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Even as the words float off the end of my tongue, I realize I blew it. This kind of situation usually involves my saying negative words to teammates or others. It’s easy for me to become the cut-down king. It doesn’t take much—maybe just calling someone a name. Other teammates usually laugh, but those reckless words cut. They pierce like a sword and cause damage. Playing the cut-down game means going with the flow. I realize now that I want to play the BUG.
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In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul tells us that without love nothing we are and possess nothing. This is a fundamental truth of Christianity. It’s so simple and yet so complex. We can say we believe it but our relationships with others will reveal whether or not we really do.
Goal
Being a champion is not easy. If it were easy, we’d all be champions. True champions do not just “rise to the occasion.” In actuality, their hard work meets the opportunity to succeed. When the competitor pays the price of practice, preparation and persistence, a champion is made. Here we discover the disciplines that define the champion, not just success in the contest but significance in a life of victory.
Key Scriptures
I Timothy 4:7-8; Acts 17:10; 2 Corinthians 2:11; Joshua 1:6-8; Psalms 119:9-11
Warm Up
Selected struggle: Doubt
Dictionary definition: “To be uncertain, consider questionable or unlikely. To fear, distrust or be apprehensive about.”
My definition: “Being unsure and afraid of the unknown.”
When is the last time you thought my life is worth nothing? In a culture of self-esteem where everyone wins because we don’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings, this is not a popular theme. We often see athletes pointing to their names on their jerseys or thumping their chests when they make a great play. Still other athletes refuse to play for a team because they don’t have a chance of winning a championship. It is the ultimate in selfishness!
We have plenty of examples of the “It’s all about me” belief in sports and in life. After all, there’s no “I” in team, but there is “me”!
We’ve heard the saying, “If it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, acts and thinks like a duck, it must be a duck.” What are we? What do we walk and talk like? What do we act and think like? Let’s face it, the reason we play sports is to win—to be champions. In order to be champions, we have to walk, talk, act, and think like champions.
As Christians, we are already champions because of Jesus’ dying on the cross for our sin. By accepting Christ, God receives us as His adopted children. Since He is the King of kings, we become co-heirs—receiving all the benefits of being His child. To learn about those benefits, we must study God’s Word. The Bible is full of promises we inherit as children of God.
“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” – Colossians 3:23-24 (NIV)
The Olympic Games are so inspiring to me. There’s something incredible about the Olympic Spirit—the athletes’ internal quest for greatness and their desire to push themselves—body, mind and soul—to the limit.
“Do not love the world or the things that belong to the world…everything that belongs to the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride in one’s lifestyle—is not from the Father, but is from the world.” – 1 John 2:15-16
This summer I had the opportunity to go on a mission trip to Haiti with a group from my church. While the trip was an outstanding time of ministry and connection with God, I did have one challenge: the food. It wasn’t even close to my normal diet!
My older brother Steve whooped on me on a regular basis. He was bigger, stronger, faster, smarter, and better than me in everything! We would play football, baseball, or a form of these from sun-up to sunset in the summer; and during the school year, from the final bell of class until the sun was long gone. Steve always beat me until he saw I was about to quit, then he would let me win so he could keep playing.
I fantasized of what it would be like to have Steve’s skills and size, but knew it was a waste of time. Fantasy got me nowhere. Steve was so good that I never really beat him for years. I gave it all I could but to no avail. But I kept coming back . . . kept working.
Most people don’t figure out their purpose until adulthood. But for me, everything happened when I was four years old. That’s when I started playing hockey and that’s when I began to follow Jesus. Both of my passions kicked in right away. I’m still working on my game and I’m still working on my relationship with God, but because I discovered my passions at an early age, being bold in my pursuit of those things has come naturally for me. Most importantly, however, is my passion for Jesus. That passion gives me the strength to be totally unashamed of Christ. I never want to hide my love for him. Whether it’s something I say or how I act, I have to reflect Christ. I’m not going to be afraid to say something or be afraid of people criticizing me or putting me down for my faith.
