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January 01, 2009
Set:
Trust is a funny thing. It takes years to build but can be destroyed in an instant. Trust requires honesty, communication, loyalty and proven moral integrity. It is one of the foundational elements behind every great team.
Andy Pettitte knows all about the fragile nature of trust. He has spent his entire life building up trustworthy relationships with his family, his friends, his teammates, the baseball community and the public at large. Yet a single seemingly insignificant misstep can open the door for doubt, which often then results in a certain measure of distrust. In today’s society, it doesn’t take much for a cynical public (and an even more cynical media) to question one’s integrity and chip away at that bedrock of trust.
July 24, 2006
Set:
Most sports have a playbook or a set of rules to follow for their program. This book tells how things will be done on and off the field for success in the system. As a player, if you follow these guidelines, you should have success in the system. I recently heard one coach refert to his playbook as his "bible." Obviously, he highly values the book.
As we read through Psalm 119, we find many verses that reference God's Word. The author of the Psalms repeated over and over that God's Word guided him. He understood that God's Word was the only playbook he could follow that could give him true, absolute direction for his life.
September 03, 2010
Set:
Hockey Chat: What if you were to get to spend a month with Wayne Gretzky (or Martin Brodeur for you goalies) and they spent day and night giving you tips and coaching? That would make you pretty great. But if the month was over and you went back to playing your way and forgetting everything you had been taught, losing your talents you had been just gained. It would seem foolish. Like a waste of a great opportunity.
September 10, 2010
Set:
Hockey Chat: When the NHL moved from a 3-man officiating system to a 4-man system it was to tighten the fairness of the game. With instant replay of goals, fair scoring has been pretty accurate as well. This keeps the players to the rules and holds them to their penalties.
April 25, 2008
Set:
As of last Thursday, I only had three 10-mile tempo runs left before my upcoming marathon. Being a Christian competitor, God is why I run, so I was completely convinced that the He would want to bless me with great weather for each of my remaining tempo runs. Would God not want me to make the most of the time I had left? Surely He would! Imagine, then, my surprise when the clouds started to billow two hours before I was scheduled to hit the road.
January 05, 2013
Set:
Growing up with two older brothers meant I never got anything new. I was always dished secondhand items:clothes, sporting equipment, and toys. My big day came when I was eight years old and my dad bought me a new lacrosse stick. It was a glorious moment. The lacrosse stick glowed from newness. That experience marked me as a young athlete. It passed through my hands first—not second, third, or fourth!
God does not want our secondhand glory. Secondhand glory is taking credit when God should be getting the credit first. It is subtle. As athletes, it is easy to take credit because we are always getting it from teammates, coaches, and fans.
April 05, 2013
Set:
The other morning my phone alerted me to a new message. When I checked the screen I saw the following message: "Bible – Update Available". Now even though I realized that I was being alerted to a digital update for my smart phone Bible application, it is what I heard later in the day that made me think twice about the alert.
As I traveled to work, the talk radio show I had tuned in was replaying an interview between talk show host Piers Morgan and Saddleback pastor Rick Warren. During the interview, Mr. Morgan made the following statement:
"…the Bible and the Constitution were well intentioned, but they are basically inherently flawed. Hence the need to amend it...it’s time for an amendment to the Bible."
October 30, 2007
Set:
Game four of the 2007 World Series featured a pitching match-up of two men who had faced more pressure than their current big stage could offer. Jon Lester of the Boston Red Sox and Aaron Cook of the Colorado Rockies both had life-threatening illnesses they had to overcome in order to make it to the pinnacle of baseball. "I don't think it's a coincidence," Rockies manager Clint Hurdle said. "I think this game drips with irony. I believe in a lot of different venues that God's fingerprints are all over a lot of things if we are able to open our eyes and recognize it."
January 13, 2011
Set:
This year, the UConn Huskies played the Oklahoma Sooners in the Fiesta Bowl. Going into the game, they were massive underdogs. While they’d been 8-4 and won the Big East Conference, many considered their conference and schedule weak. Thus, the Sooners were highly favored to win the game.
