Jeff, a young man preparing to go to college, is new in his faith in Christ. Before heading off to school, Jeff went on an FCA mission/work trip to New Orleans with his former high school’s Huddle. The trip included many of Jeff’s friends and former teammates, but the most significant person on the trip to Jeff was his younger brother, Dan. And everyone was curious to see how Jeff would live out his new faith in front of his brother.

Do the implications presented in this verse grab your attention? Do you labor or stay alert in vain? Perhaps you’ve heard the statement, “Where there is smoke; there must be fire.” The unconditional love of God is the “smoke” that demands a response of obedience, especially when it comes to our daily labor.

God, in His infinite wisdom, allows us to choose between doing things our way or His way. There are painful lessons to be learned from laboring and staying awake in vain, without the residing power of God’s Spirit. God’s preference is for us to enter into that quiet place of rest and abide in Him. He commands us to cease striving and know that He is God!

Jo Ellen Hornish has a love-hate relationship with auto racing. She’s been a huge fan of racing since her teenage years. It’s the part where her son Sam Hornish Jr. drives in one of those cars at speeds of 180 to 200miles per hour that she’s not crazy about. “She would have much rather I become a pastor,” Hornish Jr. says. “I’m pretty sure of that. There’s never been a time where she’s said, ‘Man, I’m glad he’s a racecar driver.’ But she knows that it makes me happy.”

It was the final game for the eighth grade I.H.M.-St. Casimir Eagles boys basketball team, one in which they could capture the league championship of the City-Wide Catholic Youth League. For the previous three seasons, this talented group of young men and their devoted coach had achieved success but had always narrowly lost in the final games of the tournament. But this year, in their final game together, their hopes were high. It seemed to be their year, and everything seemed to be lining up for the perfect ending to their basketball career.

As a member of the sports media, I hear quite a few stories about athletes who build their entire lives around their sport. They eat, sleep, breathe and live specifically to achieve their personal athletic goals. It consumes so much of their mind that they don’t focus on anything else.

But then something unexpected happens. It could be a variety of things: injury, illness, or whatever. Suddenly, they are stripped of the sport that had occupied so much of their time and energy. And when it’s gone, they’re left with nothing. Complete emptiness.

It is at this point that many athletes realize they need something more—something that can’t be found in trophies or medals, something that is eternal. And this is exactly where God wants them.