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Cut from the team. Knee blows out senior year. Lost the state title. Playing time disappears. Your mistake costs the team a win. As a competitor, all these things are considered tough trials. Add to that academic pressure or conflict at home and you can feel overwhelmed.
In 1998, the Ohio State Buckeyes beat Northwestern 36–10, but personal fouls and unsportsmanlike conduct tainted the win. OSU’s coach at the time, John Cooper, made a point to his number-one ranked team, emphasizing that there is no place in football for trash talking and taunting and that it can be a distraction more than a help. Guard Rob Murphy said, “He got his point across.”
Discussing the numerous flags that were thrown during the game, Cooper demanded that the trash-talk behavior stop. Again Murphy said, “I agree. We need to play more and talk less.”
When President Thomas Jefferson was traveling with companions across the country on horseback in the early 1800’s, he approached a large river that needed to be carefully crossed. A stranger appeared and wondered how he was going to get across. He looked at the President and asked if he could get a ride across the river. Thomas Jefferson said, “Sure, hop on!” As the stranger slid off the horse on the other side, one of the companions questioned why he asked the President for a ride. The stranger replied, “I didn’t know he was the President. All I know is that his face said yes, and all your faces said no!”
After 22 years of playing and coaching football, I won a championship ring while serving as team chaplain for the Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College football team. Under the leadership of Steve Campbell, that team finished number one in the national JUCO poll. They possessed a rare quality—honor. After every victory we gave God the glory. All year we honored our coaches, one another, our teachers, and parents. We made mistakes, but always came back to honor.
When I was 8 years old, I did a lot of dreaming. My dad would take me to college lacrosse games, and I would stand by the field saying, “One day I want to play on that field!”
“It’s OK. They won’t hurt you.”
“It will make you better, bigger, stronger.”
“Don’t worry, no one will ever know...”
These are some of the phrases that student-athletes hear when they are encouraged to take steroids. The pursuit of greatness is so powerful today that many athletes—young athletes—are doing things that put their lives in jeopardy. I am sure that there are two voices they are hearing, but there is only one that they should be listening to.
James 1:26 – If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is useless..
James 3:5/12 – The Tongue
God truly does make His strength known in whatever way He sees fit—whether through point-blank pows to the face or in subtle hints. In my case, it has been both.
When I came to Central Christian College in McPherson, Kan., God blessed me with the rare opportunity to play college baseball at a school that also helped cultivate my faith and personal ministry. It had always been a dream of mine to play baseball at the college level, but, if things had gone according to my own plan, I would have become just another face in the crowd. Thankfully, God has always put me in the place I needed to be—surrounded by the right people, challenged in appropriate times, and nurtured by His supreme love.
Walking through the halls of the Auburn football office, you can almost feel it. there’s something different about this athletic complex — something bigger than just sports.
Make no mistake about it, these Tigers have the same on-the-field mission as every other football team in the country. They want to win. But unlike most other teams, their definition of a “win” isn’t restricted to a scoreboard.
Since the beginning of time, love stories have been told and retold. Typically, they go something like this: Boy meets girl. Boy and girl fall in love. Boy and girl get married. Boy and girl live happily ever after.
The face of the Houston Astros has changed.
Jeff Bagwell has been retired for nearly four years. Craig Biggio bid farewell to Minute Maid Park after the 2007 season. And last year, fan favorite Brad Ausmus packed up his catcher's gear and opted to close out his career with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Houston is officially Lance Berkman's team. And he's OK with that.
This weekend, New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees will lead his team onto the field to take on the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLIV. In a recent interview with FCA’s Sharing the Victory magazine, Brees talked about faith lessons from the field.
Starting today, the daily Impact Play will run Sharing the Victory’s four-part video study series featuring clips from Brees. Click the video link below to watch the clip and then answer the questions. Finish by reading the related Scripture and asking God to work in your heart as a result of what you’ve learned.
If you’ve never seen the movie Secondhand Lions, don’t read the next paragraph. I’m about to spoil the ending.
At the end of the movie, the film’s two wildly adventurous uncles have died in an attempt to fly their biplane upside-down through their barn door. When the local sheriff breaks the news to their nephew, Walter, the sheriff says, “They had a good, long run. They went out with their boots on.” A young boy who had heard stories of the uncles’ adventures turns to Walter and asks, “They really lived?” His response: “Yeah. They really lived!”
Chapel – Power, Love and Self-control
1 – To compete strongly today and throughout the season, three qualities will be required – Power, Love and Self-control.
• These are powerfully described in II Timothy 1:7 (read the text aloud).
“…I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” – Galatians 2:20
Annie Lockwood had high expectations for her athletic career when she walked on to the softball team at Arizona State University in 2009. Knowing the Sun Devils were fresh off a national championship and hoping to continue in their success, Lockwood immediately knew she wanted to be a part of it. Now three seasons later, she has realized that dream and stands amazed at what the Lord has done in her life—and how she loves to play for His glory.
For a time, Iver McDonald was superhuman. Well, not really. But at least she felt that way. That’s what can happen when you’re young and brash and enter high school as an elite softball player good enough to make the varsity as a freshman.
“I had this horrible attitude,” she said. “I thought I was the stuff in softball—like I walked on water. I thought I was invincible, that nothing could touch me.”
But things weren’t going so well in her personal life.
The following was cultivated from an FCA Leadership Camp held at Point 11 at Table Rock Lake.
These are simply key take away points and nuggets of truth for everyone to reflect on.
Gospel: Leadership begins and ends with the gospel. That is that we were once separated from God by the penalty of our wrong doings. We could not earn our way to God by any amount of our own goodness so God came to us as the man Christ Jesus. As Jesus, He then died, on a cross, in our place and for our sin. In doing so, Jesus took our penalty, brought forgiveness by His death, and granted us right relationship with God by His resurrection when we rethink our actions, thoughts, and words and trust in Jesus Christ's finished work of the cross.
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