S3E25
· 45:56
My name is Jared, and I just wanna start off by saying thank you. As a guest speaker, when you come into these thing, you have zero idea if anyone's actually gonna show up. And so this morning, I was living in the gym. It was, like, two minutes until my session was supposed to start, and there was nobody there. And I thought, okay.
Jared Lacoste:Is this, is this the session where nobody shows up? But, I'm appreciative that you guys are here because I think that this afternoon, whether it's this session or sessions that you've been to, will become crucial for your spiritual formation in some regard. I went in this seat fifteen years ago. I was doing the math the other day, and I thought I was just an attendee, a youth that came to you every year in my high school years, and it became one of the most important weekends of my life. Because in within sessions like this and the main session that I actually got to encounter and experienced Jesus in a way that I never had before.
Jared Lacoste:Come on in. There's lots of faith. And the reason why I say that is because we have opportunity to do something that's outside of what we're typically used to. And so these weekends become really crucial. I actually I was sitting in the lobby earlier, and all of these memories started flood flooding back into my mind of things that happened while I was a student at YouthQuake.
Jared Lacoste:And I met with a friend of mine who was also back here for the to do some teaching, and we both started laughing because when I was 15, 16 years old, I just have this vivid memory of this group of people just hopping around this entire building with two coconuts sounding like it was horse hooves just clipping along. And it's this memory that sticks with me. I don't know why, but as I sat back in this room, I all these things start coming back. And so I believe that there will be things that you're taught this weekend that will stick with you for years and years and years and count. And so I wanna start off because this session today, we're talking about this fame in sport dilemma.
Jared Lacoste:So I'm assuming that if you're in the room that sport in some regard is important to you. Would you say it's fair to say? I believe that sport actually is one of the greatest things in the world, and so I wanna do an exercise with you to start just to see the impact that sport has on our culture. So I'm gonna give you a stat. And if you think the number is higher than the stat or lower than the stat, higher stand up, and you think it's lower, stay seated.
Jared Lacoste:So in the last men's World Cup soccer final, at any given moment, do you think there was more or less than a hundred million people tuning in to watch? So if you think it's more, stand out. If you think it's less, they see it in
Jared Lacoste:There was. Perfect. So those of you that are still standing, I'm gonna give you another number, and you have to decide if it's higher or lower. So we're gonna go up to 700,000,000 people. Higher, stay standing, lower to sit down.
Jared Lacoste:Okay. So 700,000,000 people. It's a big number. Alright, let us go to 1,000,000,000 people, higher or lower. Sit down.
Jared Lacoste:Okay. Let's keep going. 1,200,000,000 people higher or lower. Go ahead and start the road.
Jared Lacoste:No. K. Last number, I'm gonna give you 1,750,000,000 people higher or lower. If you guys were smart, you would've looked at the guy that was in the room earlier this morning. I'm not picking up.
Jared Lacoste:So Okay. You guys could all sit down. I wanna ask you the question. What brings people together in this world that draws 1,750,000,000 people at one given time? Is there anything else that you could do that?
Jared Lacoste:It's awful. Good answer. I think that that statement and looking at the just the magnitude, like, we're talking about it. Like, that's one fifth ish of the population in the entire world tuned in to watch a game of soccer or football. Well, let's bring it a little bit closer to home.
Jared Lacoste:Not sure where you guys are from, but, obviously, somewhere in the web. I think sport goes beyond just a game. I really do. And the reason why I think that is because two weeks ago, I found myself doing something that I've never done before in my life. And you could judge me for it if you want, but I sat down and watched a women's college March Madness basketball game.
Jared Lacoste:Never done that before in my life. Not because of anything due to women's sport, but because I didn't do not like basketball in general. So like I said, you can judge me, but the reality is is that I was so captivated by the storyline that was going on in the college basketball season that I had to tune in. Because now it was no longer just about a sport, but it was about people that I was running into everywhere that I was going, and they were talking about it. You see, sport comes outside of the arena.
Jared Lacoste:Why did it they it's random. We go, oh, now it's actually something that we have to talk about because it's becoming bigger than just a game. I wanna ask another question just to solidify the idea of how powerful I think sport can be. How many in here speak more than one language? K.
Jared Lacoste:A handful, I mean. So I want you guys all to think about a country that you would go to that you wouldn't have the ability to communicate with the people that live there. K. So you have no ability to make a connection by speaking. What do you think one of the easiest ways is our building relationship would be if you went to a country that you can communicate?
Jared Lacoste:We just talked about it. Right? 1,750,000,000 people at any given point tune in to watch what? A game. When you guys were coming in, what did we start doing?
