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Athletes hate slumps. They’ll try anything to get out of those times when they can’t hit the baseball or make a foul shot or catch a pass. Some players will change bats or shoes or their routine. They will do whatever it takes to get out of the slump. As Christians, a spiritual slump can make us feel like we’ve been forsaken by the Lord. Like athletes in a slump, we can struggle with doubts, fears, and frustrations. We can even feel like we’re losing the battle.
A while ago I went on a training run with my wife to get ready for my first 5k race in over a year. It felt great to get back out on the road, and the run was pretty uneventful.
Later that night, we headed to a friend's house, and when I looked down, panic set in. My wedding ring was missing from my hand. I checked my pockets; nothing. I quietly walked outside to retrace my steps, and still nothing. When was the last time I'd had it? How could I lose the one thing that symbolized this important commitment in my life?
During our training run the weather had been cool, my hands sweaty. Somewhere, during the four miles of sidewalks, intersections and city streets, my wedding ring had slipped off.
I heard a story about a busy intern who worked in the emergency room. An elderly man came in one morning to have stitches removed. He was in a hurry to be treated so he wouldn’t be late for breakfast with his wife. The doctors could not attend to him for at least another hour, so the intern decided to take the stitches out herself. While they were talking, the elderly man explained that his wife suffered from Alzheimer’s disease and had not recognized him for the past five years. When asked why he still visited her every day, he replied, “She doesn’t know me, but I still know who she is.”
A few years ago I was privileged to participate in the memorial service for a faithful servant, a dear friend and a former head football coach. More than two thousand of this man’s family, friends, colleagues, and student athletes attended the service. As I stepped into the pulpit of the church, I thought, Look at all these people. The grandstands are packed for him today. Everyone here is a cheerleader! What a great send-off for a coach, and a great testimony to a life well lived.
All athletes have experienced it. The day after a hard work out, we roll out of bed barely able to move. Aching pains shoot like firecrackers through our bodies, making us feel 100 years old. The fact is, during those hours spent in the gym, running, or at practice, we were literally pulling our muscles apart. The resistance of weights and movement caused the muscles to tear and the soreness felt is the body struggling to rebuild those fibers, stronger than before. Isn’t it crazy the pain we endure for a desired physical result—that six pack of abs and a set of pythons to make the Rock jealous? But what are we willing to suffer to be conditioned spiritually?
Have you ever had a change of plans? This week I was at a friend’s house planning to eat dinner and watch a movie and just relax. It had been a busy work day after a busy weekend, and I still had another conference the next morning. We wanted to just sit and relax for an evening, but God had other plans. My friend had forgotten that he had committed us to speak at another church opportunity. So, off we went.
God’s Word is very clear that when we have the opportunity to bring the Good Word, we are to seize the moment. Second Timothy 4 tells us to preach the Word whether now or later. When opportunity knocks, we are to speak out for Christ whether to a group of two or 200. We must take the chance to share about God with those who are willing to listen.
Hockey Chat: Goal judges were first used around 1877 in Montreal and stood right behind the goal (a brutal job for someone with no pads). Years later, they sat in elevated cages behind the glass and when they would see the puck cross the line, they’d turn on the bright red goal light to signal to everyone that a goal has been scored. The red light is a hockey icon now being a symbol of scoring a goal.
Years ago Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Namath guaranteed that his underdog New York Jets were going to beat the powerful Baltimore Colts in the Super Bowl … and wouldn’t you know … they did it! But since that time there have been many athletes and coaches who have guaranteed a win and it didn’t turn out that way. Why? Nothing on this planet is truly guaranteed. As a matter of fact, there are very few real guarantees in life. Even when you purchase something that is guaranteed, that doesn’t mean it’s going to work forever. It just means that when it breaks, the guarantor will fix or replace it.
Our power lies not in our perfection, but in our pursuit. We are a results-driven people, especially athletes. Perfection is the goal and we do what it takes to get there, even if that means sacrificing what really matters. There is much good in wanting to perform well. However, tunnel vision comes when we place our worth, security, and joy in our idea of perfection. But we can never arrive at perfection. Perfection has no power because it leaves us empty. Pursuit, on the other hand, holds what is real. Pursuit says, “I’m not perfect, but I will do what I can with what I have in the moment I have been given, in the midst of where I am.” In pursuit we find God.
Hockey Chat: Martin Brodeur used it as a popcorn bowl when he took his wife and children to see the movie ''The Kid'' in Montreal. Scott Gomez brought it into an Anchorage park on a dog sled. Petr Sykora took it to an orphanage in Prague. Scott Niedermayer flew it by helicopter to the top of the Rocky Mountains in Cranbrook, British Columbia. It’s been used as a flowerpot, baptismal, and champagne glass. Yet regardless of all the uses it has seen, the Stanley Cup is still a symbol of hockey greatness and the most prestigious trophy in all of sports.
As coaches we want to mold our players to produce a championship team. We know that if each player accepts his role, believes in our plan, and executes it, then we will be positioned to win. But if the reliever wants to start and the lead-off hitter swings for the fences with two strikes, your chances for having a great season are slim. The greatest challenges a coach faces are to properly identify roles and to consistently encourage players to believe in the coaching staff, their teammates, themselves, and their assigned roles.