May 27, 2009
Set:
Tuesday is always trash day. And on some Tuesdays, there seems to be very little good about the morning. Daily tasks often can become mundane, but not this one. Every Tuesday morning I am the member of the family who deposits the trash into the proper container. This morning, as I sat back at the table lamenting the fact that I had to take the trash out to the curb, I heard a song resonating from an upstairs bedroom. “I am C. I am C-H. I am a C-H-R-I-S-T-I-A-N.” It was coming from my 7-year-old, who was joyfully ringing in the day.
April 07, 2008
Set:
To achieve any kind of success in life takes a certain measure of courage and boldness. This is especially true for the athlete who must believe in his or her talents and abilities enough to chase after a lofty set of goals.
Jon Kitna is certainly no exception to that rule. As the Detroit Lions’ starting quarterback, he has come a long way, thanks mostly to an uncanny confidence in his ability—even when most others failed to recognize what the scrappy athlete had to offer. And it’s that same confidence—a confidence that he developed growing up on the unsavory east side of Tacoma, Washington—that Kitna believes has allowed him the opportunity to be a unifying force in every locker room he’s ever occupied.
April 11, 2006
Set:
On February 16, 2005, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman cancelled what little was left of the 2004–- 2005 hockey season exactly five months after the NHL lockout began. No compromise was reached between players and owners, and the NHL received the shameful distinction of becoming the first professional sports league in North America to miss an entire season due to a labor dispute.
January 22, 2009
Set:
Announcer: “Welcome to the new sports game show sweeping the nation in which two contestants compete together to see who can deny responsibility for their actions the most! Let’s meet our host, please welcome. . . Mr. Itz Yorfault. Our two contestants today are Adam Ididntdoit and Eve Itwasntme. And now let’s play. . . The Blame Game!”
OK, so there is no such game; but we see it all the time on sidelines, in locker rooms and on long trips home from games. Teammates banter and complain that everything is everyone else’s fault, not their own. Where did we learn such a thing? The trend goes back a long time.
January 23, 2011
Set:
I was blessed to be able to baptize my daughter in our church a couple of years ago, and since that time I have paid close attention to her spiritual walk. I am a coach, and am used to observing commitment in sports being followed by an intense and disciplined approach to attaining goals. A side effect of my chosen profession is that I tend to view most things in life through the grid of a coach. Spiritual disciplines are no different to me than some others. No excuses! Get to it!
December 06, 2009
Set:
I love sports movies, but my all-time favorite is "Hoosiers." It might have something to do with my being a former Indiana high school basketball player, and the movie was filmed in the 80's when I was in college. One scene stood out in the movie to me. In one game, Hickory (the high school) was in need of a sub, and the coach didn't have anyone to put in the game except Ollie the manager. So coach put him in late in the game, and Ollie got fouled and had to go to the line for two free throws. The crowd was yelling, the opposing team was taunting, and Ollie's knees were shaking as he stepped to the line.
December 01, 2008
Set:
When Chris Byrd hears the iconic pop-culture phrase “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas,” he can’t help but crack a smile. And not for the reasons you would assume, coming from the former World Boxing Organization (WBO) and International Boxing Federation (IBF) heavyweight champion who also happens to reside in Nevada’s self-proclaimed Sin City.
“For me, I put Christ first,” Byrd says. “I still do the same things I’ve always done. I stay home when I'm training, so I can be in church and not in some secluded place. I want to live my life like I live every day. I’m a boring guy. I don’t do anything. I don’t know what happens in Vegas. I don’t know anything about this city.”
January 22, 2007
Set:
Commitment, sacrifice and hard work are terms synonymous with two former major league baseball players who will be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame: Cal Ripken and Tony Gwynn. Not only did they make it in on their first ballot election, but also by two of the highest voting percentages in the history of the Hall's election process. These two players mirror each other in many ways. They both played with the same team their entire careers; they both played in the majors for more than 20 seasons; both hit more than 3,000 hits; and both remained faithful to their cities, organizations and families during their careers. The induction will be a well-deserved honor for each man, indeed.
