The Gap
“I know, my God, that You test the heart and that You are pleased with what is right. I have willingly given all these things with an upright heart, and now I have seen Your people who are present here giving joyfully and willingly to You.” -- 1 Chronicles 29:17
The Competitor’s Creed states: “My attitude on and off the field is above reproach — my conduct beyond criticism.” This is a tough standard.
Legendary Hall of Fame basketball coach John Wooden once said:
“A leader’s most powerful ally is his or her own example. There is hypocrisy to the phrase, ‘Do as I say, not as I do.’ I refused to make demands on my boys that I wasn’t willing to live out in my own life.”
As athletes and coaches, we too often desire to live a life we know we have not committed in our hearts to living. We desire for our external life (the life that everyone sees — our wins and accomplishments) to be greater than our internal life (the life that no one sees — our thoughts and desires.)
The best definition of hypocrisy that I have ever heard is that it is the gap that exists between the public life and the private life. God doesn’t want there to be a gap at all. He wants every aspect of our lives to be filled with integrity.
Oswald Chambers wrote, “My worth to God in public is what I am in private.” As a competitor for Christ, be committed to being real — gap free!
- Where are the gaps in your life? In your training?
- Is the person your teammates see within the team setting the same person they see on the outside?
“Lord, I pray that You will reveal to me any gaps in my life that must be closed. I desire to live and play for You as an authentic competitor. Amen.”
