SEPTEMBER 20, 2026

 “It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.”

― Theodore Roosevelt

ECCLESIASTES 10-12

4If a ruler’s anger rises against you,

do not leave your post;

calmness can lay great offenses to rest. (10:4)

2 CORINTHIANS 11:16-33

 I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. 24Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. 25Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, 26I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. 27I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. 28Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.

JOURNAL 

Thursday night reminded me why I love athletics and why sports can teach us so much about life. Our eighth graders had not won a football game in two years. Then they found themselves down fourteen points. It would have been easy for them to believe that this was simply another loss, another night when things were not going their way. But they didn't quit. They stayed at their post. They kept playing, kept believing, kept fighting for the guy beside them, and somehow found a way to come back and win.

The joy of that moment was intoxicating. Watching those kids celebrate was about so much more than a scoreboard. I was watching young men experience what happens when they persist through something difficult and discover that the outcome has not yet been decided. They had every reason to become discouraged, but they kept swinging the hammer. For one night, they got to experience the victory that perseverance sometimes produces.

And maybe that is why the moment meant so much. If winning were guaranteed, there would have been no joy like that. The two years without a win, being down fourteen, the mistakes, frustration, practices, disappointment, and moments when quitting would have been easier were the very things that gave the victory its meaning. The struggle wasn't something that got in the way of the story. The struggle was what made the story worth telling.

That is what I continue to learn about life. I spend too much time wanting difficulty removed when difficulty is often where effort, grit, discipline, brotherhood, faith, and love become real. Athletics puts that truth right in front of us. You cannot hide from the scoreboard, the mistake, the missed tackle, or the disappointment. You have to respond.

Thursday reminded me that maybe the goal is not to avoid being down fourteen. The goal is to become the kind of person who keeps playing when you are. We will not always get the comeback or the celebration, and that cannot be why we persevere. We persist because giving everything we have to the moment in front of us is how we are called to live.

But every once in a while, God gives us a Thursday night when the comeback happens, the kids experience victory, and for a few beautiful minutes we get to see why we kept swinging the hammer.

1Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

ROMANS 12:1-2

SEPTEMBER 19, 2026

 “Have enough courage to trust love one more time and always one more time.” 

― Maya Angelou

ECCLESIASTES 7-9

7Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for God has already approved what you do. 8Always be clothed in white, and always anoint your head with oil. 9Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love, all the days of this meaningless life that God has given you under the sun—all your meaningless days. For this is your lot in life and in your toilsome labor under the sun. 10Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the realm of the dead, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom. (9:7-10)

2 CORINTHIANS 11:1-15

12And I will keep on doing what I am doing in order to cut the ground from under those who want an opportunity to be considered equal with us in the things they boast about. 13For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ. 14And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. 15It is not surprising, then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.

JOURNAL 

A few years ago I wrote about "Pound the Rock" and what it really means. Reading this in Ecclesiastes is another reminder that I may not have tomorrow and my time on earth is ticking away. Why do I think that I am guaranteed anything other than this moment? I am not, it can all end in a flash and the question is...have I really made the most of this moment? Have I really lived it fully, or have I spent it in regret over yesterday and in worry over tomorrow? Have I spent it comforting myself or protecting myself from the realities of life? If the answer is any of these then...my moment was wasted.

One of the realities of life that is often easy to forget in our Facebook, social media world is that every single human is struggling with something. Most of the time its not obvious but no matter the surface indicator they are hurting and struggling in some way. That's just the nature of being human and being alive. That's why love matters! We all need it and we all crave it and the crazy thing is that when we give it...our world changes for the good. 

Love is an action, love is doing something, not sitting around pondering. Love risks, love bleeds...love does not waste time protecting itself. Love gives and nurtures and is willing to risk rejection and heartache and embarrassment just to connect and give to someone else. Love's goal is simply to give love, not to get. Yet too often my focus is on the end result rather than satisfaction and joy in the doing, in the "swinging of the hammer". God promises us that obedience to him will be worth it. Therefore that is all we need, nothing else...accept God's love and then give it away.

