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

SEPTEMBER 15, 2026

   “Life is a long lesson in humility.” 

― J.M. Barrie, The Little Minister

PROVERBS 28-29

13Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper,

but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy.

14Blessed is the one who always trembles before God,

but whoever hardens their heart falls into trouble. (28:14-14)

2 CORINTHIANS 7

10Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.

JOURNAL 

The human brain, our emotions, and our thoughts are truly amazing. But understanding them and honestly seeking what they are trying to tell us is hard work. I am beginning to realize that much of my life I have feared certain emotions, especially disappointment, anger, sadness, and fear. Instead of confronting them, I often found ways to avoid them, suppress them, explain them away, or simply keep moving. I told myself I was being strong, but perhaps sometimes I was actually being lazy.

M. Scott Peck describes laziness as one of the great obstacles to spiritual growth. I don't think he means simply sitting around doing nothing. Laziness can be the unwillingness to do the difficult work that growth requires. In that sense, refusing to deal honestly with my emotions may be a form of laziness. It is easier to bury disappointment than ask why it hurts so much. It is easier to suppress anger than confront what is underneath it. It is easier to distract myself from fear than admit what I am afraid of. And behind that avoidance is often another fear: What will happen if I actually confront this?

That is where humility enters. “Life is a long lesson in humility” because real growth continually requires me to admit that something inside me needs attention. Proverbs says that the person who conceals does not prosper, while the one who confesses and renounces finds mercy. Paul distinguishes between a sorrow that produces transformation and a sorrow that produces death. Neither passage tells me to avoid what hurts. They tell me to bring it into the light.

I can see now how avoiding emotions affected both my relationship with God and my relationships with people. Relationships inevitably involve disappointment because people are imperfect. They will misunderstand me, fail me, frustrate me, and sometimes hurt me, just as I will do the same to them. If I refuse to acknowledge the disappointment or anger because I am afraid of what confronting it might require, the emotion doesn't disappear. It simply goes underground. Eventually it can emerge as resentment, irrational fear, withdrawal, defensiveness, or anger toward people who may have had nothing to do with the original wound.

Maybe courage is not refusing to feel these things. Maybe courage is being willing to feel them fully and then take them somewhere safe.

That safe place is God.

I can bring God the disappointment without pretending it doesn't hurt. I can bring Him the anger without being controlled by it. I can tell Him what I am afraid of without being ashamed that I am afraid. I can pray through it, write through it, cry through it, talk through it, and allow His Spirit and His Word to counsel me rather than allowing the emotion to silently counsel me from beneath the surface.

“Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” is not an invitation to deny anxiety. I cannot cast something upon God that I refuse to acknowledge I am carrying. Humility means opening my hands and admitting, This hurt me. This disappointed me. This made me angry. This scares me. God, help me understand why.

That is work. It may actually be some of the hardest work I ever do. But perhaps this is exactly what Peck means when he describes genuine spiritual growth as requiring discipline. Laziness says, Don't go there. It might hurt. Leave it buried. Fear says, You don't know what confronting this will cost. But God's Spirit gives me something different: the power to face what is true, the love to respond without bitterness, and the discipline to do the difficult inner work instead of running from it.

The goal is not to become less emotional. The goal is to become more honest. I don't have to fear what I find inside myself because I don't have to face it alone. I can bring all of it into the presence of God, trusting that what I surrender to Him can become an opportunity for healing, growth, humility, and ultimately love.

In the same way, you who are younger, submit yourselves to your elders. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because,

“God opposes the proud

but shows favor to the humble.”^a

Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

1 PETER 5:5-6

SEPTEMBER 14, 2026

 True belonging is the spiritual practice of believing in and belonging to yourself so deeply that you can share your most authentic self with the world and find sacredness in both being a part of something and standing alone in the wilderness. True belonging does not require you to change who you are; it requires you to be who you are.

― BRENE' BROWN

PROVERBS 25-27

19As water reflects the face,

so one’s life reflects the heart. (27:19)

2 CORINTHIANS 6

3We put no stumbling block in anyone’s path so that our ministry will not be discredited. 4Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; 5in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; 6in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; 7in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; 8through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; 9known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; 10sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

JOURNAL 

There is something powerful in the idea that “one’s life reflects the heart.” What I consistently do reveals what is actually being formed within me. Effort, grit, discipline and teamwork are not simply qualities needed to win a game or accomplish a goal. They are outward expressions of an inward condition. They reveal what I believe, what I value and ultimately who I am becoming.

