April 1, 2024 - Gotta Get Touches! (Preparation and Productivity)

Gotta get touches!

Confidence… a required ingredient to success! So how do you build confidence? My answer is this happens through a combination of Preparation (Study) and Productivity (Engaged/Competitive/Hardworking) and Passion (Endurance and Single-mindedness)!

As I am typing this Game Plan, I am realizing that there is way more info here than I have time for in the huddle… so let me try to give a synopsis…

Often times in sports and life, we have a disproportionate approach to Preparation or to Productivity. If a player only spends time studying the playbook, he will be knowledgeable but not skillful; if he only spends time playing, he may end up skillful but not knowledgeable…

In our Christian walk, there is often an emphasis on study… and we often consider the classroom to be the answer to success. Don’t get me wrong, I believe the study is a necessity… how can you play the game well, run the right routes, if you don’t know the rules or the plays? But Productivity is a measure of how much output is taking place as a result of the input. One cannot be productive unless he is in the game and trying to make plays!

2 Timothy 2:15 demands that we be “diligent” in our work (productivity) by “rightly dividing the word of truth.” Some translations say, “accurately handling the word of truth.” The Greek there carries the idea of cutting straight… running the right routes! But the diligent part involves the idea of not just knowing but doing! In the verse we are called to be a “worker who does not need to be ashamed” not a learner… the shame seems to be if one is not working OR is not making running right routes 

Earlier in the discourse (vss. 3-6), there are a few keys to Productivity…

·       Endure: having a passion for the game that causes one to keep going in spite of the circumstances

·       Engaged: actively involved (you gotta get touches)

·       Single-minded (not Entangled): prioritizing

·       Competes: you gotta be in the game to be productive and gain confidence (you can’t measure output if there is not playing time)

·       Hardworking: you get out of something what you put into it… if you haven’t invested much, it is easy to ignore or walk away.

So many truths here… my Game Plan challenge this week is to keep Preparing BUT to get Producing… you gotta get in the game to build confidence… you gotta get some touches!