Jun 2009
The Parable of the Talents, Applied to Soccer
June/24/09 Filed in: Soccer | Leadership Coaching/Mentoring
The Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30), Applied to Soccer
One of my favorite stories in the Bible is the parable of the talents. I love to share this story with my team to encourage them to focus on God instead of just trophies, wins and losses.
In this story, three men were entrusted a different amount of property to take care of. Their master evaluated them on the basis of how faithful they were with what they received. Two of the men were diligent and faithful with what they were entrusted. God honored them and gave them even more.
But the other man was punished for his lack of faith and effort. He was so fearful that God would be disappointed in his results that he didn’t even try.
In today’s world—especially the sports world-- it’s easy for people to get caught up in the end result (wins and losses) and forget about what we can learn along the way. We’re often guilty of evaluating ourselves simply on the basis of what we achieved (or didn’t achieve). As a result, we miss what’s most important in God’s eyes: being faithful to His purposes and becoming more Christ-like along the way.
Worldly Significance versus Eternal Significance
This season, CAJ ‘s soccer team went into the Far East soccer tournament ranked first. Last season, we made it to the final but lost a heartbreaker in double overtime. The guys were eager to win it this year!
Even though I was optimistic about our chances, I wanted the guys to know that the measure of their season would not be whether or not they won the tournament, but by how much they learned and the measure of Christ formed in them (Christian spiritual formation).
I encouraged them to realize God had given each of them a measure of ability or talents and that His chief concern was not whether they won or lost (significance in the world’s eyes) but by how faithful they were to His purposes during the process (significance in God’s eyes).
To this end, I challenged and exhorted the team to:
*Seek God first and His Kingdom’s purposes (Matthew 6:33)
*Compete with all of their hearts, for the Lord and not for men (Colossians 3:23).
*Conduct themselves “in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, no matter what happened” (Philippians 1:27).
In the end, by God’s grace, He chose to give CAJ the victory and the championship. But the greatest satisfaction for these guys came from running the race in a way that gave God glory and finishing well. For them, their reward was God’s affirmation, “Well-done, good and faithful servants” (Matthew 6:21)!
One of my favorite stories in the Bible is the parable of the talents. I love to share this story with my team to encourage them to focus on God instead of just trophies, wins and losses.
In this story, three men were entrusted a different amount of property to take care of. Their master evaluated them on the basis of how faithful they were with what they received. Two of the men were diligent and faithful with what they were entrusted. God honored them and gave them even more.
But the other man was punished for his lack of faith and effort. He was so fearful that God would be disappointed in his results that he didn’t even try.
In today’s world—especially the sports world-- it’s easy for people to get caught up in the end result (wins and losses) and forget about what we can learn along the way. We’re often guilty of evaluating ourselves simply on the basis of what we achieved (or didn’t achieve). As a result, we miss what’s most important in God’s eyes: being faithful to His purposes and becoming more Christ-like along the way.
Worldly Significance versus Eternal Significance
This season, CAJ ‘s soccer team went into the Far East soccer tournament ranked first. Last season, we made it to the final but lost a heartbreaker in double overtime. The guys were eager to win it this year!
Even though I was optimistic about our chances, I wanted the guys to know that the measure of their season would not be whether or not they won the tournament, but by how much they learned and the measure of Christ formed in them (Christian spiritual formation).
I encouraged them to realize God had given each of them a measure of ability or talents and that His chief concern was not whether they won or lost (significance in the world’s eyes) but by how faithful they were to His purposes during the process (significance in God’s eyes).
To this end, I challenged and exhorted the team to:
*Seek God first and His Kingdom’s purposes (Matthew 6:33)
*Compete with all of their hearts, for the Lord and not for men (Colossians 3:23).
*Conduct themselves “in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, no matter what happened” (Philippians 1:27).
In the end, by God’s grace, He chose to give CAJ the victory and the championship. But the greatest satisfaction for these guys came from running the race in a way that gave God glory and finishing well. For them, their reward was God’s affirmation, “Well-done, good and faithful servants” (Matthew 6:21)!
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