Effort is the willingness to give what I have today. It refuses to wait for perfect circumstances, motivation or recognition. Paul describes hard work, sleepless nights and hunger. There is something sacred about simply giving everything I have to the work God has placed in front of me. Effort says that this moment matters and therefore what I do with it matters.

Grit is what keeps that effort alive when circumstances become difficult. Paul speaks of endurance through troubles, hardships and distress, through glory and dishonor, through good report and bad report. Grit is not pretending that something does not hurt. It is deciding that difficulty will not determine who I become. It is carrying the cross when carrying it becomes uncomfortable.

Discipline gives direction to effort and grit. Jesus says to count the cost before building the tower. There is intention in that. Discipline understands that becoming something worthwhile requires choosing what matters most over what feels easiest right now. It is surrendering comfort, impulses and excuses because I have decided beforehand who I want to become and, more importantly, who God is calling me to become.

Teamwork turns personal strength outward. Paul describes endurance alongside patience, kindness and sincere love. The purpose of becoming stronger is not simply so that I can stand alone. It is so that I can help the people beside me stand. My effort affects them. My attitude affects them. My discipline affects them. When I quit, complain or become selfish, that affects them too. Everything I do either adds something to the people around me or takes something away.

Maybe this is where true belonging is ultimately found. I do not need a team, group or another person to give me my identity. That identity comes from God. But because I know whose I am, I am free to give myself completely to others. I can work without needing recognition, endure without needing sympathy, discipline myself when nobody is watching and sacrifice for the person beside me without asking what I will receive in return.

Effort gives all I have. Grit keeps me going. Discipline keeps me true. Teamwork reminds me that none of it is only about me.

That is a life reflecting the heart. And if the heart belongs to God, then these things become more than pillars written on a wall. They become evidence of His Spirit being lived out through me.

25Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: 26“If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple. 27And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

28“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? 29For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, 30saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’

31“Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. 33In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.

34“Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? 35It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out.

“Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”

LUKE 14:25-35

SEPTEMBER 13, 2026

 “The things you do for yourself are gone when you are gone, but the things you do for others remain as your legacy.”

 ― Kalu Ndukwe Kalu

PROVERBS 23-24

30I went past the field of a sluggard,

past the vineyard of someone who has no sense;

31thorns had come up everywhere,

the ground was covered with weeds,

and the stone wall was in ruins.

32I applied my heart to what I observed

and learned a lesson from what I saw:

33A little sleep, a little slumber,

a little folding of the hands to rest—

34and poverty will come on you like a thief

and scarcity like an armed man. (24:30-34)

2 CORINTHIANS 5

 20We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21God made him who had no sin to be sin^b for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

JOURNAL 

Kalu Ndukwe Kalu said that the things I do for myself will disappear when I am gone, but what I do for others remains as my legacy. Maybe the important realization is that legacy is not something I leave behind someday. I am creating it right now, in thousands of seemingly insignificant moments. Every conversation, every task, every problem, every opportunity to work, every person who crosses my path is an opportunity to live. And because these moments will never come again, they are precious.

Proverbs paints the picture of a vineyard slowly being overtaken by weeds. What strikes me is that it did not happen all at once. It happened through neglect. “A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands.” Maybe one of the greatest dangers in life is not some catastrophic failure, but simply failing to recognize the value of what is right in front of me. Waiting for something better. Wishing away the difficult parts. Rushing through work. Resenting problems. Living mentally in tomorrow while today quietly disappears.

But what if I could see it differently? What if the vineyard itself is the gift? The weeds that need pulling, the wall that needs repairing, the ground that needs tending. Those things are not keeping me from life. They are life. The work is precious because I am here to do it. The problem is precious because I have been given an opportunity to engage it. The conversation is precious because this exact moment with this person will never exist again.

Paul says that we are Christ’s ambassadors, “as though God were making his appeal through us.” That gives extraordinary significance to ordinary moments. God can make His appeal through the way I teach a student, coach a player, speak to my family, respond to frustration, solve a problem, encourage someone, or simply give another person my complete attention. There does not have to be an audience. There does not have to be recognition. There only has to be a willingness to be fully present and allow Christ to live through me.

