People can be in many loving relationships throughout their lifetime and never realize that true love is an action outside of emotion. Love takes skill, and like any skill it takes practice and attention to develop. In junior high I was enrolled in Tae Kwon Do for about three years. I loved it. I loved the discipline and skill involved. We learned all kinds of moves, refined them, then later put them to use in sparring.

When do we feel like our bodies are wasting away and our strength is drying up? Maybe it’s at the end of practice, halfway through preseason, or with one week to go in a long difficult season. How can we have our hearts renewed and find the strength to press through such feelings? Second Corinthians 4:16 gives us such encouragement. Paul was aware of his friends’ perilous times and the physical toll it was taking on them. He identified with their plight.

It’s the nature of competition and long seasons to wear down our bodies. We can identify with these people and the outward wasting away of their bodies. The wisest among us also know how to be inwardly strengthened, day by day, in our hearts.

After having a fairly rough day teaching, my wife calmly reminded me that I must see the children in the same light as God sees me. He is patient and loving with me, even though I am underserving of His favor. I must continuously remind myself that the children I teach and coach should be shown that same favor from me.

There are times that I simply want to lose all my cool and let those who are around me simply know how frustrated I am with them and how pitiful I feel they are. Does God feel that way towards me? I feel God is the most patient, forgiving, gracious being as He showed through Jesus Christ. Forgive them seven times? "Forgive them seventy times seven" Jesus says.

I pray I have that strength to be as patient and forgiving as He.

Hockey Chat:  Regardless of who your favorite team is throughout the year, if you’re a hockey fan you’ll tune into the excitement of the Stanley Cup playoffs.  It’s the one time when hockey fans come together and follow the games that have become the icon of the ice hockey.

Earlier this season, I took my middle school baseball team to practice with the high school varsity. It was good for my kids to practice on a higher level and to see how high school differs from middle school. At the end of practice the varsity coach gave them a "pep talk" about life and baseball using five key points of competition. While I had used some of the same points in my own speeches, I found that they captured my attention in a new way when I heard them from another coach and saw how they got the attention of the kids. The points that this coach made would work for any sport, and they also translate well to our spiritual lives.

As coaches and athletes, we face adversity every day. Specifically for coaches, this adversity seems to come not just from the opponents on our schedules, but from a variety of sources. And whether we are dealing with players’ circumstances, injuries, parental issues, or whatever, we all need to have some reassurance or confirmation that we are doing a good job.

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.

I once heard of a man named Scott who calls himself a professional gate-crasher—and with good reason. He claimed to have attended 300 sporting events and concerts, including 25 World Series baseball games, all without paying a single penny. In fact, he wrote a book that describes 50 ways to sneak into concerts and sporting events.

Scott’s gate-crashing raises all sorts of ethical questions, but let’s talk, instead, about a higher issue. Think about what it takes to get into Heaven. Jesus said there was only one way to get in: through Him (John 14:6). The “ticket” is having a personal faith in Jesus as your Savior, believing that He paid the penalty for your sin and accepting His offer of forgiveness as a gift (John 3:16; Romans 6:23).

How could God be both human and divine at the same time? This is an impossible question to answer from a purely human perspective, but the Bible provides us with all the answers we need as the Holy Spirit applies it to our hearts and minds. Understanding great truths like the incarnation and the Trinity is impossible for us. We often try to find ways to explain what God is like, but our explanations are never complete since our minds cannot grasp how amazing God is.

For an athlete, there is nothing like competing in front of a home crowd. Nothing is more inspiring than hearing the cheers, feeling the energy and responding to the wave of encouragement. In the summer of 2012, US decathlete Ashton Eaton road the cheers of a home crowd to a remarkable accomplishment at the US Olympic Trials. During the 2-day 10-event competition, Eaton set two world decathlon records in the 100 meters and the long jump, but still needed one more personal best in the final event, the grueling 1500 meters, to break the world record for the overall competition.

In 2008, I made my first U.S. Olympic Soccer Team. I was still in college, and I was one of the youngest players on the roster. I was also replacing star player Abby Wambach who couldn’t compete due to an injury.

Then in 2012, I was chosen for the Olympic squad again, but this time I was considered a veteran with several major matches under my belt, including the 2008 Olympic gold medal game and the 2010 FIFA World Cup. While both situations were very different, they were also very much the same. There was a great deal of pressure that came with the job.