The Million-Dollar Question

Former Heisman trophy winner Ricky Williams pulled the plug on his football career at age 27 after only five years in the NFL. Williams failed a drug test for the third time, at which it becomes public knowledge, and he said he couldn't deal with people knowing he smokes marijuana. So he went to Australia and lived in a tent community. "In my tent, I had about 30 books. And every morning, I'd wake up at about 5 a.m., and I'd take my flashlight and read for a couple of hours," said Williams. "Everything from nutrition to Buddhism to Jesus, to try to figure out, you know, what am I? What am I? So, I just kept reading and reading. And couldn't figure out what I was. But I learned a lot."

Like Ricky Williams, all of us long to know the purpose of life, and more specifically, the purpose of our own life. In his No. 1 bestseller, "The Purpose Driven Life," Rick Warren writes, "Contrary to what many popular books, movies, and seminars tell you, you won't discover your life's meaning by looking within yourself. You didn't create yourself, so there is no way you can tell yourself what you were created for. It is only in God that we discover our origin, our identity, our meaning, our purpose, our significance, and our destiny. Every other path leads to a dead end."

As competitors, knowing that we were created by God and for His purpose puts sports in a more significant role. While wins and losses still matter to us, we know that it is much bigger than that. It's about accomplishing God's purpose for us.