If you haven’t caught Lin-Sanity yet, you should probably turn on ESPN. Well, turn on any channel for that matter. It’s been featured on more than just the sports stations, even infiltrating the national news based on his incredibly fast rise to sports fame.

His name is Jeremy Lin, and he is now the starting point guard for the New York Knicks. Since he took over the starting position, the Knicks have been on fire, and Lin himself has gone crazy on the scoring end amassing a total of 146 points in just six games. His popularity has skyrocketed so high that you can’t even access the Knicks’ homepage without first going through a big banner of Lin-Sanity.

All this from a second-year kid from Harvard? Yep!

As coaches we want players who are “on fire” for our team. We want players who “live” our sport and don’t just “play” from time to time. As athletes we should want to excel to the highest level possible. We should not be satisfied with less than our total “sold out” effort. That is exactly what God wants from us.

What are fantasies? They are usually a big waste of time and, as stated above, they lack sense. Fantasies are different than dreams. Dreams have the potential to come from God and, therefore, can be instrumental in bringing working direction to our daily lives. The right dream can bring foundational vision to what we do.

Here are some examples of potentially good dreams: striving for a high GPA, shooting to make all-league at shortstop, helping a friend become a Christian.

Coaches often travel the country recruiting future players, selling their programs, and hoping that future stars will pick their particular school. Blue-chip recruits are in high demand, and every coach is inwardly crying, “Pick me! Pick me!” This is a great analogy for choosing godly wisdom, as illustrated in Proverbs.

In chapter 8, wisdom calls out to us and pleads her case about why we should pick her. Choosing wisdom is invaluable. It is better than the best thing we could ever want. Why? As the writer says at the end of the chapter, whoever finds wisdom finds happiness and life, and obtains favor from the Lord.

When I was 12, I was playing second base for an all-star team. I still remember dropping that pop fly that ended up, in part, costing us the win. I made excuses—blaming the rain and even the lights (it was a night game). At the time, I didn’t think I was making excuses; I just didn’t want the loss to be my fault.

Excuses spread like a virus. We blame the refs, our teammates and even the weather! We make excuses for why we’re late to practice, why we didn’t work out, why we missed a shot—you name it. When we justify why we didn’t do what we should’ve, it’s easier to make excuses the next time.

“Excuses are the nails used to build a house of failure” (Don Wilder).

During the Christmas season there seems to be a more evident and fresh feeling of hope in the air. There is extended time with family, presents to give and receive, more gifts and money given to those in need, cheerful music and so on. Most of us look forward to these things all year.

As a coach, I also notice this hope-filled feeling in our team right before each game. Leading up to the game we have practiced hard and prepared, and now the score’s 0-0. We have the hope of playing well and getting a victory.

“You have no wall.” The cardboard sign tacked to the telephone pole couldn’t have appeared at a better time. As I pushed my legs up the hill of mile 10 in the local half marathon, I knew this would be the toughest part of the race. During training, mile 10 had always been the hardest both mentally and physically—and now it was uphill.

“You have no wall.” It was like God’s voice resonating in my mind as I pushed my legs a little harder, trying to crest the incline as fast as I could. And just then it hit me—I had no wall. I had trained hard enough to make it through mile 10 and finish the race well.

In today’s world many people seem to have forgotten about this wonderful word "thankful." Some of us are thankful when times are good, but as soon as anything bad creeps into our lives, this word tends to be thrown to the curb.

There are many things in life that just do not go the way we think they will, but we must remember that this is God’s path for us. I know that when the going gets tough it’s hard to be thankful, but God says to give thanks in all circumstances.

The gym was packed with screaming fans. You could cut the tension with a knife. It was late in the fourth quarter and Luke had just come into the game—his first game as a varsity player. With time slowly ticking away, the ball was passed to him. He began to dribble toward the basket and . . . bounced the ball off of his foot and out of bounds. I am so out of place, Luke thought. Why did Coach put me in the game?

During a recent Monday Night Football game, I watched as two future Hall of Fame coaches took the field. The TV announcers shared how they had talked with a player who had played for both coaches in the past. They asked him what was the different in coaching styles. He said that one coached by fear, the other by love. When asked what the player preferred, he shared that both can be effective, but that love lasts forever.

As athletes and coaches we know a lot about disciplining our bodies, but there is one muscle we often neglect to discipline: our tongues. Our gifts and skills may allow us to achieve athletic success, but our ability to maintain that success and honor God with it has much to do with how we use our words.

Genesis 1:1 says, "In the beginning God created..." How did He create? By speaking. Throughout the next few verses of the chapter, it is revealed that God did not simply act, He used words to establish creation. “And God said…” This gives us the earliest demonstration of the power of words. Later, when "the Word became flesh" and Jesus came to live among us (John 1:14), we read that He used words to fight the temptations of Satan by declaring the Word of God (Matthew 4).