“My goal is to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.”
– Philippians 3:10

To compete in the world of athletics takes motivation and drive. As coaches, we invest countless hours training our athletes to perform at the highest level possible. What is our payoff? It could be a championship or simply a winning season. It might be a Coach of the Year award or gaining respect for the program in the community. While these can be worthy goals, they are what we could call “earthly trophies”. We can spend our entire life chasing a trophy car, a trophy house, a trophy spouse or a trophy coaching position. It can be easy for us to focus on surface desires which seldom satisfy us in the long run.

Paul had a lot of trophies: power, influence, prestige, money, significance, and success. He was living the good life and performing at the top of his game. Paul’s problem however, was that his desires were misplaced. He was aggressively persecuting Jesus and His followers. When Paul met Jesus on the road to Damascus, his focus changed forever. His new desire and focus was to know Jesus and to be on His team. Paul’s motivation shifted from “earthly trophies” to “heavenly trophies” and he never turned back. Our challenge is to take a closer look at our present desires and values and determine whether they fall in the category of “earthly trophies” or “heavenly trophies”.

Heavenly Father, keep me focused on the things that matter. Help me to honestly evaluate why I do what I do. Remove those things that take my eyes off of You and Your Kingdom. Amen.