How can we show proper respect for our teammates, coaches, opponents, and even the officials? Why should we even care about that? Peter understood the value of showing proper honor and respect to people and he wrote about it in this Scripture. Take a moment to read it again, this time out loud.

During times of trial, a standing joke with my family and myself has been, “Please don’t mention Moses. It seems as if this man had an incredibly long and tiring road with ungrateful people and fair-weather fans (sound familiar?). As if this was not enough, Moses and his clan finally reached the edge of the Promised Land and wandered for forty years, not being allowed to enter. Is this the most encouraging devotional you have ever read?

Aside from my father, the most influential man in my life has been my coach. He was always very clear about the fact that, regardless of the issues that accompany academics, athletics, and disciplinary measures, he cared about me and valued me as a person. One of his many memorable sayings was, “When you fistfight or curse, you have run out of ideas.” Later I had the unparalleled honor of teaching with him for a short while, and he went on to found the FCA chapter for which I have now been Huddle Coach for twenty-one years. At the time of the Huddle’s birth, Jesus had just changed my life, and that’s when the coach asked me to co-sponsor. One year later he took another job, leaving the Huddle to me.

Coach Jones’s team lost a couple of games that had seemed like sure wins, and the wolves were howling for a change. Coach Jones had allowed his disappointment to turn to discouragement, and he was feeling pretty low. Right about that time a friend came to him and quoted Samuel Johnson: “Great works are not accomplished by strength, but by perseverance.” His friend added, “You are doing a great work and it’s a lot bigger than football.

It seems the psalmist’s heart, informed by God’s truth, was the source of his wise speech and security in life. Many coaches rest their security in their players’ abilities, which serves them  well until injuries occur. Other coaches find security in knowledge of their sport or the experience of their coaching staff. Others appear fully confident, but are then found to be inferior in competition. In each case, their confidence easily turns to anxiety because of the nature of their source.

Our heart can be a limitless source of peace and confidence if we maintain our relationship with Christ through careful study of the Bible. Reading the Scriptures regularly deposits the law of God in our hearts and will keep our steps from slipping.

As Christian athletes we sometimes fall into the trap of thinking that God is always on our team’s side. We think, Why would God not want us to have victory on the playing field? Are we not more righteous than our opponents? (For some reason I always saw the other team as the bad guys). Even more, Why would He not want us to experience victory?

Habakkuk cried out to God for answers to questions like these. He could not understand why God would allow such evil and horrible injustice to take place in his land. God gave him an answer he couldn’t believe. God told him the Chaldeans were going to invade his land. God had purposed that the Chaldeans—a nation more evil than his own—were going to be His instrument of justice among the people of Judah.