I have not been feeling well for the last few days. I have a cold or something like that. I thankfully don’t get sick too often, but this week I went and bought myself medicine and cold tablets because I was that ‘out of it’. It is amazing how much I take for granted good health and how very blessed I am. Can’t wait to get rid of this thing.

“Call unto me, and I will answer you; and I will show you secret things you wouldn’t know.”

Jeremiah 33:3

This is one of my favorite scriptures in the Bible (I know, I have a lot of favorites!). But there is an interesting give/take that shows how you and I are directly involved, and engaged in the process of understanding and revelation. We call to God, and He responds to us. And He doesn’t just pick up the phone and sit there, He gives us ‘inside info’, and a ’sneak peek’ of what is coming. He shares His secrets with us.

And it is clear in the manner in which the prophet was inspired to write these words, that if we don’t call God up, there is stuff that we won’t have the opportunity to receive. Not because God didn’t want to give, but we weren’t hungry and passionate enough to get.

In 2008, be a getter. Be a caller. A pursuer of God. No matter where you and I find ourselves. Whether in the deep darkness of depression and despair, pit of confusion and betrayal, or a peaceful and restful place. Whether high, low, or somewhere in the middle, let’s call Him. He is waiting to listen. Waiting to speak. His voice can take a variety of forms, but if you are serious about finding God, you will.

Go.

Find.

Him.

He is waiting.

Here is a picture of some of the Foulks Ranch Falcons. This is before we played our 4th game of the season. We were a little shorthanded, and went down 20-14 in a hotly contested battle where we rallied in the second half, but simply ran out of time.

Great effort from our girls in every phase of the game. We play again on Tuesday.

I have heard many times the phrase, “keep your eyes on the prize“. It means to keep your goal or destination at the forefront of your thinking. This is one of the most difficult things for a leader to do.

A major reason this is true is because most of the people that we lead, don’t live our lives in a “keep your eyes on the prize way.” They are distracted, confused, and fragmented (Which is the reason why leadership is needed!). But though they need leadership, the natural tendency is to resist it.

And therein lies the paradox: Those that need leaders (and that is all of us), resist those leaders because of their distracted nature, and in their resistance distract the leader from being focused on the ‘prize‘. This distraction weakens the leader’s ability to lead, which opens the door to more distraction, and in certain scenerios, increased criticism from the distracted.

Those that don’t have their focus on the prize will, (unknowingly in most cases) do everything they can to make sure the leader’s focus in not on the prize either.

If God has something great for you to do, the biggest enemy we will face will be distraction.

This enemy is everywhere.

As the leader/Pastor of a church, this is one of the most formidable foes I face.

Let’s keep moving forward.

Keeping our eyes on the prize.

We had a great time. I just wish would have remembered to take more pictures.

I love sports. I always have. I have a lot of incredible sports memories growing up. Scoring winning touchdowns in Pop Warner football. Having 4 televisions on at one time watching college football with my dad on New Year’s Day. Full tilt basketball games with friends from around the way, shouting matches during holidays with relatives over whether Jordan was better than Magic (Jordan was, of course!). This past weekend at the College Retreat I was speaking at, during an afternoon break I attacked a 2 on 2 basketball game with the tenacity of a NBA playoff battle. I love sports and I love to compete. Sports are the ultimate zero-sum game. When the buzzer sounds, the score lets you know whether you won or lost. This unabashed clarity of success, or the lack thereof, is a rarity in almost every other area of life and leadership.

In addition to the games themselves, the personalities are compelling. In their athletic exploits, there is an aspect of the person that you are able to see.

Barkley’s rough and tumble swashbuckling style, Jordan’s elite excellence, Magic’s wizardry, or to move to the gridiron, Walter Payton’s sweetness. I am challenged by athletes and their hunger and passion for the games that they play, and their desire for crowns that will one day perish. Perhaps my favorite athlete of this present generation is Kobe Bryant. He is perhaps, next to Barry Bonds the most polarizing sports figure in the world today. Either you love him, or you hate him.

There is no in-between with Kobe Bryant.

What intrigues me most about Kobe isn’t his on again off again relationship with the Lakers, the well chronicled feud with Shaq, or off the court troubles he has had in his personal life. It is his hunger to be the best he can be on the basketball court. One summer to correct a shooting flaw he noticed during film analysis, went to the gym over the summer and made one hundred thousand shots. That’s one hundred thousand made, not taken. The man works out before and after games to make sure he is physically and mentally sharp. He studies photos and film to discover an edge or another technique so he can improve on his craft. He pays attention to what he eats and how it is prepared so he can be at his very best.

He has a motto that is listed on his website in Italian: “Scito hoc super omnia….Tempus neminem non manet….Carpe diem”.

Meaning: Know this above all else….Fully use every point, moment, and hour that you have. Time waits for no man….Seize the day.

Here is my question: What if we trained that hard, were that focused and hungry for what God has for you and me? What if we eliminated mediocrity, sloth, and being lazy so we could seize God’s best for our lives? What would we be able to accomplish then? What if we took eternal rewards HALF as seriously as Kobe Bryant takes NBA championships? What would the church look like then? What would the world look like? What would you or I look like?

Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.

1 Corinthians 9:24-27