Does the word “wait” cause the hair on the back of your neck to rise like it does mine? As an endurance athlete, a lot of my training can last for several hours. An example would be during one of my former marathon trainings. One week I had a 20-mile run scheduled. Before the first mile was completed I was already thinking, “Wouldn’t it be great if this was mile 19 and I only had one mile to go?” I was wishing that I could fast-forward through my run and just see the end results.

This summer, many coaches and athletes will come to know Christ through the camp ministry of FCA. Every year, there is a new theme for FCA Camp, and this year it is “GET FOCUSED.” As coaches and athletes we often prepare for competition by getting focused in different ways. We may read Scripture, listen to music, talk to ourselves or do other pre-game rituals.
 

As an athlete your job is fairly simple in some ways – just listen to the coach and do what he or she tells you to do. But this doesn’t guarantee success because the coach does make mistakes and will at times fall short in his or her instruction.

Of course a driven athlete would never be completely satisfied with what only one coach has to say. The driven athlete may go to a better coach and seek advice or read a book for additional input, or even watch a video to gain some direction.

For nearly 30 years, Betsy King spent the majority of her time on the golf course. In most people’s opinion—whether sports analysts or average fans—she did some pretty significant things in a career that resulted in 34 LPGA Tour event titles, 6 major championships, and inductions into the World Golf Hall of Fame (1995) and the LPGA Hall of Fame (2000).

Yet while King was racking up every accolade available within the realm of professional women’s golf, a nagging doubt lingered about the importance of her role as an athlete and what life after sports might look like. Those thoughts were intensified after she read the book Half Time: Changing Your Game Plan from Success to Significance by Bob Buford.

It was a beautiful day in the Windy City. A hot dog, a Pepsi and a ballgame at Wrigley Field. . . What could be better? The game was going just as I wanted it to go. My team was scoring run after run, but the crowd was turning ugly. People were getting upset and starting to leave. Finally, after he'd had just about enough, the little boy sitting next to me pulled on my sleeve and asked, "Mister, who are you cheering for anyway?" You see, I am Reds fan, and the Reds handled the Cubs that day pretty easily. I left the game a happy fan.

I was the youngest varsity basketball coach in Indiana. I studied older coaches to gain knowledge, but one area to which I never paid enough attention was when to talk and when to keep quiet. I learned the hard way: by my second year of coaching, I’d received more than ten technical fouls, not for bad language, but for opening my mouth at the wrong time. These failures made me wonder if I’d ever master control over my tongue.

Solomon knew that there is a time for speaking and a time to guard our mouths, and many of us would do well to learn his lesson. All too often our lips keep moving when we should be listening. We fall too easily into traps made by our own speech; we forget that if our mouth doesn’t open, we will not be creating a trap to fall into.