14What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? 15Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. 16If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? 17In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

JAMES 2:14-17

SEPTEMBER 18, 2026

  "4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."

― 1 CORINTHIANS 13:4-7

ECCLESIASTES 4-6

10Whoever loves money never has enough;

whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income.

This too is meaningless.

11As goods increase,

so do those who consume them.

And what benefit are they to the owners

except to feast their eyes on them? (5:10-11)

2 CORINTHIANS 10

17But, “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”^b18For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.

JOURNAL 

The more I learn, the more I realize that contentment begins when I stop asking the world to tell me who I am. Money, achievement, recognition, possessions, and even the approval of people can never finally satisfy me. Ecclesiastes keeps returning to this truth. There will always be another accomplishment, another possession, another person's opinion to chase. If I need those things to tell me that I am enough, I will never have enough.

The same is true of love. One of the traps I continually fall into is wanting other people to love me in exactly the way I need to be loved. When I begin looking to people for affirmation, reassurance, or validation, something changes in me. Instead of simply loving them, I begin measuring what I am receiving from them. I keep score. I interpret their actions. I become disappointed when they fail to provide something they were never capable of providing perfectly.

Maybe one of the great freedoms of accepting God's love is that I can finally let other people off the hook.

First Corinthians 13 becomes different when I read it this way. Love is patient. Love is kind. Love is not self-seeking. Love keeps no record of wrongs. Love always hopes and always perseveres. Instead of reading those words primarily as a description of the love I should receive, I can read them as a description of the love I am called to give. I do not have to spend my life searching for someone who will love me this way. I can spend my life learning, through God, to become this kind of love.

Jesus demonstrates this better than anyone. He loved people who misunderstood him, questioned him, betrayed him, abandoned him, and ultimately crucified him. His ability to love was not dependent upon their response. He knew who he was and whose he was. That allowed him to give without requiring the people around him to establish his worth.

Perhaps this is another part of surrender. I can surrender my need to be noticed, affirmed, appreciated, or understood. My responsibility is not to control what comes back to me. My responsibility is to receive God's love and faithfully give it away.

And when two people are doing that, something sacred happens. Two imperfect people, neither demanding that the other fill what only God can fill, become conduits of the same grace they have received. That can happen in a church, but it can also happen in a classroom, on a football field, around a dinner table, in a difficult conversation, or between two friends.

Maybe that is part of what Jesus meant when he said, "where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them." The presence of God is not confined to a building. It becomes visible wherever his love is being received and then freely given away.

20For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”

MATTHEW 18

SEPTEMBER 17, 2026

  “Every action of our lives touches on some chord that will vibrate in eternity.” 

― Edwin Hubbell Chapin

ECCLESIASTES 1-3

9What do workers gain from their toil? 10I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. 11He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet^a no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. 12I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. 13That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God. (3:9-13)

2 CORINTHIANS 9

6Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 7Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. 9As it is written:

“They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor;

their righteousness endures forever.”^a

10Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. 11You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.

JOURNAL 

The more I learn, the more I realize that life was never meant to be built apart from God. So much of my fear and frustration comes from trying to secure things that were never mine to secure: outcomes, success, health, comfort, recognition, even tomorrow itself. All of these things are temporary. Ecclesiastes does not seem to be telling me that life is meaningless, but that life becomes meaningless when I ask temporary things to provide an eternal meaning they were never capable of giving.

Maybe that is why learning to live in the present has become so important to me. Today is where God has placed me. The work in front of me, the person beside me, the problem that needs solving, the opportunity to love, these are not interruptions to some greater life I am trying to reach. They are my life. I do not need to control what they eventually produce. I need to faithfully sow the seed that has been placed in my hand.

That changes the way I think about effort, grit, discipline, and brotherhood. They are not simply tools for achieving better outcomes. They are ways of loving. Effort says this moment matters enough to give myself to it. Grit says difficulty will not determine who I become. Discipline says I will choose what is right over what is easy. Brotherhood says my life is not merely about me, because every action touches someone else. Perhaps that is what Chapin meant when he wrote that every action touches a chord that vibrates in eternity.

