The conference was over at noon and my plane leaves at 7:00 pm and it is now 2:30 pm and I am sitting in a “Sports Bar” in the airport watching the Oregon-UCLA football game and eating fish and chips. It is now halftime and Oregon is up 31 to 13. I am at the Phoenix airport so there aren’t many Oregon fans sitting around me.

I enjoy watching football and basketball, both college and professional, and I have my favorite teams in both. I am not a fanatic for any team, but I enjoy “wanting” my team to win. In the New Testament the Apostle Paul uses sports as an illustration often, usually track or boxing. The point of the illustrations usually has to do with effort, diligence, and endurance. Living the Christian life is very much like most of life, those who work the hardest are usually the most successful.

2 Peter 1:5 Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge,

Romans 12:11 not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord;

Diligence is usually manifest in reading your Bible everyday even when you are tired, spending at least 15 minutes every day with God in prayer, seeking wisdom like gold and silver by reading good books, and listening to pod casts, attending church most weekends, and serving Him in some kind of ministry.

Most are to busy with stuff in the world that has no eternal value to be faithful in the basic disciplines of the Christian life, and won’t do well at the Judgment Seat of Christ. Nice people but not winners.