Ken Haskins
Fall is in the air. Leaves are beginning to show their colors and so are baseball fans. The Dodgers and Yankees are once again meeting in the World Series. One team will be crowned as champions of the baseball world.
What does it take to live like a champion – to be a champion at life? A champion must first of all plan to win, prepare mentally to win. The Apostle Paul wrote that he did “not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air.” He possessed a strategy, and he kept his eyes focused upon Jesus – the author and perfecter of faith.
Champions prepare. They commit to work. They get to work. They count the cost and decide that the prize is worth the effort. They deny themselves and take up their crosses. They sacrifice and go into strict training, throwing off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. They present their bodies as living sacrifices.
Champions perform all out – they give their all. They run with perseverance, and they don’t give up — never!
Is the effort, the price, worth it? The pearl merchant’s joy over finding the pearl of great price provides the answer. Peter said to Jesus, “We have left everything to follow you!” Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields — along with persecutions — and in the age to come eternal life.”
Give of your best to the Master. Love him with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. We can be more than conquerors through Christ – champions at life! And that’s more important than the Yankees winning the World Series for the 28th time!
Ken Haskins is head pastor of First Christian Church of Carson City.