As a senior in High School, I was on the High School track team. We had a small school with about 15 boys in the High School, and most of them participated in all three sports that our school offered: cross country, track, and basketball. I was not a very good athlete in High School, but I greatly enjoyed the experience and camaraderie. One of the events I ran was the mile; my fastest time was over 7  minutes. That is pretty slow. Another senior in another high school ran the mile in under 5:00 minutes and lapped me when our schools were in the same meet. Not many people can say they have been lapped in the mile. That was one of my finer accomplishments in High School athletics. For my first two years in College, I went to a small college of about 500 students and played basketball and baseball. I was a little better than in High School, but not much.

As an adult I have competed in softball, golf, racquetball, ping pong, and basketball and have been mediocre at best. I think golf is the only competitive sport I plan on attempting to get better at in my old age. I might try pickleball, but probably not. In all my years of participating in competitive sports, beginning in grade school, I have been fiercely competitive and have tried hard to win in everything I did. I trained and competed, trying my hardest to win. I never got discouraged, even when I got laughed at for getting lapped in the mile, and I never quit. As I try to help people run the race of the Christian life with endurance without getting discouraged and quitting, I try to help married couples stay in their marriage, being faithful to their marriage vows. As I try to motivate believers in Christ to do something with their life that matters for eternity instead of just coasting,  I often wonder what is missing in many people. I had an inner confidence, assurance, and self-worth as a young person that didn’t come from accomplishments. It kept me in the game, trying my hardest, enjoying the experiences, and comfortable with who I was. As I think about my life and where that came from I give the credit to three things, my healthy family life, my healthy church experiences, and the fact that I read the Bible through when I was 13 years old because of the encouragement of a 20 year old camp counselor, and at least that every year since. The Bible is God’s living, supernatural Word, and it is amazingly powerful to change us from the inside out. I am who I am because of God’s working, but He did His work in me through other people, parents, pastors, camp counselors, and many others. I pray that God will use me to do the same for many others. The main point is “read your Bible every day, every day, every day.”