My family competed at everything—football, basketball, lacrosse—even dinner as we inhaled our food to finish first. We called my dad Captain Intensity because he did everything at 110 percent. I remember hearing of his lacrosse days at the U.S. Naval Academy, and when he played against Jim Brown (football and lacrosse player at Syracuse and one of the greatest NFL running backs of all time). My dad had a hit on Brown that changed the course of the game. It was a breakthrough play for my dad, who then started every game after that.

Breakthrough is a great word used in sports. Any play that changes the course of a game is usually called a breakthrough play. A breakthrough game changes the course of a team’s season.

Chad was the consummate team player, working harder than everyone else. He was humble and unselfish, and never once did I hear him talk trash to an opponent. I knew there was something different about Chad, but I couldn’t quite figure out what it was.

At age 16 I began to search for the purpose of my existence. Sports were gratifying, but I knew they wouldn’t last forever. Around this time, I learned that the difference between Chad and me was that he had a personal relationship with Jesus that influenced his life on and off the field.

There are some things that just set a coach off. Together those things make up what I call my "Hot List"--things that made me mad fast!

1. A lazy player.
2. Someone who is constantly late.
3. Those who would rather complain than try harder.
4. Those who blame everyone else and never take responsibility for their own actions.

These players really pushed me to the limit as a coach. Was there redeeming value in them? Absolutely. But rarely did they see it in themselves.

As a competitor, it is hard to give glory where glory is due, when others deserve it more than we do. Training, discipline, perseverance, and drive are all characteristics that can propel an athlete to the next level, making good athletes into great athletes.

But often after achieving a goal, we feel that it is our hard work that got us to that point. The praise, honor, and glory are focused on us as individual athletes.

Part of FCA’s Competitor’s Creed states:

“I do not trust in myself.

I do not boast in my abilities

or believe in my own strength.

I rely solely on the power of God.

I compete for the pleasure of

my Heavenly Father, the honor of Christ

and the reputation of the Holy Spirit.”

When it comes to excellence, I first have to look at everything through God’s eyes. I look at who Jesus was as the ultimate example of excellence, service, and humility, and all of those values. I look at Him, and I obviously fall short in each of those in comparison to Him. His example is the pure definition of excellence. It all starts with Jesus and looking at Him and His life. You look at the Christian faith and who we are as people, and we all fall short of Christ’s example. But that doesn’t mean we should stop striving for excellence. I think when we give up on that, we sort of miss the whole concept that Jesus teaches us.

This weekend Gary Brasher will attempt to accomplish something that most of us would never even consider, much less aspire to, when he completes a triple-iron triathlon. That’s a full iron-distance triathlon every day for three consecutive days! He will swim, bike and run his way over 422.6 miles in a 72-hour span! It is truly one of the most difficult sporting endeavors ever imagined.

I was watching an interview on ESPNews with Barry Bonds. The topic was steroids. Bonds’s personal trainer was one of four men recently charged in a steroid-distribution ring that allegedly supplied dozens of professional athletes with banned substances.

Athletes at all levels these days are doing all they can to get the edge. Nutritional supplements—some legal and healthy, others not—are widely used to give athletes an extra boost, better workouts and faster strength gain.

But what are the supplements of our spiritual lives? What does the spiritual steroid (without the negative connotation) look like? How do we get a boost?

Back when I played “ankle-biter” football as an 8-year-old, I remember how parents would pull their cars up next to field and shine their car lights

when the practice was running late and it was getting too dark to see the ball. Our coach needed more light to teach us that big play that would win

it for us on Saturday. Four cars (eight lights) lit the practice field up like a Christmas tree! As little football players, we saw the light.

As athletes we need to S.E.E. the light. Not the car lights, but another kind of light. This light deals with our physical bodies that God created

for us to take care of, not abuse. S.E.E. stands for Sleep, Eat and Exercise. I meet so many competitors who train hard on the field of competition,