January 1, 2018 - Don't Play Just To Survive

Have you ever seen, or been a part of, one of those games where your team had a lead but started tightening up… watching the lead slowly slip away? I’ve been a part of it personally and I witness it on a regular basis.

What happens is a team gets a little bit of a lead and starts trying to milk the clock… but in turn the team goes flat and starts coming up short on shots, being a little less crisp on passes, is a little slower on cuts, etc. They find themselves playing to “survive” to the buzzer…

In the basketball world we talk about it all the time; we implore our teams, “Stop playing not to lose, and start playing to win!”

Life kind of follows the same type of mentality. Being that we are at the start of a new year, I want to use a bit of my story and personal philosophy to encourage you this week… and for the year…

2017 brought a lot of crazy twists and turns for us on Team Burden; not only could we have given up we were down (numerous times close to death in the cancer battle), but we also could have just sat back in safe-mode once we started to get back ahead a little bit…

But that is not the way we decided to roll! It is not what we will plan to do in 2018! I refuse to be seen as one that is just a “survivor”, but instead want to be seen as one that has decided to LIVE!

When I lace up the shoes for each new game (day or year), I put them on to play… to compete… to “bust it to the buzzer.” In boxing terms, I will go down swinging!

Hebrew 3:3 reminds us to “exhort one another daily, while it is called ‘Today’…” In other words, keep playing the game the right way! Throughout the Scriptures we are encouraged with having an active faith!

Over the next few weeks, I plan to expand on this idea a bit more but for now let me implore you to make one clear resolUtion for the year… it comes from the motto of our missional group… it states:

Today we LIVE! (Love Intentional Value Everyone)

Don’t play it safe! Take the risk of loving and serving others this year!

Stop playing life not to lose, and instead play to win!