You Are Here > Popular content
A successful gymnast has rhythm, confidence, and a strong body—but most vitally, power and control. With power, a gymnast can whip her body around a bar to gain momentum for a dismount. She can vault herself high enough over an apparatus to flip and twist her body in the air. She can leap off the ground and complete numerous harrowing tumbling passes during a floor routine. Power is important to these young athletes.
Immediately after Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt obliterated the 200-meter dash world record at the Beijing Olympics, he wrapped himself in his country’s flag, ran to the camera, and boldly proclaimed, “I’m number one! I’m number one!” Not only did he win the gold in the 200-meter dash, but in the 100-meter as well. Both were done in world-record times—a feat never before accomplished! But while other winning athletes graciously addressed their fellow competitors, Bolt beat his chest proclaiming his dominance. The International Olympic Committee President commented, “I think he should show more respect for his competitors and shake hands.” What a novel idea!
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
How do we pray about our sports lives? Do we regularly talk with God about each situation or just when things seem out of control? Which kind of prayer does God hear well? My answer may be surprising. It’s exciting to me that God doesn’t discriminate between my weakest prayers of panic and my most serene prayers of thanksgiving.
You step to the free throw line and look at the rim. “Just put the ball through the hoop, and we go to overtime,” you say to yourself. You've done this thousands of times in practice. Bounce the ball three times, spin it in your hands, look up at the rim and let her fly. But just when you're about to shoot, you take your eyes off the rim and gaze through the glass backboard at what seems like a million fans yelling, screaming, waving things, and doing whatever they can to distract you from making this shot. A home crowd would never try to distract you, but this is enemy territory, and they will do whatever they can to make you miss this shot.
You try to refocus. You let the ball go. It heads toward the hoop, bounces off the rim, and out…
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.
“…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.
Isn’t it funny how when something good or bad happens to us unexpectedly and we’re surprised by the news, we want to tell somebody? “You’re not going to believe what just happened!” Or, “I can’t believe this!” Whatever the situation may be, whether in life or in sports, most of us have a few people who we call immediately.
Now, take note of that word “immediately.” This is not a situation that calls for a text message and then waiting for a response. We want quick feedback! But, what happens when you can’t get ahold of any of those people to share your news? It’s kind of a devastating feeling, isn’t it? You feel like the situation is of such importance and that it is about ready to burst out of you, and not being able to connect with someone can leave you feeling empty.
Every competitive athlete is looking for an edge: a way to get faster—shave seconds off his/her time, get stronger, or jump higher. We know our performance depends on it.
In training, athletes often wear a weighted vest as they go through their drills, helping them push beyond their normal limits. The additional stress to their body in a controlled environment prepares them for the intense demands of competition. When the vest comes off, these athletes feel invincible. They are faster, stronger, and more agile. It is like a prisoner has been freed.
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!”
We all think about the fun and excitement of a big game, but we are at our best only if we have been committed to working hard in preparation beforehand. In baseball, we like to dream about getting the game-winning hit or throwing the rally-ending strike out, but that will likely only come true if we put sweat and practice into making ourselves better. Baseball success, like any other sport, comes when we do the behind-the-scenes work. This means that when we are at home, we need to be running, doing the exercises our coaches assign and getting enough sleep. And in practice, we must work on mechanics, think through game situations and do all the repetitions of batting, running the bases and backing up throws. All of this preparation gets us ready for game time.
To be winners, we must first prepare and develop a plan of action that will work, for proper preparation prevents poor performance. We must make sure our plans are God-directed by including two important offensive weapons—the Bible and prayer.
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.
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).
Every morning, I have a routine once I get to the office.
1. Fire up the computer - 8:00 A.M.
2. Delete the spam from my e-mail account (while eating a couple pieces of toast).
3. Head to “Morning Glory,” the corporate prayer time of the FCA National Office.
4. Transition into prayer time with the Communications/Marketing Department.
5. Edit and send out the daily Impact Play e-mail devotion.
6. Start the day - 9:30 A.M.
I’ll be honest. Prior to writing this story, bullet point number five wasn’t that much of a landmark in my day.
I love college football and everything about it. I love watching a good offense, but there is nothing like a strong front line on the defensive side. There is nothing more intimidating to me than having a great front four that doesn’t let anyone advance down the field. They are the rock of their defense — a mighty fortress, so to speak. Nothing can penetrate them when the offense tries to advance. They stand firm. What an awesome sight it is to see nothing cross the line of defense.
Hockey Chat: You don’t hear of penalties given for blocking the goalies view even though they hate when someone stands in front of them “screening” and then a puck trickles in unseen. There is no rule in the rule book about that therefore it’s an OK tactic. The goalie would like to make up that rule but if everyone got to write up their own rules for the book the game would be a mess.
I sat with a coach whom I had known for years, discussing how to help someone in the midst of crisis. He desperately wanted to help, but, almost in tears, he revealed he could not because of his own finances. He was enslaved to debt. I wish I could say his story is the exception to the rule, but sadly it is not today. We live in an age of credit. An entire industry is built on encouraging us to incur large amounts of debt. Many companies earn more from interest than from the products they sell. Debt service takes a huge part of people’s income. Proverbs 22:7 clearly warns us about debt: “The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is a slave to the lender.” Debt causes us to shift our allegiance to those we owe and away from God.
The 1996–97 season was both victorious and sorrowful for the Detroit Red Wings hockey team. In this triumphant year, the team had won hockey’s greatest prize—the Stanley Cup. But joy quickly turned into tragedy as a car accident claimed the career of a leading player on their team.
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.
As a young coach I had a sign on my office door: “Rules for Our Program. Rule 1. The Coach is always right. Rule 2. If you think the coach is wrong, see Rule 1.” My players always thought that was funny and, remarkably, true most days. Throughout athletics, rules govern the game. Our lives are no different.
No featured resources found
Ministry
Sport
Book of the Bible
FCA Bible Topic
