Alphabetical
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September 02, 2013
Set:
When I was 12, I was playing second base for an all-star team. I still remember dropping that pop fly that ended up, in part, costing us the win. I made excuses—blaming the rain and even the lights (it was a night game). At the time, I didn’t think I was making excuses; I just didn’t want the loss to be my fault.
Excuses spread like a virus. We blame the refs, our teammates and even the weather! We make excuses for why we’re late to practice, why we didn’t work out, why we missed a shot—you name it. When we justify why we didn’t do what we should’ve, it’s easier to make excuses the next time.
“Excuses are the nails used to build a house of failure” (Don Wilder).
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October 09, 2008
Set:
There’s something about purpose, something about buying into the concept of destiny that inherently evens the odds.
Nowhere will you find more examples of this principle than in the Bible, where unlikely heroes saved entire nations. Moses was a self-conscious exile with a speech problem, yet God used him to free the Israelites from Egyptian slavery. David was an undersized shepherd boy living under the shadow of his strong, able-bodied older brothers; still he was empowered to kill the mammoth Philistine warrior Goliath and rescue his people from certain defeat. Mary was a teenage girl from a nondescript lineage, but God called her to be the mother of Jesus, the Savior of the world.
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October 07, 2005
Set:
I once worked with a head football coach who had a large sign behind his desk that simply read “No Excuses.” What this meant to his staff and players was that he would not accept any explanations when something went wrong. He wanted them to be personally responsible and not put the blame on any other people or circumstances.
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October 07, 2005
Set:
I was in graduate school when the dean from a Christian college where I was working asked me to coach the women’s field hockey team (the team’s head coach had fallen ill). Although I loved playing field hockey, I had never considered coaching. But the players were due to arrive in two days, the dean looked desperate, and I didn’t have the heart to say no. I knew the game like a close friend—how hard could it be?
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March 30, 2004
Set:
When NASCAR drivers head to Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee, they know that they will need an extra dose of patience. Going into the 2004 Food City 500, Kurt Busch, looking to win his third consecutive race at Bristol, said, "There's no real reason to get in a hurry at all." Easy to say until you find yourself going 140 mph on the short half-mile track with forty-two other cars. Busch seems to know a little about winning there, holding off Rusty Wallace for his third win in a row and fourth of the last five races at Bristol.
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December 29, 2012
Set:
Of all the silly games I learned as a child, the one I remember best was a game some of the older kids in the neighborhood played, one we didn’t exactly discuss with our parents. “Knick Knocking” involved approaching a neighbor’s front door, knocking loudly several times and running away. Serious Knick Knockers would retreat to a nearby hideaway so they could watch the unsuspecting neighbor open the door and look all around for a visitor. Knick Knocking served as a great form of entertainment for the mischievous kids on our block.
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October 07, 2005
Set:
Of all the silly games that I learned as a child, the one I remember best was a game some of the older kids in the neighborhood played—one that we didn’t exactly brag about to our parents. “Knick Knocking” was the practice of approaching a neighbor’s front door, knocking loudly several times, and then running away. Serious Knick Knockers would retreat to a nearby hideaway so that they could watch the unsuspecting neighbor open the door and search for a visitor. This was actually entertaining to the mischievous kids on our block!
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July 20, 2006
Set:
There's a scene in the classic baseball movie "Major League" in which the team is having a bad flight on a below-standard airplane. During that scene, pitcher Eddie Harris, who professes to be Christian, notices his Buddhist teammate, Pedro Cerrano, crossing himself. Instead of rejoicing in the fact that Cerrano is looking towards Christ in this time of struggle, Harris berates him with these harsh words, "Oh, now you come around. He isn't fooled."
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August 25, 2013
Set:
This can’t be happening, I thought. Not with only three and a half weeks to go! But as hard as I tried, I couldn’t deny the worsening pain in my right shin. As soon as I got home from my 12-mile run, I collapsed into a chair and cried. Three months of marathon training were headed down the drain.
Following the advice of my running peers, I didn’t run for two days. I was going crazy. A friend noticed my distress and offered a challenge. She encouraged me to pray during the time I would have been running. “Don’t get out of the daily training habit, just train a different way,” she said.
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November 01, 2008
Set:
All athletes need to go through this, but most would probably rather skip it if it were possible. It’s probably the part of sports that is the least fun. Yet this is also the part that separates average athletes from top athletes.
Have you figured it out yet? It’s training. Athletic training involves many different things. Proper eating, weight training and practicing are all necessary in order to get into top playing condition.
As Christians, we need to be training ourselves spiritually. This involves getting sin out of our lives and removing those things that may not be sin but are a hindrance in our respective walks with Christ. An example of this is when sports in your life begin to take away from time that you need to be devoting to God.
