As an athlete your job is fairly simple in some ways – just listen to the coach and do what he or she tells you to do. But this doesn’t guarantee success because the coach does make mistakes and will at times fall short in his or her instruction.

Of course a driven athlete would never be completely satisfied with what only one coach has to say. The driven athlete may go to a better coach and seek advice or read a book for additional input, or even watch a video to gain some direction.

Hockey Chat:  Some players try to cheat by making it look like they were fouled.  Maybe they got bumped but they make it look like they’ve been hit by a truck.  The technical term for this is “Diving” and it is a penalty that will cost the guy trying to twist the system two minutes in the penalty box and possibly up to $1000 fine.

This weekend I ran my first 25k. It was a great experience, one that I will definitely try again. It was easy to find inspiration all around. There were athletes in wheelchairs competing, a father pushing his disabled son through the race, and people wearing shirts bearing the name of a sick loved one. 

If you had to guess, what would you say is the hardest thing to do in sports? Win a national championship? Go undefeated for a season? Maybe just winning your conference if the competition is tough. Or, you could say it is an individual action like sinking a hole-in-one or hitting a 90-mph fastball. To be honest, though, I would have to say that none of these is the hardest thing to do in sports. I personally think the toughest thing we can do is to play and coach like Jesus.

Now, hopefully we all understand that competing for and like Christ doesn’t involve being a doormat. The Bible I read doesn’t tell me to be a pushover for the competition. If we look at the verses from Philippians 2:1-4, we see a description of how we are to compete for His glory.

Tampa Bay Rays All-Star Ben Zobrist wasn’t drafted by Major League Baseball out of high school. In fact, he wasn’t even offered a baseball scholarship to play in college. Yet, after attending a skills showcase the summer after his senior year, one college coach saw potential in Zobrist and offered him a position on the team.

Now one of the brightest young infielders in the game, Zobrist has experienced a divine path to success—both on the field and off. Just before the start of the 2010 season, Zobrist sat down with FCA’s Sharing the Victory magazine to talk about that career, his family and, most importantly, his faith in Jesus Christ.