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Football coaches tell their teams they must play “all 60 minutes” of the game. Track and field trainers tell their athletes to run “the whole” race. That’s because they know that playing 59 minutes or only running 399 meters leads to defeat.
The same kind of defeat in these videos….
Here are two videos – taken from the sports world – that show Christians the sobering reality of not finishing strong.
The first one is taken from the University of California and Stanford University football game from 1982. This scene is so famous – or infamous, depending on who you ask – that for the last few decades, it’s simply been known as “The Play.”
With four seconds on the clock, Stanford had just taken a one point lead over their rivals from the University of California. They attempt an onside kick, but the special teams unit from Cal’s Golden Bears used five lateral passes to make it into the end zone for the game-winning touchdown (knocking down and bowling over the Stanford marching band who assumed the game had been decided in their favor).
Take a look or download it to show in your message.
[pro-player width=’530′ height=’350′ type=’video’]http://www.www.itslikethis.org/video/finishing_strong_football/finishing_strong_football.mp4[/pro-player]
This second video comes from the “other football” and shows a penalty kick being made in a match between Maghreb Fez and FAR Rabat with the quarterfinals of the Moroccan Coupe du Trone on the line.
When the kick came screaming at him, FAR Rabat goalkeeper Khalid Askri reacted at the speed of light and deflected the ball. He immediately got up off the grass and began to celebrate thinking he was victorious. Unfortunately for him, the ball had an enormous amount of spin on it, and it actually trickled into the corner of the net after he turned his back.
The ref awarded Maghreb Fez the point, and Khalid’s FAR Rabat club went on to lose the match 7-6.
Take a look or download it to show in your message.
[pro-player width=’530′ height=’350′ type=’video’]http://www.www.itslikethis.org/video/finishing_strong_soccer/finishing_strong_soccer.mp4[/pro-player]
The point is clear: if you don’t finish strong, you run a great risk of losing. The Bible is just as clear as any professional coach: finish strong! In fact, the Bible has a passage that seems to be ripped straight from a coach’s half time speech:
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize. (1 Corinthians 9:24-27)
No one wins by training. Nobody wins from dieting or conditioning. In fact, no one wins by practicing. The only way to win is to finish. All those other elements are necessary, but unless we cross the line, play all the way to the whistle, or compete until we hear the buzzer, it’s all for naught.
So, finish strong!
Topics Illustrated Include:
Assumption
Athlete
Commitment
Competition
Defeat
Endurance
Faithful
Football
Lose
Mistake
Perseverance
Persistence
Soccer
Sports
(Resource cataloged by David R Smith)
