WARM-UP
“‘I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. This is my command: Love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this: to lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you’.” —John 15:11-14
Joy? In sports? It can feel like joy has no place in sports, unless you just won a championship. Hard work, sacrifice or effort those are things that we associate with competition. But not usually joy.
Q: How often do you think about joy in the context of coaching and competition?
Q: Is joy something you would like to cultivate in your program? Why or why not?
WORKOUT
Choose Joy
Joy is a beautiful word. A standard definition includes the concepts of happiness, delight and pleasure. A favorite definition of sport incorporates the idea that participation in sport results in joy. Joy is the primary reason we begin the sports journey as young children, but unfortunately, as we progress in sport, the joy of sport and competition often fades as other priorities rush to take their place. In a similar way, we exist on a spectrum of joy, with a constant mix of joyful and not-so-joyful experiences. However, Jesus says in John 15:11 that His joy can be in us, and our joy can be complete.
Notice the source of the joy Jesus is offering: “my (Jesus’) joy” that flows from “these things” which Jesus told His disciples in the preceding verses. Here again we arrive at the need for faith and trust. If we remain in Jesus, trusting in Him and His commands, choosing obedience that produces a fruitful life of love, we will be filled with complete joy from Jesus Himself. Having a source of joy outside of themselves and their circumstances will be exceedingly important for the trials the disciples are about to face. It is also important for us as we face difficult sports seasons and trials in our lives.
One Another
Throughout His ministry, Jesus taught His disciples how to love God and love neighbor. Specifically in John 15, He repeatedly explained that if they would continue in His teachings, then they would be in pursuit of both. The same is true for us. If we claim to be Jesus’ disciples, then we must be choosing to remain in Jesus’ love, the love of the Father, and thus in pursuit of extending love to others. Jesus’ command to “love one another as I have loved you” is a distillation of His teachings on love, concentrating its power into the context of the disciples. The self-sacrificing love that Jesus shows in His death is the kind of love He is commanding for His closest friends to demonstrate toward one another.
This community of agape love has proven to be powerful enough to win over a majority of the known world three centuries after Jesus first gives this command. This kind of love is a serious commitment. We must choose the hard and difficult road to love well in every circumstance. To love well when we don’t have the emotional capacity. To love well at great personal cost. To love well by entering into messy and heart-breaking circumstances. Our commitment to love Jesus and love others will eventually become a threat to worldly systems bent on sin, evil, power and control.
WRAP-UP Joy and self-sacrificing love are marks of proven disciples of Jesus.
Only Jesus can make our joy complete.
Remaining in Him, trusting in Him, and choosing obedience produces a fruitful life that gives us joy.
Agape love is a choice we must make again and again.
Key Action: Reflect on the following:
What are specific actions you can take to infuse joy into your program? Into your workplace? Into your family?
What are specific actions you can take to infuse agape love into your program? Into your workplace? Into your family?
Who can hold you accountable to execute these ideas?