My responsibility, then, is not to manufacture a perfect life or protect myself from every disappointment. It is to receive the power, love, and discipline God has already given me and pour them into today. I can work hard without worshiping the outcome. I can confront difficulty without fearing it. I can give generously without keeping score. I can love the people God puts in my path without needing anything in return.

And then I can surrender the harvest to God.

Maybe that is what it means to truly live: to be fully present, to do good while I am here, to love generously, to stand firm when life becomes difficult, and to trust that what God is doing through these ordinary days reaches much farther than I can presently see.

10Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

SEPTEMBER 16, 2026

     “Money is not the only commodity that is fun to give. We can give time, we can give our expertise, we can give our love or simply give a smile. What does that cost? The point is, none of us can ever run out of something worthwhile to give.” 

― Steve Goodier

PROVERBS 30-31

5“Every word of God is flawless;

he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.

6Do not add to his words,

or he will rebuke you and prove you a liar. (30:5-6)

2 CORINTHIANS 8

1And now, brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. 2In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. 3For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, 4they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the Lord’s people. 5And they exceeded our expectations: They gave themselves first of all to the Lord, and then by the will of God also to us.

JOURNAL 

Why are we commanded to give? Why does Paul make such a point of the Macedonians giving even in the midst of severe trials and extreme poverty? I think it is because God understands something about us that we often refuse to accept: we were not created to spend our lives pursuing ease and comfort. In fact, a life built around avoiding difficulty may be one of the most dangerous lives we can live.

Comfort itself is not wrong. Rest is necessary. Enjoyment is a gift. But when comfort becomes the goal, it begins shaping who we are. If my primary questions become, What is easiest for me? What requires the least from me? How can I avoid discomfort? then eventually I become exactly the kind of person I don't want to become. I become lazy instead of giving effort. I become easily discouraged instead of developing grit. I become controlled by feelings and impulses instead of practicing discipline. And perhaps most dangerously, I become concerned primarily with myself instead of living for my brothers.

That is why the four pillars of Deserve Victory matter far beyond football: effort, grit, discipline, and brotherhood. None of them are produced by a life devoted to comfort. Every one of them requires me to willingly do something difficult. Effort requires me to act when I would rather coast. Grit requires me to continue when I would rather quit. Discipline requires me to choose what is right over what is easy. Brotherhood requires me to sacrifice something of myself for someone else. In every case, growth requires moving away from comfort and toward something greater than myself.

Maybe that is part of what Paul saw in the Macedonians. Their generosity wasn't impressive because they had so much to give. It was remarkable because they gave while they were suffering themselves. Their circumstances gave them every excuse to protect what little they had, yet instead they gave themselves first to God and then to others. Their hardship did not make them selfish. Through God's grace, it became an opportunity to love.

That changes the way I think about the purpose of my own life. The goal cannot simply be to accumulate enough money, security, success, or control that eventually nothing is difficult anymore. Maybe the difficulties themselves are part of the gift. They give me opportunities to practice effort, develop grit, exercise discipline, and love the people beside me.

Ephesians says that I am God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works. I wasn't saved by those works, but I was certainly created for them. That means my life isn't supposed to be spent protecting myself from everything that requires something of me. It is supposed to be poured out.

Perhaps this is what Deserve Victory is really pointing toward. Victory isn't merely getting the outcome I want. It is becoming the kind of man who can be trusted with whatever outcome comes. A man who gives effort when nobody is watching, who keeps going when life becomes difficult, who disciplines himself when an easier choice is available, and who understands that what he does affects the people beside him.

Effort instead of laziness. Grit instead of discouragement. Discipline instead of impulse. Brotherhood instead of selfishness. None of those are destinations. They are choices I have to make again today.

Maybe the question isn't, How comfortable can I make my life? Maybe it is, What has God given me today that I can give away? My time, my effort, my attention, my encouragement, my forgiveness, my resources, my strength, my love, and ultimately myself.

I can spend my life trying to preserve myself, or I can give myself first to God and then to others. One produces comfort. The other produces a life worth living.

 8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9not by works, so that no one can boast. 10For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

EPHESIANS 2:8