This morning I decided to sleep in an extra half hour since I woke up feeling super tired today. As a consequence, I had to rush to get ready for school and basically down my breakfast. I almost walked past my Bible as I headed downstairs...but if brushing my teeth and showering and shoving my books into my backpack were a priority of getting ready in the morning, why wasn't spending time with God? So I decided to pick up my Bible and quickly continue my study in 1 Corinthians. I didn't realize it then, but God had a lesson to teach me today.

1 Corinthians 9:24-27 says this:
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

This was no simple analogy that Paul was trying to make.

One of my favorite classes that I'm taking this quarter is Exercise Bio 102 - Sports Psychology. Today Dr. Salitsky talked about Motivation. He defined motivation as the intensity and direction of behavior - it affects the selection and persistence of an individual's behavior which has a tremendous impact on the athlete's performance. Intrinsic motivation is doing something for the love of it; the motivation that comes from within us and is set towards something. How motivated are you? How far will you go to achieve something?
Dr. Salitsky always emphasizes the fact that we may not consider ourselves athletes - some might not even know a thing about sports, but all of these concepts can be acted upon in our everyday lives, no matter what we're doing. There is so much truth to that.

I didn't make the connection until way after the lecture settled in my mind. How motivated am I as a Christian? How far will I go for God? How persistent am I in my actions to serve Him?

In class we talked about how it isn't right or beneficial to give every single kid in a youth league a trophy at the end of the season because it is not a good long-term motivator. In the end, those who worked hard and gave it their all were rewarded. But so were the lazy kids who refused to budge. What are the lazy kids gonna learn about life if they're rewarded for not even trying? Instead, those who put their heart into playing their best and worked hard for it should be the ones who are rewarded. Paul (in the Bible, not Paul Salitsky) says that this is how we should run the race. We should give it everything - with heart and with dedication and with persistence. Go 100% or go home -- what does that even mean? What keeps us from really going 100%? If we aren't willing to go that far, what good is it?-Then we are just running the race aimlessly. Do we really love Christ if we are only willing to give him 50%? Even 90%? Last night I was just talking to a friend about how he was encouraged to HATE sin. Romans 12:9 says to hate evil, and cling to what is good. It doesn't say to just stay away from it...or to not like it...but to HATE it. If we are giving 100% to God, we would know what it means to hate sin.

Dr. Salitsky used Tiger Woods as an example. At the peak of his golfing career, Tiger Woods dared to change his golf swing. The reality is that even if he quit golfing and didn't make a penny more, he would still be set for the rest of his life. So why would he make such a move to change his swing? Even if he is better than so many other players, he said that he changed it because he still thought he could play better. Almost every athlete, especially an elite Olympic athlete, will go above and beyond to improve their already-amazing performance. Even Paul says that everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training, and this is his analogy for us as followers of Christ. So why do we as Christians sit here and do the minimal? Why aren't we doing anything we can to live better? We are barely even in training...much less strict training. It's really sad to see that these athletes are so dedicated to improving their performance for something temporary, and yet we can hardly even call ourselves dedicated to improving our performance for something eternal.

What will it take for me to be so motivated for Christ that I am willing to give it everything I have and do anything for Him?