God's Coaching #317

God's Coaching #317

How many cartwheels can you do? Have you ever tried? Could you do 1,321 in a row? That’s how many Abhinandan Sadalge did in November 2010 to set a new world record for most consecutive cartwheels. It took him nearly 38 minutes. Try doing cartwheels for five minutes straight. That’s a long time to be spinning in circles. Are you getting dizzy just thinking about it?

The nine-year-old boy from Belgaum, India, didn’t simply decide on the spur of the moment to do more than a thousand cartwheels in a row. Abhinandan’s karate teachers had discovered his knack for cartwheels and helped him train for his record-breaking feat. Or should we call it a hands and feat? Ha!

What’s the Score?

Any great accomplishment takes practice and training. There has to be some natural ability involved, but that’s not enough. Abhinandan is good at cartwheels, but so are lots of kids. It took him hours of disciplined practice and training to be able to do more than anyone else in the world.

Proper training provides the foundation for positive results. That’s true in sports, music, school, hobbies, and work. It’s also true in our spiritual lives. Our love for Jesus grows naturally in our hearts, but we have to train our heads and hands to learn God’s ways. When we display discipline in our training, it builds habits that help us live for him. Thankfully, we’re not in it alone in our training. We have God’s Spirit to help us and to give us strength. We also have the motivation that our reward will last way longer than any medal, grade, honor, or award—even longer than any world record. Don’t believe it? Just check out 1 Corinthians 9:25.

On the Ball

Set two goals, one for an earthly accomplishment and one for something in your spiritual life.

Goal: Training Steps:

Coach’s Comment

All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. 1 Corinthians 9:25