November 26, 2008
Set:
Wait. One of the worst words in the English language, isn’t it? That’s where I am right now. Waiting. It’s my senior volleyball season, and I’ve been out with a shoulder injury for over a week. There’s nothing I can really do but wait. Wait for recovery. Wait for my doctor’s appointment. Wait for my trainer to clear me to play.
For me, all the waiting does is make me think about my injury, stress about missing games, and get anxious to play. I’m so tired of all this waiting! Are you? What are you waiting on? Waiting for a shoulder to heal might be trivial compared to what’s on your mind. A doctor’s diagnosis. A job offer. A way to pay the bills.
February 02, 2010
Set:
The Israelites had not had a reason to celebrate for a very long time; they had lived in slavery to other nations for about one hundred fifty years. In fact, Nehemiah’s brother called his people, the Israelites, a disgrace (Neh 1) But now, God had done a new work in their midst, and the people of Israel were thankful and filled with joy. Nehemiah 12 describes a national celebration in which they dedicated the rebuilt wall and celebrated the victory of God. To make sure they celebrated with gusto, Nehemiah brought the best musicians and singers to lead them in worship with “thanksgiving and singing accompanied by cymbals, harps, and lyres” They celebrated joyfully, because “God had given them great joy” (Neh 12:27, 43).
October 07, 2005
Set:
What does it take to win the game? The answer to this question often dictates the primary philosophy that coaches use as the basis of their decisions. Under ever-increasing pressure to win, every coach and player has been encouraged to bend or break the rules. In the world of sports, why is it so difficult to discern what constitutes cheating?
June 03, 2008
Set:
The other day I decided to go on a new mountain bike trail. I began riding in the shade of the mountain and the trees until I came to a split in the road. On the left there was a trail called Creek Mouth and on the right was Sugar Island. I’d originally planned just to ride Sugar Island, but I looked on the map to see where Creek Mouth would put me out at. Unfortunately, it wasn't on the map. Still, the name sounded interesting and I knew I had to ride it.
December 15, 2011
Set:
I remember sitting at an FCA Camp in Marshall, Ind., when I was in high school, believing that I could conquer anything. Over the last several years, I’ve grown to miss that feeling. After a period of spiritual dryness, I have started once again to look for ways to build my faith. I started to read the Bible more and am doing devotions to help me grow closer to God.
Through the help of the Holy Spirit and God’s Word, I came up with a simple method called “SUN UP.” It stands for Scripture Understanding Navigate Under Prayer.
April 27, 2010
Set:
Most sports are made up of teams. And after playing on many different teams, athletes often remember the ones that were real joys to be a part of. For me, it was freshman year in football when everyone was enthusiastic. Everyone wanted the group to do well, and the seniors were just awesome guys--the kind of people who had a genuine interest in all of the underclassmen. They truly set an example for motivation and effort. We saw this in a lot of different forms: the lineman blocking especially hard for the quarterback, the amount of encouragement from the sidelines, the seniors who would talk to the freshman in the halls, and their all-around good attitudes.
March 20, 2010
Set:
Fans hold their breath and sit on the edge of their seats. Then, it happens—that unexpected play that no one saw coming. In every sporting event, at any time, the element of surprise can alter a game’s momentum. One tick of the clock can take a coach through numerous emotions. In these defining moments we can learn great lessons about following Christ.
As we play the game, we never know what ups or downs might occur. Christ never promised His followers that life would be easy. But we have hope in the midst of the unknown. God has won the victory for us through the death and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ. So anything we face can be overcome when we follow God’s game plan.
April 05, 2011
Set:
Last night, at the age of 68, University of Connecticut men’s basketball coach Jim Calhoun became the oldest basketball coach to ever win an NCAA men’s basketball championship. In his team’s 53-41 win over the Butler Bulldogs, Calhoun earned his third title in his 39-year coaching career.
Calhoun’s milestone reminded me this morning about a man in Scripture whose age also made history. His name was Abraham, and, at the age of 100, he and his wife, Sarah, who was only 10 years younger, gave birth to their son, Isaac. While Abraham and Sarah had known for many years that God promised them a child, they couldn’t see how that would happen in their old ages.