Galatians 2:20 takes it even deeper: “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” Surrender, then, is not withdrawing from life. It is entering life more completely. It is surrendering my obsession with outcomes, tomorrow, comfort, and myself so that I can actually inhabit the moment God has given me.

That may be the secret to an amazing life. Not accumulating extraordinary experiences, but developing the eyes to recognize how extraordinary ordinary life already is. The hard practice. The early morning. The unfinished work. The person who needs me. The unexpected problem. The quiet drive home. The meal around a table. The laughter. The disappointment. Even the struggle. All of it says the same thing: I am alive, God is here, and I have another opportunity to love.

Someday there will be no more vineyards for me to tend, no more problems to solve, no more practices to coach, no more conversations to have, no more people to serve. That makes these things precious now.

So I don't want to merely get through today. I want to receive it. I want to work it, love through it, struggle through it, laugh through it, and give myself to it. I want to see every moment as another opportunity for Christ to live through me.

 20I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

GALATIANS 2:20

SEPTEMBER 12, 2026

   “I must be willing to give whatever it takes to do good to others. This requires that I be willing to give until it hurts. Otherwise, there is no true love in me, and I bring injustice, not peace, to those around me.” 

― Mother Teresa

PROVERBS 21-22 

25The craving of a sluggard will be the death of him,

because his hands refuse to work.

26All day long he craves for more,

but the righteous give without sparing. (21:25-26)

2 CORINTHIANS 4

16Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

JOURNAL 

Working, giving, and loving are the natural results of being transformed by God’s love. When I truly understand that I am already loved, my attention no longer has to remain fixed on myself, what I need, what I fear, or what tomorrow might bring. I am free to become fully present to the life God has given me today. I can work, serve, give, and love the person standing in front of me. Mother Teresa’s words, “give until it hurts,” challenge me because that kind of love requires more than good intentions. It requires my presence. It asks me to give myself completely to this moment rather than constantly protecting myself for some imagined future.

Maybe that is why surrender has to happen every morning. Yesterday’s surrender cannot live today for me. No matter how faithful, productive, joyful, or present I was yesterday, today is a new life placed into my hands. My heart will follow whatever I feed it. If I feed it fear, craving, comparison, distraction, or concern about tomorrow, I will slowly leave the present moment. But if I surrender again to God, I can return to what is actually here: this person, this problem, this work, this conversation, this opportunity to love.

“There are no days off” does not mean I must live exhausted or constantly striving. It means there are no days that are disposable. There are no ordinary days to rush through on the way to something better. Today is where God is. Today is where I can love. Today is where I can work. Today is where I can give. Even the difficulty of today belongs here. Paul says that although outwardly we are wasting away, inwardly we are being renewed day by day. Not someday. Not when everything is finally settled. Day by day.

Jesus tells me to remain in His love. That is presence. Remain here. Abide here. Receive His love and then give it to whoever God places in front of me. When I do that, tomorrow no longer needs to be solved today. Yesterday no longer needs to be relived. I simply have to give myself to the life that is happening right now.

Perhaps this is where complete joy is found. Not in finally arranging life so that nothing hurts, but in becoming completely available to God within the life I already have. To work when there is work to do. To rest when it is time to rest. To listen when someone needs me. To face the problem that is actually in front of me. To love without calculating what I will receive in return. To give even when giving costs me something.

Today is not preparation for my life.

Today is my life.

 9As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you. Remain in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and remain in His love. I have told you these things so that My joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 

JOHN 15:9-12

SEPTEMBER 11, 2026

 “I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to 

succeed, but I am bound to live up to what light I have.” 

― Abraham Lincoln

PROVERBS 19-20

21Many are the plans in a person’s heart,

but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.

22What a person desires is unfailing love^b ;

better to be poor than a liar. (19:21-22)

2 CORINTHIANS 3

4Such confidence we have through Christ before God. 5Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. 6He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

JOURNAL 

God's God’s purpose and His Spirit are what ultimately prevail. I can make plans, pursue goals, prepare, work, and try to solve the problems in front of me, but none of those outcomes are ultimately mine to control. What is mine is today. What is mine is the opportunity to be faithful to the light I have been given, to work, to love, and to allow God’s Spirit to be reflected through me in whatever this day brings.

