"I love the sense of satisfaction that I get when I’ve done a swimming workout or race, and know that I gave my whole being and heart to God in every moment of the swim. It’s the best worship I can offer him."
Losing or saving your life
Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. Luke 9:24There is an interesting reflection on this verse in Tom Osborne’s* book, Beyond the final score, (Regal Books, 2009 Pages 34-35). Osborne describes the verse as being “instrumental in my spiritual walk”.
As he reflected on the verse he concluded that he was trying to save his life through sport. He wrote ‘By the time I began to think about Jesus’ words in the Gospel of Luke, sports had become my unconscious “sure bet” for salvation. If I played well and people approved of me, then I could feel good about myself - kind of neurotic, but that was pretty much how it was”,
Then when he started coaching, he set himself a target of a head coach by age 35 because being a head coach would make his life “more significant and secure”. If he did not achieve it, he would reckon himself to have failed and would seek a different career. As he wrote, “You might say that I was going to try save my life by becoming a head coach”.
As he reflected further on the verse, the second half of it started to bother him. Eventually, it “began to make sense: If I wanted my life to be saved, I must lose it for Jesus’ sake. I wasn’t exactly sure what this might mean, but I figured it began with trying to put Him ahead of everything else in my life-including sports”.
Osborne adopted a personal mission statement “serve and honor God in all” and tried to implement that in his long career in coaching.
Tom Obsorne was University of Nebraska Head Football Coach for 24 years – starting when he was 36!