As the time winded down at the end of the Illinois/Louisville game in the 2005 NCAA Final Four, the celebration began. Players began to jump up and down, coaches started to walk towards each other to exchange pleasantries, and one player stood alone. Roger Powell, Jr. stood at the foul line focused on one thing.

Historically, as found throughout scripture, when victory was won in battle the people of God gave praise to the Lord. But many kings and warriors over the years also chose not to give proper praise to God for His goodness in battle. They chose to celebrate how great they were instead of how great God was in the victory. This is still a fault of many today.

It’s hard to decide what Kara Lawson is most known for.

SEC fans remember her as the All-American from the University of Tennessee who led the Lady Vols to three Final Four appearances between 2000 and 2003. Followers of the WNBA know her as a key member of the 2005 league champion Sacramento Monarchs and now as the starting point guard for the Connecticut Sun. Still more recognize her as a member of the ESPN college basketball broadcasting team through which Lawson serves both as a studio analyst for the NCAA women’s tournament and a color commentator for men’s games. And fans of the Summer Olympics would most likely know her for the gold medal she won with Team USA in 2008.

Johnny stepped up to the plate. The bases were loaded with two outs, and his team was down by one run. You could tell he was nervous. How would Johnny respond? STRIKE ONE! He watched it go by. STRIKE TWO. He watched another. STRIKE THREE. The bat never left Johnny's shoulder. Johnny returned to the dugout and was approached by his coach. "You never even took a swing, why not?" Johnny replied, "I thought you would be mad if I struck out swinging."

This happens a lot in sports. Fear grips an athlete. Fear of a coach, fear of failure, fear of losing. . .whatever the fear may be, fear is a factor in sports today, and in life as well.

There is a beginning and an end to all things here on earth. After making the cut in 142 consecutive PGA tournaments over a seven-year period, Tiger Woods' streak came to an end at the 2005 Byron Nelson Championship. "I just had a tough day," Woods said after making a bogey on the final hole to miss the cut by one stroke. "Things I don't normally do, I did today."

After becoming a Christian, the Apostle Paul found himself entrenched in a war with the sin in his life. We sometimes think that after surrendering our lives to Christ the battle with sin will subside, but that's not the case. That is actually when the real struggle with sin begins because that is when we become more aware of our own sinful nature.

I recently saw a great program by NFL Films about religion and football. It was a great 30-minute program that has the potential to produce many great discussions within your Huddles and team studies. One segment featured prayer. A former player, Deacon Jones, said that those who prayed before a game or during a game displayed a sign of weakness, and that perhaps they hadn't prepared well enough in the week leading up to the game. Wow, what a powerful statement. Prayer being a sign of weakness...

Last year, for the first time in 15 years, I found myself without a soccer team to coach. The Christian school where I had been teaching and coaching shut their doors, and, with the late notice of the closing, it was too late to find another team. Instead, I found myself on a different team—a team that was completely divided. I ran for State Representative in my town, and the eight candidates from my party chose to run as a team.

Throughout the election, I found myself praying to God for guidance and wisdom. I also spent a lot of time shaking my head and wondering, “What have I gotten myself into?” But through my years of sports training, I knew what teamwork was, and I knew what it was like to be a team player.

As athletes we have good days and bad. Sometimes we win, sometimes we lose. I like winning better. Enough losses in a row and any of us can get a little down. So how do we maintain a joyful life? The Bible provides some answers. In Paul’s first letter to Thessalonica, he wrote three directives and one reason combining to show us the way to a joyful life:

Rejoice always: More than a command, this reassures us that we can find something to be joyful about in every circumstance. Lead with our will, and let our emotions follow.

Pray constantly: If taken seriously, we’d never sleep, eat, or study—probably not what he meant. Surely he meant there is never a situation in which prayer is not proper and powerful.

As I was driving to work this morning, I was forced to constantly keep changing the radio station. All anyone could or would talk about was my beloved Kansas Jayhawks’ loss to VCU yesterday in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. And I just did not want to hear it.

For college basketball fans across the country, March is a bittersweet month. Because there is only one national champion at the end of the season, the vast majority of us have to end the season on some sort of losing note. And we always wind up consoling ourselves with the common thought, “Well, there’s always next year.”

Last year, I got the chance to play my first college basketball game in my home state. I was so excited to play in front of the 40-plus people who had come to watch. I wanted to play well and prayed that God would help me to do so.

Much to my disappointment, I played the worst game of my life. I made only one shot in my team’s humiliating 30-point loss. I was so embarrassed that I didn’t want to talk to any of my family or friends who had come to cheer me on. I was afraid of what they thought of me and my performance.

Coming out of high school, Jeremy had a promising pitching career ahead of him. He went to a school close to his home and figured he would become their ace on the mound. But things didn’t happen quite so easily. As Jeremy explained, “I lost it. I couldn’t find the plate. I thought I was done.”

They were tough words to swallow for a rising star. He was afraid his career as a pitcher was over. Jeremy had only one place to turn.

In the Bible, we find that David knew this situation all too well. Many times in his life, David had to let go of his fears, let go of his pride, and let go of his sin in order to let God do a healing process. In these situations, David did what we all should do: He cried out to God for help.

When most sport seasons end, numbers get crunched. As coaches, it’s easy for us to get caught up in this number crunching, especially as the media highlights our career wins, the titles we’ve won and the number of “Coach of the Year” awards we’ve received.

But any true coach knows that records are not what are important. Having the opportunity to work with athletes and make a difference in their lives is what is important. Coaches, like players, make a lot of sacrifices to develop winning teams, but most will tell you those sacrifices and successes are for the athletes—for the joy of watching players mature and grow.

Very few people love to practice. To most, it is just a means to an end. Only if we practice will the coach allow us to play in games. Even if we loathe it, practice is irreplaceable as the best way to improve skills. Athletes at every level must train. In fact, professionals only get where they are through hard work. How hard we work in practice may predict our game-time performance.