That may be the lesson I take most deeply from 9/11. On that morning, thousands of people woke up believing they were beginning another ordinary day. They went to work, boarded airplanes, dropped children off, kissed spouses goodbye, answered phones, sat in meetings, and began working through whatever problems happened to be in front of them. None of them knew that before the day was over, countless individual stories of courage, sacrifice, fear, love, loss, and heroism would be permanently etched into history.

We remember those stories because we know what happened that day. But how many days have passed since then that I have treated as ordinary? How many mornings have I rushed through because my mind was already living in tomorrow? How many tasks have I viewed simply as something to finish so I could get to the next thing? How many problems have I resented rather than recognizing that the way I respond to that problem is itself part of the story of my life?

Maybe a day is its own life. Maybe every task, conversation, problem, practice, class, relationship, and difficult moment is its own little story. It has a beginning, a struggle, an opportunity to respond, and an ending. I do not have to carry tomorrow while I am living it. I simply need to be willing to work today, and then work the task in front of me as though it matters, because it does.

That changes work from something I endure into something I am privileged to participate in. It changes problems from interruptions into opportunities to practice faith, discipline, courage, patience, and love. I am not bound to win every battle or produce every outcome I desire. As Lincoln said, I am bound to be true. I am bound to live faithfully according to the light I have been given.

Twenty-five years from now, today may seem insignificant. But that is only because I cannot yet see its entire story. The people who woke up on September 11, 2001 could not see theirs either. That is why today deserves to be cherished, not by avoiding work or difficulty, but by entering fully into both. Work the problem. Love the person. Teach the class. Coach the player. Make the call. Face the difficult thing. Give everything this moment deserves, and then surrender the outcome to God.

“Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” Perhaps part of that freedom is being released from the burden of controlling tomorrow so that I can finally inhabit today. God has given me this day. My responsibility is not to determine how the story ends. It is to faithfully live the part of the story He has placed in front of me.

And if I can do that, then no day is ordinary...

 16But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

2 CORINTHIANS 3:16-18

SEPTEMBER 10, 2026

    “Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind. 

"Pooh!" he whispered.

"Yes, Piglet?"

"Nothing," said Piglet, taking Pooh's paw. "I just wanted to be sure of you.” 

― A.A. Milne, The House at Pooh Corner

PROVERBS 17-18

17A friend loves at all times,

and a brother is born for a time of adversity. (17:17)

2 CORINTHIANS 2

17Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, as those sent from God.

JOURNAL 

Wow...there is something incredibly powerful in the simple desire Piglet expresses: “I just wanted to be sure of you.” I think that is something buried deep within all of us. We want to know there is someone who will still be there when things fall apart, someone who will not disappear when we fail, disappoint them, struggle, or become difficult to love. Proverbs says, “A friend loves at all times,” not simply when friendship is easy, convenient, or deserved. Adversity is where that kind of love reveals itself.

I have been incredibly blessed to experience this kind of love. Through friends, family, my children, and especially Marcella, God has allowed me to know what it feels like to be sure of someone. I have experienced love without a price tag attached to it, love that has remained through heartache, disappointment, mistakes, and failure. There is an incredible security in knowing, “No matter what happens, I am still loved.” Father, thank you for allowing me to experience Your love through the people You have placed in my life.

But maybe the greatest lesson isn't that I should spend my life searching for people who will love me this way. Maybe God's call is for me to be this kind of love. Instead of asking, “Who will be there for me?” perhaps I should be asking, “Who can be sure of me?” Who knows that when they fall, I will help them back up? Who knows that when they disappoint me, I will not abandon them? Who knows that when they are struggling, broken, afraid, or difficult to love, I will remain beside them?

That changes everything. Love stops being something I am trying to obtain and becomes something I am called to give. Maybe that is part of why receiving unconditional love is such an incredible blessing. It teaches us what love actually looks like so that we can become it for someone else. God loves us faithfully, then places people in our lives who demonstrate that faithfulness, and ultimately calls us to carry it forward. “A friend loves at all times.” Not because the other person always deserves it, but because love itself is the calling.

