#1

Going for a run...Then I am going to begin packing stuff up to take to my new place in the Cedar Point apartments. They have two pools, and I plan to take advantage of them later this afternoon! Only been swimming once this year so far, which is not normal for me. I love the water!

Let me see...Normally, it is at this point that I transition into something more thought-provoking. However, today I have decided to prepare a special treat for you all! I recently read Vince Lombardi's "# 1" speech, and let's just say it made me want to run some laps around the seminary after I had finished reading it!

So, without further ado, I present to you Vince Lombardi on what it takes to be #1...

Winning is not a sometime thing; it's an all the time thing. You don't win once in a while; you don't do things right once in a while; you do them right all the time. Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.

There is no room for second place. There is only one place in my game, and that's first place. I have finished second twice in my time at Green Bay, and I don't ever want to finish second again. There is a second place bowl game, but it is a game for losers played by losers. It is and always has been an American zeal to be first in anything we do, and to win, and to win, and to win.

Every time a football player goes to ply his trade he's got to play from the ground up — from the soles of his feet right up to his head. Every inch of him has to play. Some guys play with their heads. That's O.K. You've got to be smart to be number one in any business. But more importantly, you've got to play with your heart, with every fiber of your body. If you're lucky enough to find a guy with a lot of head and a lot of heart, he's never going to come off the field second.

Running a football team is no different than running any other kind of organization — an army, a political party or a business. The principles are the same. The object is to win — to beat the other guy. Maybe that sounds hard or cruel. I don't think it is.

It is a reality of life that men are competitive and the most competitive games draw the most competitive men. That's why they are there — to compete. To know the rules and objectives when they get in the game. The object is to win fairly, squarely, by the rules — but to win.

And in truth, I've never known a man worth his salt who in the long run, deep down in his heart, didn't appreciate the grind, the discipline. There is something in good men that really yearns for discipline and the harsh reality of head to head combat.

I don't say these things because I believe in the "brute" nature of man or that men must be brutalized to be combative. I believe in God, and I believe in human decency. But I firmly believe that any man's finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle — victorious.

Paul describes the Christian life as a race and fight, as well:

Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified (1 Corinthians 9:24-27). The NIV translates, "I discipline my body and I make it my slave."

We have a responsibility, as the people of God, to fight off the powers of darkness (Ephesians 6:12). We have a responsibility to uphold and defend the Truth (Read 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, etc.). Lombardi urged his team to compete against flesh and blood. The Word commands us to fight against ourselves and hell. And God's grace will be sufficient for us.

Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit brings life (2 Corinthians 3:4-6).

This life is not easy. We have a responsibility to "work out our salvation with fear and trembling" (Philippians 2:12). Yet we have a guaranteed happy ending through faith in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We are victorious in Christ. So I challenge us all, myself included, to live like champions today! "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain" (Philippians 1:21).

How great of a football coach was Vince Lombardi?!