It takes heart to play sports. Coaches fire up their teams by saying, “Go out there and play with all your heart!” While skills and talent are important, playing with heart separates the good from the great. When my daughter plays basketball and looks toward me, I pound my hand on my heart. It is my sign to encourage her to play with heart. Playing with heart is about drive, passion, and desire.

I remember starting practice for fall sports after a lazy summer. Practice often included two-a-days—working in the morning and afternoon to get in shape for the season. If we didn’t stay in shape during the summer, we were going to suffer.

Suffering, pain, and hardships are not things we look forward to. How often do we pray for anything on that list—or thank God for such difficulties? We avoid them! We would rather experience God’s blessings, favor, and success. Yet Paul not only experienced persecution on a regular basis, the Holy Spirit led him into it.

Which of our athletic gifts are most important to us as competitors? Perhaps it is strength or speed. Or maybe it is hand-eye coordination or a competitive nature. Regardless of the gift, do we know the One who gave it to us? Peter mentioned giftedness in 1 Peter 4:10. Here we read that Peter knew that we are all gifted. There is likely no group on the planet who understands this more than an athletic team. The issue for us is not whether or not we are gifted, but rather who it is that gives us the gifts, and how we shall respond to Him?

Our gifts are described as being part of the manifold grace of God. In other words, God’s grace has been distributed to each of us in unique ways. Our best response to a gracious Giver is to use our giftedness to serve those around us.

As a former semi-pro hockey player who has been out of the game for more than a decade, I still like to look back at my career and reflect on the life lessons that my high school hockey coach taught us. One of my favorites was from a speech that went something like this: “Don’t worry about what the other team is doing. Concentrate on what makes you great. Get to the rink early and visualize shooting the puck and passing the puck. Visualize winning the little battles in the corner and coming out with the puck. We can only control our actions and our attitudes. Hockey is a game of mistakes, and if we make fewer mistakes than the other team, we will come up with a win.”

We’ve seen the commercial more than once—the one where the guy walks around with his cell phone, pausing every couple of steps to ask the question “Can you hear me now? Good.” We are reminded that some companies go to a lot of trouble to keep their communication lines open. We have all experienced areas where cell phone communication breaks down, when we can’t hear at all.

Stop for a moment and think about the effort God has made to communicate His unending love for us. His message is clear. He loves us and wants us to respond by living our lives in the truth—a truth that honors our Creator and loves and serves our fellow man. The problem is that we don’t listen. We are too wrapped up in ourselves to notice His call.

While on a hard training ride the other day, I noticed how focused I was on my goal of getting a personal best on this particular course. I kept checking my cadence, heart-rate monitor, speed and perceived exertion, and I even noticed I was making ground on the cyclist ahead of me. This ride and my focus made me ask myself two questions about my spiritual life:

1. Do I spend as much time making sure I am on track with my Christian life?
2. What marks do I use to assess where I am?

Trials. The Bible doesn’t tell us that trials may happen; it tells that trials are a sure thing. How can we have joy when we face difficult times, when our season is 0–5, when parents are angry that their child sits on the bench, or when our assistants question our every move? How can we be content when we face all of this?