Become A Champion Of Your Soul

I personally was never much of an athlete. I played baseball and basketball as I grew up with my brothers and with friends. We did Pee Wee baseball up through the Legion teams. I was always on the team - there was no cut, but not a big contributor. I never learned how to properly throw a baseball – it looks like my arm is attached to my side about halfway down my shoulder when I try to toss a ball. In fact, I have had my boys laugh when they watched me try to throw the ball to them.  I could not get the timing down to hit a pitch. I imagine that I did not keep my eye on the ball. It didn’t matter a lot to me - I just never had a lot of interest in learning that stuff. The games were something to do, but I never did excel in any of the sports. I played center in high school football. I did like that sport, but was a bit small to do too much damage to any defenders. I could snap the hike and get across the line quickly, but no long touchdowns coming from me.

Why the Good Lord Blessed Margaret and I with four sons is still beyond anything I can begin to comprehend. They each had a natural love of all sports. From their earliest youth, they wanted to play ball. We had many years of watching a lot of baseball, softball, soccer, basketball, and football games. Johnny grew up in a car seat watching Tom play ball games. The boys were fairly good athletes as well – I attribute that to their maternal genetics.  Even when I watch a football game now, I watch where the ball goes, and the boys will talk about who did what in their assignment etc. – they are at a different dimension in watching games than I am.

Through those years of watching the boys play ball we have watched several State Championship teams in Football, Basketball, and even one National Championship Softball team for Tom. It was a lot of fun, and we made a lot of friends watching our kids play sports. Great Plains Soccer Club was great for us for many years as well. The thing that I recall about those championship teams is the work they put into getting to be a championship team.

Take basketball, which is freshly on our minds today. I believe O’Gorman Boys Basketball has had 5 of the last 7 State Championships. We have had sons in that program and know the commitment of the team, the coaches, and of the parents. It is a great group. The expectations are there to work hard on your skills if you want to participate. Open gym to shoot around almost daily when you are not in another sport – summer team camps, summer leagues, many on traveling teams - get the ball in your hands if you want to make a difference on those teams.

Now let’s move that analogy to our Spiritual Lives. Do you think we can have a “Championship Spiritual Life” by only showing up to “practice” once per week for about 50 minutes? We have to be willing to commit ourselves to more time with God and to developing our spiritual relationship with Him. Think about the minimum of probably 12 hours per week spent to be on that basketball team that wins state. Shouldn’t we be willing to commit at least a half hour per day to growing in our faith? If you are not doing anything like this now, make it a priority to start by giving God 30 minutes per day in prayer, meditation, Adoration, reading a spiritual book, reading the Bible, or learning more about your Faith somehow. You will see a difference that you cannot believe after only a few weeks. You will grow in ways you cannot imagine and your life will change forever. Do it for the “Team”! God Bless!