The other day as I watched the New Orleans Saints football game I noticed the place kicker was kicking soccer style. As he kicked the extra point the ball went wide left hitting the goal post and missed. I thought about that for a little while and it came to me, a soccer coach, if you want the ball to go through the uprights you have to point the non-kicking foot in that direction. I realize that ten thousand things were going through his head when he made the kick but the bottom line is that he missed it.

There are things as a Christian that we need to do each day to keep from missing our goal. Sports are for fun to play and watch. Missing our goal in life would be the saddest thing a person could do. I heard a preacher say one time that someone asked, “What will heaven be like? If all we are going to be doing is day and night is to be in a worship service – I would rather go to hell.” Well I can tell you that’s not my goal. They don’t know what they are saying. I want to have a personal relationship with the creator of all.

In order to keep from missing the mark we need to do 5 simple thing:
. Private Disciplines – Reading the bible and praying
. Practical Teachings – To live out what you learn from the bible
. Having Relationship – Being a part of a group for support
. Personal Ministry – Helping other, teaching, going on mission trips
. Trust God – In all that you do hold Jesus teaching against your decisions

Let me try to put this in to some other perspective. I have a good friend that coaches Track and Cross Country I don’t know how many state championships he has won. It was a passion to him to get kids to love running. When a team builds a dynasty like that, it’s much more than good running – it can only be because of good coaching. Coach, Doug Blakeney, who is now close to retirement, spent most of his life coaching high school track and cross country – so when he gave running advice, it tended to be in a runners best interest to listen.

He’d tell them things like make sure our arms swung by our sides, not across our chest, so you could breath better. He’d tell them to run with their feet landing directly beneath them for a smoother stride. But the best advice he ever gave his athletes was to never look at their feet…which is pretty funny considering that running is all about your feet, I thought. His point though, was not that your feet weren’t important, but when you focused on them, you lost sight of the race. He said run with your head up, always looking ahead on the course. When you look at your feet, you begin to self-critique – you think of how tired your legs are or how you’re not really that great of a runner and maybe this race just wasn’t your race. And once you break down mentally in your running, you might as well just cash in your chips. Doug is often misunderstood, he is moody, he likes to do thing his way, but his passion for his kids and running is truly were his heart is focused.

It wasn’t until years later and hearing Doug coaching that I realized this advice moved from a running tip to life analogy. For most of us, it’s really easy to be critical of ourselves – how much better you could be, and how there are always people who are better than you at what you do – whether it’s your job or your relationships or growing spiritually.

It¹s so easy for me to be hard on myself when I try to improve my spirituality to my life. I’ll look down, see how unworthy I am to do what I do, but then it hits me – the race is so much bigger than me. It’s not about my feet it’s about Christ. The vision goes beyond my ability and my agenda and if I lose sight of that, my work, and my general mindset will start to sink. But when I look up, and look out and see where I am, and see where God has placed me in life – not for my ability, but for his purpose – I just run better threw my daily life. You and I have to watch out for leg cramps, shin splints or whatever trials and tribulations we might face, because we have no idea how to fix those things without Jesus’ help.

Steve