Undaunted.Life: A Man's DevotionalSample

PHYSICAL, Day 5: The Athlete's Focus

If you are a current or former athlete, you can understand how taxing competition can be physically and mentally. Even if you do not have an athletic background, you have likely watched or been around enough athletic events to see how difficult training and competing can be on someone. One thing that many successful athletes have in common is their laser-like, single-minded focus on their goal.

Superstar and legendary athletes like Michael Jordan, Peyton Manning, Ted Williams, and many others all describe how their intense, directed focus allowed them to “get in the zone” at different points during games. Once they are in this zone, the game slows down, they become more relaxed, their physical output and awareness is heightened, and they are more apt to be able to perform at elite levels.

Interestingly enough, Paul uses many athletic metaphors in his letters to the different churches around the Mediterranean Rim. Obviously, Paul understood his audience and he knew that these metaphors would be palatable to them. Specifically with the church in Corinth, these metaphors would have been especially appropriate as the Isthmian Games were held in the Isthmus of Corinth. During this time in history, the Isthmian Games took place on the years before and after the Olympics. Some of the athletic competitions included chariot races, wrestling, and boxing. Thus, his audience would have been intimately aware of and sensitive to the glory, plight, preparation, and struggle of the athletes of their day.

Paul appeals to the hyper-focused attitude of the athlete to display how important he believes focus is to sharing the gospel. In today’s reading from 1 Corinthians, he alludes to the crown wreaths that athletes win at games like the Isthmian and Olympic and urges Christ followers to not go after such perishable prizes. Paul is modeling intensely concentrated focus in order to bring as many people to faith in Jesus Christ as possible.

The point here is that being in an athletic mindset or at least struggling physically like an athlete can help us train ourselves for the struggle of spreading the Gospel. People who make physical training and exercise a part of their daily lives understand what it is like to put themselves into uncomfortable places. There are many times during an exhausting workout session where the people have to remind themselves of the original goal in order to keep moving. If you do not regularly put yourself through physically demanding circumstances, you may miss out on cultivating this intense focus that Paul is urging us to attain.

Can you remember a time when you were able to “get in the zone” while doing a physical activity? How can you use intense focus like this for the sake of the Gospel?