Play To Win

 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize?  Run in such a way as to get the prize.  Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.  Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air.  No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize. - 1 Corinthians 9:24-27

"Play to win" we might would say today.  We all know, either from playing or from watching, that it takes lots and lots and lots and lots of training to become good at something.  And if you want to win, you either need to have more talent than the other team or you need to train harder than the other team.  Here we are told that we have a purpose, it is not worthless.  We do not discipline ourselves and sacrifice for no cause.  There is a cause and it has a purpose.

We are to train, to discipline, to strive towards, to condition, to focus ourselves towards His calling.  Too often this road is tough, it requires strength, stamina, dedication, belief, faith, and love.  Tony Dungy comments that the "word for race is agon, from which we get our word agony.  It signifies a match or a race in which endurance and determination must overcome those moments of difficulty that come in any race."  (Every time I hear the word agony in relation to sports I think of the ABC Sports video of the ski-jumper crashing at the bottom of the ramp while they said "and the agony of defeat".) 

So often we want to quit or back away from our faith whenever the going gets tough.  We must be careful to never settle for straddling the fence.  We should not say we like that Jesus message and believe in Him enough to have our fire insurance, but we aren't going to get much closer because that road is really hard to walk.  The Bible promises persecution.  A race promises to be difficult, arduous, and may require us to push ourselves past what we believe we can accomplish.  Our faith development must also be such.  However, just as when you exercise and train rigorously and come to love it, even though it is difficult, so we will come to love the training of our faith, knowing that it produces character and we will look forward to those things that can make us stronger. 

On my home-gym wall it says "Without self-discipline it is impossible to succeed".  Yoda said, "Do.  Or do not.  There is no try."  It's time to recognize what we're doing, and "Just Do It".  (I think I just broke the record for phrases in a blog post.)