Posts Tagged ‘training’

Training for the Race

October 22, 2015

Paul loved sports metaphors. He talked about training for the race. Running the race.

Our house in my youth was a sports house, and football was the main one. I rememeber growing up with the Cleveland Browns on TV (I’m from Ohio, there was no Bengals). Dad was a big Notre Dame fan. Into adulthood, I watched the Browns every Sunday of the season. I “lived and died” with the Browns, as the saying goes. (They were good back then.)

Twenty-five years ago I started refereeing men’s soccer matches on Sunday afternoons in the fall. I didn’t watch as much football (and the Browns stopped building good teams–which continues unto today). I find watching soccer from Europe more entertaining in the few times I have that I can watch TV.

I’m thinking about the sport, though. What sort of team sport is it where the important stats are how many players are not injured during the game. NFL football has become over the past 20 years or so a “war of attrition.” The team that manages to avoid the most injuries has the best chance of winning the championship.

Yet during this time of changing the rules and equipment of the sport to promote the “Big Hit” which the NFL has done, the sport became the most popular team sport in America. Young men spend their entire lives training for a profession that is designed to cripple them. After a career of about six years, they retire before age 30 crippled for life.

Boxing is another sport where equipment allows the Big Hit but it has been supplanted by mixed martial arts where guys (and increasingly girls) beat the crap out of each other for the entertainment of millions.

When I started this stream of thoughts, I had no idea where it would lead. It began with an observation.

We could go two ways. One would be the usual condemnation of people who even thought supposedly civilized are not that far removed from the Roman crowds who cheered on fighters who fought to the death in the arena.

Then I thought about the goal we are training for. Because we should be in training right now. Paul didn’t think we ever stopped training and running. Paul Simon wrote a song using boxing as a metaphor for a wasted life. What is the metaphor of our life?

Are we training for the wrong life? For a wasted life? Or a full life?

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Coaches Help Us Train

January 26, 2015

Athletes even at the highest levels practice constantly. They train both their bodies and their minds. They intentionally develop “muscle memory” such that the muscles act and react in the heat of the competition in the correct way just as trained.

Minds must also be trained. Focus on the important things is required. The higher the level of competition, the more intense the focus. An offensive lineman in American football may be trained to focus just on the position of the feet of his opponent whom he must block before the ball is put into play.

Many athletes have talent. Many also never develop that talent. They don’t practice. They fail to focus. They don’t care to learn.

There are few things more disappointing than to see someone who has talent, gifts, and opportunity, and fails to achieve what could have been.

Often it is simply due to laziness. They just don’t do the work. Sometimes, it is due to a misplaced or mistimed word. Someone says something negative that the person just cannot overcome.

If we know someone who is not developing, it is our duty to mentor that person. Say the appropriate word. Give a supporting comment. Or give the appropriate “kick in the pants” to get them off the lazy, unfocused path.

At the end of Chapter 8 of 1 Corinthians, Paul talks about being aware of our brothers. Instead of thinking “it’s all about me,” he encourages us not to do something (or say something) that would cause a brother or sister to fail. I think this applies often to us today. We know the power of words and relationship. We know that by considering others instead of just being wrapped up in our own cares we can save many a person from a path of destruction and despair; instead freeing them to fulfill their potential.

All great athletes have great coaches who guide them; all Christ-followers need a mentor to encourage them.

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