For the past few years, I have not spent time pacing up and down the sidelines during games but instead have concentrated on our Total Player Academy outreach (camps/clinics, individual training, etc.) I am working with individuals that are trying to get better… to get to the next level. Maybe it is more playing time… or a starting role… or quite possibly dreams of a starring role that drives the players. So, my job is to help players reach their goals… and sometimes to redefine their goals. The Total Player Academy starts from the premise that who we are spiritually is the foundation of being a great player… on and off the court!
This could lend itself to many of our weekly devotional “game plans”, but I am going to attempt to condense it 2 basic principles for this week…
When it comes to getting better there is no substitute for HARD WORK. I talk to athletes about the need to “invest”… to put the work into their “banks” so it is there at to “withdraw” at game time. But I also talk about something that I think is even more important… what MOTIVATES the athlete to get better? How will the individual respond when climbing the mountain gets difficult, or maybe even when there is a change in the path?
I loved a way I saw these principles shared in a recent article I was reading… I think it was a story on ESPN.com; it was about Philadelphia Eagles quarterback, Jalen Hurts. I have loved watching Jalen’s career… a starring role at Alabama and then relegated to the bench behind a new hotshot QB… then transferring to Oklahoma and starring there… only to move on to the NFL and be relegated back to the bench… then back into a starting position for a few games… and through it all with critics stating he is simply not good enough. And now many project him to be the starter this season, but with many questions. I copied and pasted a quote in the article where Jalen states the following:
“…I know… all those different values and principles that we’re trying to instill here in Philly, no one is above that and everybody has to go to work. So for me, I know rent is due every day. It’s always been that way for me… and when that rent is due, I don’t plan on missing no payments.”
I think it is interesting that Jalen uses the word “rent.” He has an understanding that the goals of the team are dependent upon individual investment; he wants to be his best for the good of the team!
Let me shift gears to the spiritual principles I think we find here…
HARD WORK: we are called to “work” in Scripture… in fact there are references to athletes training, farmers tilling, soldiers enduring hardship, etc. (See 2 Timothy 2:3-6) We are told that we are “created for good works.” (See Ephesians 2:10) [Remember we don’t work for salvation, Ephesians 2:8-9, but because of salvation]
Sometimes I think that believers mistake smart living as good works… good works is not (not sinning)… good works is found in serving God by serving others!
MOTIVATION: If we are motivated just by what we can get out of our training, then eventually we are satisfied or discouraged… but if our motivation is found in honoring/serving God (doing all we do, word or deed, as unto Him… Colossians 3:17, 23) then it will be exhibited in being the best we can be for good of the team! (Remember Jesus said we serve Him by serving others… Matthew 25:40.)
I loved a passage that our pastor shared yesterday… when Joseph was facing his brothers, (who had wronged him and were terrified that their brother, who is now powerful and in a starring role) would get even with them, he made the following statement:
Genesis 50:19-20 Joseph said to them, “Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God? But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good…”
It is easy to kind of tail off in one’s thinking there and think Joseph is teaching about his personal gain… that God made things good for him as an “individual player”… and it is easy to forget that he had 13 years of setbacks. Yet, if we go a bit further in the passage we see that the good that MOTIVATED Joseph was not his personal gain, but the good of the team…
20b “but God meant it for good… to save many people.”
Being one’s best for God demands a team-first attitude… being willing to sacrifice oneself to HARD WORK and even trials and tribulations for the good of others.
Make the team you play for better!
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