No Pain, No Gain

OK, those of you who aren't golf fans will have to bear with me on this post. Tiger won again this weekend. It's his 14th major tournament win. And he did it while still recovering from knee surgery...in pain...wincing on many tee shots. It took an extra 18 holes and then sudden death to win it, but once again Tiger toughed one out to win over a great competitor, Rocco Mediate.

Then word came down today that Tiger has to have more surgery and he's out for the rest of the season. AND...he was playing with a stress fracture in his left leg that he didn't tell us about! And he still won the U.S. Open, the toughest golf tournament in existence.

So how does he do it? Well, obviously he has incredible golf skills. But more than that, Tiger has a different mental gear that he can shift into that nobody else seems to have. He just refuses to quit because he wants to win so badly. He literally finds a way to win.

What if the Church thought that way? What if we just refused to give up until every person we know has a chance to hear the gospel? What if we shifted into a mental "game gear" every Sunday where we just leave everything on the playing field? What if we just refused to lose?

Winning the U.S.Open is a really big accomplishment. But winning people to Jesus is bigger!

Comments

[Mel]

I liked Loretta's analogy, although I don't see myself in a horserace...I compete only with myself...and what God's plan is for my life...as much as I would like to win,,,I see "The Difference" as Jared Anderson well scripted in his song that was recorded with Integrity at New Life (springs CO) hear the difference,,,,your post was good about Tiger...don't give up until you have all that God wants for you.

Mel

[Loretta]

I finally thought of the other sports analogy that's been tickling my brain since I read this. On June 7, I watched the Belmont Stakes, the third race in Thoroughbred horse racing's Triple Crown. Winning all three races is very difficult--it's three races in three states in five weeks. (For a horse, that's equivalent to the physical demand of winning successive games in the ACC Basketball Tournament.) And if that weren't enough, the races are all different lengths, so a strategy that works for one might not suit for another. With all of these challenges, there hasn't been a Triple Crown winner in 30 years.

Everyone thought this could be the year. A horse named Big Brown won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes; in fact, he was undefeated. The Preakness is the shortest of the three, and he had energy left over at the end of it. He looked really good for the Belmont, the longest race. I was on the edge of my chair on June 7, anxiously hoping for this particular drought to be broken.

But it wasn't to be. Big Brown's jockey got him into a good position to take the lead, but, he said, "When I pressed the button, there was no response. He didn't pop any tires, he just ran out of gas." Da'Tara, a horse that led the race from the beginning, won instead, and Big Brown finished last (his jockey pulled him up so as not to injure him).

The point isn't to dwell on Big Brown and be depressed; it's to think about Da'Tara and be encouraged. Suppose Da'Tara's trainer, Nick Zito, had taken it for granted that Big Brown was going to win, and hadn't exercised and challenged his horse? He wouldn't have been ready to take advantage of this opportunity.

Similarly, I can get overwhelmed by the odds against me. Sometimes it seems like the bad guys are winning and there's no point in trying. But I have to keep training and keep trying because I never know when I'll get a chance to lead wire-to-wire--whether it's having a deep conversation with a Wall Person, or discovering a new insight in the Bible, or even something as mundane as finding the job opportunity that's an exact fit for my gifts.

No one's quite sure what happened to Big Brown. It was just one of those days. And sometimes we can't see what God is up to in making opportunities for us. We can just be ready when they present themselves.