As an English teacher, I instruct my students to look for symbols in literature. As a basketball coach, I often use symbols from literature to teach my players, such as in Genesis 3:11 where God asks Adam and Eve if they have eaten the forbidden fruit. Instead of telling the truth and asking for forgiveness, Adam blamed both God and Eve. When God asked Eve the same question, she blamed the snake. Since then, mankind has been pointing fingers and playing the blame game.

French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte once said, “The human race is governed by its imagination.” For Bonaparte, considered a military genius, imagination enabled him to conquer most of western and central Europe. As leaders of this world through our joint inheritance with Christ, we too face many seemingly insurmountable foes. Fourth and long, down by three with four seconds left on the clock, an away match against the state champion—these obstacles pale in comparison to the matchless superiority of our Lord’s power.

Hockey Chat:  When you’re on defense, one of the worst things you can do is let your opponent stand in front of your net waiting to tip the puck, get a rebound, or just screen your goal tender.  Detroit scored buckets of goals against Colorado in 07 doing just that and swept them right out of the playoffs.  You cannot let that guy stake his position there.  It takes work to get him away but if you let him stick around, he’s bound to cause trouble.

How bad does it hurt to be rejected? We’ve all been there. We’ve all been rejected by teammates, family members, boyfriends/girlfriends, co-workers and bosses. And when it happens, it hurts!

I was reading in John 10 this morning, coming fresh off a rejection myself, and it struck me just how important it is for us to understand Jesus’ role as our shepherd during these times. In John 10:12, Jesus talks about a hired hand who doesn’t stick by the sheep through tough times. He abandons them because they aren’t his own, and he’s not committed to them. Why would he stick around to get eaten by a wolf himself when he’s not the true owner of the sheep? So, he flees the scene, leaving the sheep abandoned and vulnerable.

The perfect season was in 1972 when the Miami Dolphins did the improbable. They won seventeen games (including the Super Bowl) in a row. People still call them one of the greatest teams of all time. On the other side of the coin, Northwestern lost thirty-four games in a row over a four-year period. The adjectives used to describe these teams were much different. Streaks—either you love them or you hate them. If you are on a roll and winning games, then everything seems to go your way. But if the steak is the other kind—the bad kind, the losing streak—then it seems the harder you try, the more small things grow into huge problems. When you have been on both sides, you learn the difference between winning and losing is very small.

Our lives are strengthened when we focus on that which gives us strength. As a pitching coach, three words often come out of my mouth: use your eyes. The theory is that our eyes tell our body where to release the ball. Thus, by focusing on a target, we are more likely to hit it. There is much to think about and many distractions as a pitcher, just as in our daily lives. However, like a pitcher, if we put our whole focus on our target, we no longer have any room to focus on distractions.

Many times we think about the starting lineup for an athletic team and how we as athletes work to make the cut. What about God’s starting five—not five people, but five direct commands from His Word.

As athletes, we train to become faster and stronger. We try to bring as much power to our sport as we can. We may engage in a weight-training program. We may go out and run. We may attend a sports camp. But even more important than our physical training is our spiritual training.

Consider a plain, ordinary lightbulb. How much power does it put out? On its own, it puts out absolutely none. It has to be hooked to a power source in order to produce light.

This reminds me of the apostle Peter, a very interesting person. He was a common man (a fisherman by trade) but also a powerful man. And we certainly have to agree that Peter was dedicated to his calling.

Hockey Chat: The Stanley Cup is the only trophy in professional sports that has the names of winning players, coaches, management and club staff engraved and passed to the new winner year after year.

Man, I am a workout-aholic. Can I get an amen from anyone else out there? Ever since I was in high school I’ve lived by a motto I read on a t-shirt: “Somewhere, someone is working out. And when you meet her in head-to-head competition, she will beat you.” I think somewhere along the line I adopted that as my personal mantra (especially when I started running), and I have been a gym rat ever since.