I have spent much of my life grateful for the people I can be sure of. Perhaps the greater question for the life ahead of me is, who can be sure of me? Father, thank You for the extraordinary blessing of being loved this way. Now teach me not merely to search for this kind of love, but to become it. Let my life be a place where others can reach for my hand and simply know, “I just wanted to be sure of you.” And may the way I live, love, forgive, and remain faithfully beside them always answer, “You can be.”

9Two are better than one,because they have a good return for their labor:10If either of them falls down,one can help the other up.But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up.

ECCLESIASTES 4:9-10

SEPTEMBER 9, 2026

    “I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had no where else to go. My own wisdom and that of all about me seemed insufficient for that day.” 

― Abraham Lincoln

PROVERBS 15-16

25There is a way that appears to be right,

but in the end it leads to death. (16:25)

2 CORINTHIANS 1

 21Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, 22set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.

JOURNAL 

M. Scott Peck’s statement that the opposite of love is laziness has really struck me because it seems to connect so many things I have been thinking about. Peck isn’t simply talking about being physically lazy. He is talking about the unwillingness to expend the energy necessary for our own spiritual growth or the growth of another. Seen that way, laziness is much deeper. It is allowing things to drift rather than doing the difficult work that love requires.

It makes me think about the law of entropy. Things naturally move toward disorder unless energy is introduced into the system. My body, relationships, faith, character, even my thoughts will drift if I simply leave them alone. Laziness gives in to entropy. Love pushes against it. Love requires energy. It requires me to teach, coach, prepare, forgive, confront, encourage, discipline, serve, surrender, and sometimes simply get on my knees and admit, like Lincoln, that my own wisdom is insufficient.

This brings me right back to 2 Timothy 1:7: power, love, and self-discipline. I see those three differently now. Power is the capacity God gives me to act. Love determines how and why I use that power. Self-discipline keeps me moving when comfort, fear, or selfishness tells me to stop. Maybe that is why love sits right in the middle. Without love, power can become selfish and discipline can become empty achievement. Love directs both toward growth.

And humility is essential to all of it. Proverbs reminds me that there is a way that seems right to me but can lead somewhere completely different. True humility is recognizing that I do not always know the way. Like Lincoln, sometimes the wisest thing I can do is fall to my knees. Yet humility also means recognizing that I am not powerless or insignificant. God has placed His Spirit within me. I am one tiny life in an incomprehensibly enormous universe, yet somehow God has chosen to work through that life.

So perhaps the question each day is much simpler than I make it: Am I cooperating with entropy, or am I cooperating with God? Am I choosing comfort, avoidance, selfishness, and fear, or am I choosing power, love, and self-discipline? Love will almost always cost me something. It requires energy, courage, humility, and surrender. But maybe that expenditure is exactly where life is found.

6Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. 7Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

1 PETER 5:6-7

SEPTEMBER 8, 2026

 “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” ― Theodore Roosevelt

PROVERBS 13-14

 10Each heart knows its own bitterness, and no one else can share its joy. (14:10)

1 CORINTHIANS 16

13Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong. 14Do everything in love

JOURNAL 

Coaching football and teaching middle schoolers comes with a boatload of lessons that I am again learning. One that has really hit me this year is that every person matters and every person is unique in their design, personality, situation etc. It's easy to often try and put a label on a human, often that label is motivated by a desire to find some level of control in the world. I do it myself and have seen it way too often with coaches and teachers. I think it's because it's easier to write off a kid than it is to wade through the difficulties in their personalities and perspectives.

Yet the one thing that Jesus continually preached against was judging when really what he wants from us is for us to love always. That means that we never give up or label a kid as lost or a loser or without hope. That means we are to never give up hope in a kids potential. We are to always hope and always believe in their potential to reflect the essence of God. They are God's creation and if we truly believe that...then we should always be wary of our role in all that God is doing in their lives. We should always be hopeful and seek to honor and notice the glimpses of the creator.

These last 7 years having the opportunity to teach and coach has taught me that no moment in life should ever be taken for granted. There are golden moments happening every minute and I just need to be more aware that my effort, my commitment, my discipline, my passion and my obedience matter. They matter because I am here and God has given me this day, this hour, this moment to spread his goodness to a world that too often takes for granted the amazing blessing of today.

"See, grown-ups spend so much time doggedly slaving toward the better car, the perfect house, the big day that will finally make them happy when happy just walked by wearing a bicycle helmet two sizes too big for him. "

 ~ RICK REILLY