Once again this week I am
sharing an insight from the FCA Coaches Ministry event in Springfield, Illinois
(USA) back on March 11. It pays to hang out with insightful people.
A statement made in passing
by that day’s featured presenter, Dr. Jeff Duke, was that some people who work
in sport do it as a job, a way to make money. Others have sport as their
career, demonstrating sustained excellence across time. Still others treat
sport as a calling, having a strong sense of purpose for life. I’d like to
develop those thoughts, one at a time.
We all know people for whom sport is their job, nothing more. This
surely applies to the player who tolerates practice, travel and all that sport
requires. We probably know coaches whose primary interest in sport is the
paycheck. This even fits the administrator, vendor, equipment manager, or
physio who has a job in sport like they would have a job in a bank, a
restaurant, or driving a truck. They measure things like hours, money, and
maybe productivity, but nothing deeper than that.
It is likely we know people for whom sport is their career. They
have excelled in at least one facet of sport and have found it to be more than
just a job. They find it to be fulfilling and more rewarding than just their
paycheck. These people tend to work longer hours with less complaint that those
who just have jobs. They tend to commit more deeply to the people and to the
institutions they serve. They tend to stay longer in the service of one
university, high school, club, or team than others. These people measure
achievement, long-term relationships, terms of service, and value continuity.
Many of us know, and more of us are, people who live in sport as a
calling. We are vocational about sport. We have heard
God’s calling to the sporting world and to sporting people. We believe we were
uniquely chosen, equipped, placed, and are sustained for life in sport. We
trust God with situations and relationships that are beyond what career or job
oriented people would ever engage. We measure things like conversations,
discipleship relationships, hours of investment in players, teams, coaches, and
families. We think in terms of decades, and even generations.
If you have a job in sport,
good. Be great at it and it could become a career. If you have a sporting
career, I hope it brings you rich fulfillment and reward. If you find your
heart desiring even more, you may have a calling. If your calling is to live in
sport, you are divinely ruined. Nothing else will satisfy your soul or engage
your mind. One can quit a job or make a career change at almost any time. But
one cannot quit his or her calling. God will protect His divine investment in
your heart until it is fulfilled.
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