TCB

Saturday morning, looking forward to a great morning workout with the fellas at T3, followed by a 3-mile run. Starting the day off in style.

"For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control." --2 Timothy 1:7

I think about the connection between faith and physical activity a lot, for myself as someone just trying to perform better in life as well as for actual athletes who participate in formal competition. How do we let our spiritual lives inform our performance as athletes getting through games or just our daily lives? I wrestle with that question often, for myself and for my friends.

No matter what we might be talking about, fear stems from the unknown. Before I was saved, I desperately feared death--lost sleep over it, would lie awake many nights wondering what would happen to me, if it was painful, etc. But after I became a Christian and accepted the Bible as the word of God, I knew the truth of my eternal life after my physical death, and because it was no longer an unknown, death is no longer something I fear.

The same is true in competition, in that we fear situations that are not familiar to us. As of this moment, I have some fear about this half-marathon, in that I have done very little to prepare for it at this early stage. But over time, as I get more acclimated to distance running and simply log more miles, my fear will be replaced by the power that the verse above describes. On TV, the concept of pressure gets thrown around all the time in sports. Failure in competition does not stem from pressure but from lack of preparation. If we have put it the time and done the work and logged repetitions with purpose, then we can go into competition boldly, knowing that we are physically prepared.

If you are any kind of athlete heading into competition, you are in one of two places: you have either put in the work or you haven't. If you have, then march into your game with boldness, armed with God's power. (I was blessed to watch some of the IC guys do their shooting workouts last night. Talk about dedication and putting in the work to eliminate fear--those guys are ready to go conquer Beloit today.) If you have not put in  the work, practice your craft with patience today knowing that you will eventually get to where you want to be. I am going to try to let that notion fill up my heart on my run this morning.

In the 70's, Elvis Presley had an entourage called the Memphis Mafia, and he and those guys wore TCB chains around their necks--TCB referred to Taking Care of Business. Whatever you have in front of you on your athlete journey today, keep God by your side and go Take Care of Business.