When the word “winner” winds its way to my ears, the first image that comes to mind is the Lord Jesus and the second image is the Apostle Paul and several other people from Bible times and the third image is a particularly prominent, pure-preaching, power-pulsating pastor of the prototypical properly-run church in my humble belief (I’m a bit biased) but the very first secular  image that comes to mind when I hear the word “winner” is Michael Jordan.

And Larry and Kareem; Wilt “the stilt” and “Pistol” Pete and the whole cast of the Riley-run Heat; little-talker but big blocker Bill Russell; “Rain Man” Kemp; dunkin’ Duncan and his long-time, trusted, talented teammate “the (admirable) Admiral” David Robinson (a bit biased about him, too, because there’s a personal connection from childhood, as with TobyMac); Ewing, Mourning, McHale, “Magic”.

Mantle, Musial, Mays, McCovey, Maddux, Mariano, Maris (the man who broke Babe Ruth’s home run record which had held for 34 years, until Roger hit “61 in ’61”) … and these are just the ones that start with “M”!

Brady, Bradshaw, Stallworth, Swann, Sanders, Smith (Emmitt, Bruce, Bubba, and Steve Sr., with Alex and Leonard having put forth a promising push in the past), Montana, Mahomes, and must-mention miracle-maker Manning (particularly Peyton, but both brothers were the bomb, no pun intended =).

Mario Lemieux and Gretzky, too.

Nicklaus, Palmer, Watson and Woods; Lopez-Melton and Sorenstam.

Agassi, Steffi, Sampras and Evert; Connors, McEnroe, Borg, and (also admirable) Arthur Ashe; Federer and Nadal, winners all.

Why?  Because (but for a few deflated footballs perhaps =) they played/competed by and within and according to the rules.

• “And also if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not win the prize unless he competes according to the rules.” (2 Timothy 2:5)

Winning is good, indeed, excellent, indeed, important… but not nearly so much  in sports as  spiritually, since Scripture spurs us on to do just that.

• “Run in such a way that you may win.” (1 Corinthians 9:24c)
• “I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:14)
• “But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.” (Romans 8:37)
• “this is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith.” (1 John 5:4b)

Many might mutter, “Sounds great, DJ Bible, but how?!”

I’ll answer that excellent question in the next post, stay tuned…

 

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