Coaches often travel the country recruiting future players, selling their programs, and hoping that future stars will pick their particular school. Blue-chip recruits are in high demand, and every coach is inwardly crying, “Pick me! Pick me!” This is a great analogy for choosing godly wisdom, as illustrated in Proverbs.

In chapter 8, wisdom calls out to us and pleads her case about why we should pick her. Choosing wisdom is invaluable. It is better than the best thing we could ever want. Why? As the writer says at the end of the chapter, whoever finds wisdom finds happiness and life, and obtains favor from the Lord.

Weight training is a must for athletes in order to prepare their bodies for practice and competition. The benefits of weight training and conditioning are increased muscle size, increased strength and the power to maximize their abilities. Weight training also reduces the number and severity of injuries. It overloads the muscles and breaks down muscle fibers. The muscle then recovers, becoming bigger and stronger.

If you haven’t caught Lin-Sanity yet, you should probably turn on ESPN. Well, turn on any channel for that matter. It’s been featured on more than just the sports stations, even infiltrating the national news based on his incredibly fast rise to sports fame.

His name is Jeremy Lin, and he is now the starting point guard for the New York Knicks. Since he took over the starting position, the Knicks have been on fire, and Lin himself has gone crazy on the scoring end amassing a total of 146 points in just six games. His popularity has skyrocketed so high that you can’t even access the Knicks’ homepage without first going through a big banner of Lin-Sanity.

All this from a second-year kid from Harvard? Yep!

During the Christmas season there seems to be a more evident and fresh feeling of hope in the air. There is extended time with family, presents to give and receive, more gifts and money given to those in need, cheerful music and so on. Most of us look forward to these things all year.

As a coach, I also notice this hope-filled feeling in our team right before each game. Leading up to the game we have practiced hard and prepared, and now the score’s 0-0. We have the hope of playing well and getting a victory.

When I was 12, I was playing second base for an all-star team. I still remember dropping that pop fly that ended up, in part, costing us the win. I made excuses—blaming the rain and even the lights (it was a night game). At the time, I didn’t think I was making excuses; I just didn’t want the loss to be my fault.

Excuses spread like a virus. We blame the refs, our teammates and even the weather! We make excuses for why we’re late to practice, why we didn’t work out, why we missed a shot—you name it. When we justify why we didn’t do what we should’ve, it’s easier to make excuses the next time.

“Excuses are the nails used to build a house of failure” (Don Wilder).