minding my own business when I heard a proclamation from outside my house. It was loud. It was proud. It was my 4-year-old son singing at the top of his voice, “I’m in the Lord’s Army. Yes, sir!” He was sitting with his light saber in hand singing his praise to the General of the Heavenly Host. When we play sports, we go into battle. Sides are drawn, boundaries set, and the battle begins. No matter what the sport, we choose whom we will compete for and against. It is no different in our walk with Christ. Every day we battle against evil. We are in a war for our souls. God wants us to choose a side.
If we made a list of hindrances to athletes today, what would it include? Drugs? Violence? Selfishness? Anger? Cheating? What if I said laziness was one of the top three hindrances to athletes? Some may disagree because of the intense training and conditioning of today’s athletes. I agree they are conditioned, ripped, and seem to be more physically conditioned than ever before, but I’m not talking about physical laziness.
Hebrews 6:12 describes “lazy” as something dull, unexciting; something that is slow or has lost its momentum. In other words, not moving with the same velocity and aggressiveness it once had. This is a picture of someone who has lost his drive—like sitting in a sports car and only shifting the gear into neutral.
When you see a glass half-filled with water, what do you think? Is it half empty, or is it half full? It all depends on your perspective. So many different circumstances and situations happen in life. Uncertainties and challenges make life difficult, but attitude or perspective can make a positive difference. If you have the right perspective you can experience God's presence, power, promises and peace.
In Philippians 4:9, Paul said to learn from him, to put into practice the right perspective of faith in God no matter what your situation. There are three things we can learn from Paul when it comes to proper perspective.
True satisfaction—people search for it every day. Some people spend a lifetime acquiring DVDs, MP3s, video games, clothes, cars, and relationships—hoping that more of this world will satisfy them. As coaches and athletes, we often try to find satisfaction in practices, competitions, and victories. None of these things bring fulfillment. Christ should be our first priority. He should be the reason we wake up, the reason we breathe, and the reason we coach, practice, and play. This is a tremendous challenge. We have relationships, commitments, and schedules that pull us in different directions. We must refocus and get back to the basics—spending time daily in prayer, reading the Word, and being accountable to a fellow believer.
Last night our FCA Huddle completed our city clean-up project. While the act of adopting a one-mile stretch of the city streets in our small town is a small service, the fact that we had six Huddle members show up in cold, wet conditions said wonders about their dedication and commitment to serving their community. It would have been easy for them to blow off the event and stay home where it was dry so that they could work on homework or the 15-page paper many had due for their composition class. But these kids chose to take the path less traveled and work through steady rain showers to make their community a little nicer.
Pain gets our attention. When our bodies get injured, infected, or hurt, pain forces us to take action toward healing. If there were no pain, we would not take steps to mend the injury, resulting in further damage. Pain forces us to respond to emotional ailments as well. How we respond determines what kind of change we will see. Often we try to numb the pain and feel better for a while; but eventually the problems return. However, if we take action, we can find healing and restoration. The pain is difficult, but in it can be found blessings.
It seems like only yesterday that I was in my high school weight room pumping weights with the music cranked.
I have no doubt that the thousands of hours I spent in the weight room as a high school, college, and professional
athlete paid off. As a young man I wanted not only to get big, but also to excel in my sport. Lifting weights built
me up and strengthened me to be the best athlete I could. The muscle that I added helped me perform better and
kept me from injury. Too bad my mom didn’t like the fact that my clothes weren’t fitting anymore.
Paul wrote that we need to be “rooted and built up” in Christ. The Lord desires for us to develop spiritual
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