Compete Like An Athlete

SERIES: Stay Strong (2 of 3)
Compete Like An Athlete - Part 2

2020 has been the year that keeps on giving for sure. Besides the headline horrors for the year, you as an officer have faced attacks on your character and on your profession adding stress and danger to both you and your family.

Last week we looked at how soldiers accept suffering to make it through. This week we look at how athletes endure hardship to compete.

I played church league softball years ago, but I was hardly an athlete...I played ball with friends. Professional athletes don’t “play” their sport...they compete. No doubt it takes special ability to compete at those levels, but professional athletes would never achieve what they do without enduring hardship, committing to training and adopting a “do-whatever-it-takes” mindset.

When an athlete first starts competing, they find where they excel and what they have the skills to do better than the average person. But there comes a time when they have to commit in order to better themselves and to be able to compete with other naturally-skilled athletes.

Winning is not possible without fitness and training, but disciplining the body and working out does not guarantee a “win” for the athlete. After years of discipline, work outs, dieting, training and sacrifice, an athlete will notice an increase in their performance, but to achieve the goal of being a dominant competitor, they cannot stop there. Training must continue and gets harder building on what they have already learned and endured. The work is harder, but mentally they are in the habit of enduring and overcoming to reach their goals. Achieved goals are often rewarded with wins, but if they ever stop training and disciplining their bodies, their forward progress stops.

Sometimes struggles in life are that way, too. We like the “wins”, but what is most important is the person we are becoming in the midst of enduring hardship. Whether the goal is a promotion, a better marriage, being a good parent or just being a better friend, hard times are going to come. 2020 has been FULL of hard times. But as the athlete has learned, you’ve endured too much and come too far to quit during the hard times. I don’t know what hardships you are facing, but stay strong. You’ve got people depending on you, and you’ve got people praying for you. I am praying for you this week. Thank you for serving others in the midst of all you have faced in 2020. 

Your service is appreciated,
Pastor Rob

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Links to other posts in this series: Part 1, Part 3