Hockey Chat: Mark Messier was a great goal scorer with 694 goals in his 20 years of playing. But he doubled that number with the passes he made that helped his teammates score time after time. His linemates knew that he was a great playmaker and were ready to grab goals of their own from his assists. His efforts won him and his teammates six Stanley Cups.
Throughout my years of training as a wheelchair athlete, I have found that memorizing and reciting Bible verses helps me in many ways. It helps me to stay focused, to get to sleep and to stay calm in anxious moments.
Prior to a race, I often recite a verse in my mind to calm my heart. I know that God is going with me as I race and that He will give me what I need on that particular day.
One of my strengths as a wheelchair racer is my endurance, but I’m usually slow off the start. I will never forget the time when one of my coaches shouted at me after a race about my slow start. “What were you thinking? Where was your mind, anyway?” she asked.
Over the past fourteen years, I have been a defensive coach in our high school football program. Specifically, I coach linebackers. In order to play linebacker successfully at our level, a player must make a total commitment to the expectations placed upon him. It requires an unwavering self-discipline.
In high school, a few of my football teammates shared a pre-game ritual. Before each game they would sit down in the locker room. The first guy would wrap his left wrist with a roll of tape and hand it to the second guy. The second guy would wrap both of his wrists (left first) then hand back the roll. The first guy would then finish his wrap on his right wrist, and hand back the roll again. He would then get up, move to the other side of his taping partner and toss the roll to a third guy. This guy would then put the roll in his locker until the following week . . .to do it all again. These guys swore by this ritual. Did it work? We went undefeated in the regular season, so the ritual must have worked, right? But in the playoffs, we went down in flames. What good was it then?
In 1979, as a Christian follower for fourteen years, I awoke to find my world crumbling. I had tried to be a good coach, a good provider, a sharing Christian, a church deacon, and a well-conditioned athlete. But I learned a great lesson that day. Sometimes I can be doing God’s work and not God’s will! I had been trying to do God’s work, but His will was for me to love my wife more.
I turned to my Bible and immediately turned to the verse above, 2 Timothy 3:1–5. I knew this was written for me. Immediately I read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in order to know Jesus and His words. I said, “If I was an apostle with Jesus in His time—what would I have thought?”
Hockey Chat: Carlton "Mac" McDiarmid, a long-time goal judge at the Montreal Forum, recalls one of his first NHL games in the early 1970s. When a Toronto Maple Leaf player wound up to take a slap shot at his net, he excitedly, and prematurely, signaled a goal. The puck was stopped by the net minder. Referee Andy Van Hellemond came up to him between periods to offer him some sound goal-judge advice. "He said, 'Look, Mac, it's better to be a second late than a second early.' "
Matthew’s Gospel contains a sermon Jesus gave—a talk we refer to as His Sermon on the Mount. In this sermon Jesus taught about humility, love, the law of God, prayer, and how to live the Christian life. There were two aspects to this sermon that made it truly revolutionary. The first is that this sermon was preached by God incarnate, the God-man Jesus Christ. He was the living Word, preaching and teaching with authority.
As I stood in the phone booth, tears came to my eyes. I had just called my parents to let them know that I would be flying home that night to Los Angeles. The Cleveland Cavaliers had become the third straight NBA team that I had failed to make.
How could this happen? I had such high hopes of realizing my dream to play in the NBA when I was drafted out of the University of Iowa, but it was becoming clear to me that dreams don’t always come true.
As the tears ran down my face, I thought that my days as a basketball player were over. I had lost my identity. Basketball was my life. What would the future hold now? I should have known that my future was in the hands of Someone bigger than myself. Yes, God was still in control, even if I was not aware of it.
Regardless of the trip, this is the conversation my wife and I usually have and for many of us, it’s a part of the vacation tradition. We plan, arrange, pack, plan some more and make sure all the details of our destination are in order. We fill up our days making sure we get as much as we can in while we’re away. After all, it is our vacation.
But God shared something very profound with me during the 12 hour car ride. It was so profound for me that I was curious as to how I could have overlooked it in all of my previous family vacations, treks and trips.
All my friends and I are turning 16 this year and, let me tell you, that’s a big one. I always know who’s just had a birthday, not because their school locker is decorated or because of that faint scent of butter cream frosting on their breath, but because of something far more significant: that shiny new driver’s license burning a hole in their wallet! Hey, that is a milestone in a kid’s life. And that little piece of plastic pretty much tells it all. I mean, it tells your height, your weight, your eye color—everything you’d need to know about a person. But, if you ask me, even with all that information, a lot of kids in my generation are having a serious identity crisis!
A recent study reports that only six percent of teens today believe that moral truth is absolute. Not good. Young people basically see life as a sliding scale. Truth has become relative, depending on the situation. In athletics, there are many truths that cannot be relative. Imagine if every athlete defined winning differently—one by score, one by hustle, one by the best fans, and so on. It would be chaos! Fortunately, or unfortunately, winning is defined by the scoreboard. Life without absolutes and boundaries leads to chaos.
One of God’s greatest gifts to us is that he is willing to direct our paths. He has prepared a way for us, but we must be willing to follow it. It is easy to say we want to take God’s path, but it is just as easy to get off course.
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