Handling Disappointment

Last night at Fenway Park the Angels collided with the Red Sox in a game which many people considered to have a disappointing ending. No-hitters are rare in Major League Baseball but Angels pitcher John Lackey seemed to be having a near date with baseball history as he entered the ninth inning Tuesday night. It was there that after getting one out that John would have his no-hitter broken up by giving up a solid single through the infield.

This situation began to jump start a thought in my mind. Is there a place for the Christian athlete to be disappointed? Naturally, John Lackey had to feel some level of disappointment when giving up that hit even though the Angels went on to win. My immediate thoughts would be to question the motivation of his disappointment. If he was disappointed because he would lose out on personal glory then his actions would have to be considered a sin. On the other hand I do believe that there is room for some level of disappointment in this situation. I myself have witnessed a live no-hitter by Dave Stieb of the Toronto Blue Jays when he no-hit the Cleveland Indians when I was a little boy. Something about that game was amazing just because of the fact that I got to see baseball history. If Dave would have given up a hit I believe that there would have been some natural disappointment that really would not have been sin.

I believe that it comes down to the motivation of the heart. If the heart can remain focused on the joy in Christ and the goal of honoring Him, then I believe there is room for natural disappointment.

Psalm 33:3, “Sing to him a new song; play skillfully, and shout for joy.”

Brian Conklin
Omaha Metro FCA

Be a Doer of the Word

"But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves." - James 1:22

Towards the end of last week and the beginning of this week I have been consumed by non stop tennis during our one day FCA tennis clinics in Scottsbluff, North Platte, Hastings, and Omaha. The one consistant thing I seemed to hear from both athletes and coaches throughout the time we had together was this: "I understand what you are saying. I have heard this at church before." They were hearing what God was saying through His word but what was interesting was they had a hard time walking in obedience to His commands on a tennis court. Everything they had just heard about how God desired them to compete had just went flying out the window.

That is why this passage of scripture came to my mind when thinking back on the clinics. Even for me it was challenging after talking to the kids to then go out and compete with the glory of Jesus as my sole motivation. I hear what God desires of me in competition but actually doing that out on a tennis court is a totally different story. God is still training my mind to compete out of a desire to honor and glorify my savior and be a doer of the word, not just a hearer. I would hope this would encourage you to not settle with what you think you understand from God's Word and that you would continue to analyize and train your heart to compete and do life God's Way.

Nate Lewis
FCA Area Representative
Western Nebraska

Game Day for the Glory of God

Does the omnipotent and eternal God actually care about Little League games and Monday Night Football? The Bible calls Christians to do everything for God’s glory, and that includes playing, watching, and talking sports. Learn how to enjoy sports as a gift from God and as a means of growing in godliness.

Game Day for the Glory of God is a great book scheduled to be published in September. Stephen Altrogge is a friend of Nebraska FCA and has written this book to help us develop a God-centered perspective of sports. This will be a great book for coaches, athletes, and all whom they influence!

Be sure to get yourself a copy when it gets released in September!


Josh Reynolds
Central-Northeast Nebraska FCA

Conservative?

As I opened the Omaha World Herald today I couldn’t help but notice the headlines which read, “Pelini says NU offense won’t be conservative.” In sports today, there are far too many athletes who compete “conservatively.” Players and coaches in every sport use this word which is very confusing to me. Why would any team play conservatively?

When a player holds back in any way, they are not giving a total release to Christ. Granted, there is strategy involved in each sport but we should never let strategy impact our effort.

Colossians 3:23 says, “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men.” When I read this verse there seems to be a drastic difference between the word “heartily,” and “conservatively.”

Now I realize that coach Pelini was referring to the strategy more than the mentality. However, as a Christian we need to live our lives radically. A fan should never sit in the stands and say, “That Christian plays conservative.” To me conservative means hesitant, and being hesitant involves fear. I challenge you to give total release performances to Christ!

Brian Conklin
Omaha Metro FCA

What Really Matters?

"And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ," - Philippians 1:10

It is amazing to me how faithfully consistent God is in His word with our goal for our lives. Currently I am preparing to teach at our FCA Tennis Clinics starting this Thursday in Scottsbluff and continuing on in North Platte, Hastings, and Omaha on Friday, Saturday, and Monday. As I have been studying I was struck by this passage when God inspires Paul to write about being able to discern what is best.

In a world that Paul refers to in Philippians 3 as full of enemies of the Cross of Christ, it can be very difficult to discern what is best. We have been drilled time and time again with questions that reveal the heart of the goal of sports according to the world such as "How many points did you score?" or "Did you win?" To which I ask: "What really matters!"

Philippians 1 refers to us being pure and blameless until the day of Christ as what really matters. Therefore, the questions we ought to be asking are "Did I glorify the Lord in what I did in competition today?" or "Did I learn to better walk in obedience to the Lord through my competition today? or "Did I become more like Jesus through my competition today?"

What is interesting is that God's goal for us in sports is really no different then God's Goal for us in our lives. Many of us (including me) have just failed to consider whether or not God would have a goal for us in sports and have simply deferred to what the world would define as the goal. The thing that makes this difficult to understand in our flesh is that God's goal for us is not something that is measurable like a win or a loss is. It is a matter of the heart. And God desires to be with us in the midst of competition as well.

Check out a great description of this from Western Nebraska FCA's Spring Banquet as former Denver Bronco and current National Spokesperson for FCA's Drug and Alcohol Free Ministry One Way 2 Play, Steve Fitzhugh recites FCA's Competitor's Creed.

Nate Lewis
FCA-Area Representative
Western Nebraska