Momentum is the one thing that can turn a game completely around. This game-changing element can happen in any sport, but the one that comes to mind immediately is basketball. How often, while watching a game on television, do you hear the announcers start screaming, “Coach so-and-so better call a timeout soon”? They realize that if coach so-and-so doesn’t stop the game and allow the team to regroup, things will soon go from bad to worse. The same can happen to us as coaches when situations catch us by surprise, making a timeout needed. What’s a surprise situation? It’s one of those situations where nothing is going the way we’d like and our emotions get the better of us, causing us to react in a way we later regret.
Two-time U.S. Open golf champion Lee Janzen, FCA Regional Director for New England Fouad Faris, former Super Bowl champion coach Tony Dungy & FCA President Les Steckel.
From a spiritual perspective, my parents raised us according to the Christian norms that were prevalent in the late ’60s, but we never went to church, and I didn’t have an understanding of what it meant to have a relationship with Christ. I had a reasonably good moral compass, but it wasn’t grounded in the truth of Scripture. We sought to do good to others and do the right things, but we were more of what you’d call “happy pagans.”
Most cars don’t even travel 422.6 miles in three days, but that’s the very distance that a man named Gary Brasher did a few years ago on behalf of FCA by taking on three iron-distance triathlons in three consecutive days. I’ve run a few marathons in my life, but those were nothing! Gary Brasher took on a whole different level.
I don’t know about other neighborhoods, but when I was younger we had the “do-over.” If our feet went out from under us or we miskicked the ball in a kickball game, what were the first words out of our mouths? “Do-over!”
Amazingly, God gave us a do-over! Paul wrote to the church in Corinth that when they accepted Christ, they were a new creation. The same is still true for us. When we accept Christ as Savior and Lord, we are a new creation. This means that no matter what our lives were like before we knew Christ or how many times we slip, we get a chance to do it again, completely free of charge.
Jack Nicklaus, at age 59, underwent replacement of his left hip in January of 1999, forcing him to miss his first Masters in forty years. His doctors had predicted the six-time Masters champion wouldn’t be able to return to PGA tour golf for six months. Pleased with his rehabilitation, which included 18 holes daily, doctors released him to play again after four months.
Injuries can be a discouraging setback for an athlete—physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Paul’s advice to Timothy is good for us to remember when we get discouraged. “I remind you to keep ablaze the gift of God that is in you…God has not given us a spirit of fearfulness, but one of power, love, and sound judgment” (2 Tm 1:6–7).
My dad may have been playing in the NBA at the time, but the best basketball games I remember from my childhood were the ones between my little brother, Seth, and me on our backyard basketball court in Charlotte, N.C. We’d play for hours and hours, oftentimes well into the night with the use of a bright stage light shining on the court, until our mom would yell out the window for us to come in. Those games would get pretty heated, but that was the norm for brothers as close as we were.
About 13 years ago during college I started running as a way of staying in shape. Over the years, I’ve come to love the sport, and because of that, the verse above caught my attention, and I have continued to meditate on it.
I recently read a research article about the physical size of a person’s heart muscle. The research noted that the size of a runner’s heart was measurably larger than the size of an ordinary person’s heart. As the runner trains on a regular basis, the heart begins to pump blood with more volume and with more power, causing the heart muscle to strengthen and increase in size. Doesn’t that sound a lot like Psalm 119:32? I believe this concept can help our hearts grow spiritually as well.
No life-changing adversity or blessing can separate us from the love of Christ. We can be more than conquerors through Him. Neither our present circumstances nor even things that are on the way can change His love for us—not the mountaintop of success and favor nor the valley of adversity and disappointment. God is there in the midst of all our life-changing moments.
The city of Los Angeles is where my faith story began years ago and where it continues to this day. As the youngest of three kids, I remember going to several different private elementary and middle schools, and in each I was exposed to different denominational beliefs that all helped develop my ideas of God and faith. Through my exposure to different belief systems at school, I was able to understand what truth was and who Jesus truly was in my life.
Nestled snugly along the banks of Illinois’ Fox River, Judson University has long offered its students a chance to follow their athletic and academic dreams in a nurturing, community-minded environment. But for student-athletes at Judson, an evangelical Christian university, there always seemed to be a hidden disconnect that kept them from truly connecting to Christ, each other and the surrounding community of Elgin.
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