Jared Lacoste:Throwing this football around. I don't know your name. I do now because it told me. But reality was is that we started building a relationship before we even knew each other by playing. By just taking something that is relatable without having to say a word for me, I've been to countries around this world where you show up in the middle of a dirt patch with a soccer ball.
Jared Lacoste:You put it on the ground. You start playing. And within minutes, there are hundreds of tis flocking to come play it. I can't speak a lick of their language, but the reality ended that we were able to build relationships to a point where we could have a con, and we could play a game. And that's what I think the power of sport has.
Jared Lacoste:To me, it's how we use it. K? Yeah. Sport is powerful. We've established that.
Jared Lacoste:Now how do we use it? A little bit about me, I grew up my entire life sport. My life has revolved around it. Hockey, soccer, trap and steal, volleyball, and now as I would consider myself a retired athlete golf, which tends to be towards the most few. Come on, dude.
Jared Lacoste:Most people tend to fall into. But I pursued sport with everything that I had. And some of you might be sitting in this room and going, yeah. I'm right in the middle of that. People would be like, Jared, what do you do?
Jared Lacoste:Who are you? Tell us about yourself. And I would often go, hi. My name is Jared. I play hockey, or I play soccer, or whatever sport it is.
Jared Lacoste:Right? We start to identify ourselves by the sports that we play. And I'm not saying that it's bad, but I think we have to understand something beyond that statement. Because if we continue to identify ourselves by the sport that we play, then we're setting ourselves up to be looked at, to be judged, and to find our value in that sport by itself. So I wanted to say something today, and I hope listen.
Jared Lacoste:One of the things that I hope you guys remember, I'm gonna call it the performance trap. Okay? It's this trap that we think that in order to gain value, word, love, that we have to perform. We dictate everything based on our performance, and that is just a gem whether or not we had a good game, bad game. Oh, do these people love me?
Jared Lacoste:What is it? And we start to look back and we go, oh, well, it's all dependent on what I do and not who I am. But as long as we identify ourselves as what we do, then we fall into this trap that everything is based on the product that we produce. I wanna be clear that our identity statement is in Christ. I got it wrong.
Jared Lacoste:I'll be the first to admit it. I changed after my sport for years. It brought me to Caring Court. It brought me to the college this year. I have to play four years of hockey here.
Jared Lacoste:And even as a Christian in a college like Browncrest, I still found myself throughout in this performance identity. I wanted my coaches to see me a certain way. I wanted the people on campus to see me a certain way. I had this idea of what I needed to be, and it was all predicated on what I did on the ice. And when games went poorly, which they did, I was not on some very good teams.
Jared Lacoste:There's someone smiling over here because I'm pretty sure you experienced a very similar situation to me. But it took me until my fourth year to realize that all of that does not matter. Okay? Now, I'm gonna ask a pretty simple question, and I'm almost stirred. I know the answer.
Jared Lacoste:Who likes winning? If there's a hand down, we're lying. Okay? So, there's nothing wrong with that. For a serious doubling with that much intents and that much time and that much effort, of course, we wanna win.
Jared Lacoste:Why wouldn't we? There's a certain reality that when it comes to playing sport, even at a recreational level or a competitive level, we wanna win. And that comes over time, but I wanna tell you that the reason why I think sport is so unique and so powerful is I have a seven year old boy, a five year old boy, and a nine year old daughter, and they're all involved in sport right now. And my son is a goalie in hockey, which pains me a little bit because the reality is for me, I know that's gonna have a lot more stress than me. But he's this seven year old boy, and we're in a tournament earlier this year.
Jared Lacoste:And when I tell you that we got destroyed, that's an understatement. Like, they stopped keeping track. They turned the clock off. That's when you know things are really bad is they're like, we're just gonna we're gonna cut the bleeding off here. Let's just be done with it.
Jared Lacoste:My son came off the ice grinning ear to ear, smiling. And my dad, like, like, he just let in 35 goals. But guess what? It didn't matter. There was a purity about it where we get to play.
Jared Lacoste:I think that in the nature of sport is that we get to play together. It's one of the most fascinating things, and you I wanna preserve it. I'm sitting here going. I work in the world of professional sports, so most of what I'm talking about is that a culmination of being involved with professional athletics for the last ten years. And the observations that I've made and the things that I've come to understand.
Jared Lacoste:And now I wanna preserve this idea in my children that is not about performance. Because guess what? As a dad, in that moment, I didn't care that he let in all those goals. What I cared about is that he came off the ice. He had a smile on his face, and he said, I wanna do that again.
Jared Lacoste:There becomes a shift as we get older where we start to pursue it a little bit more. We spend more more time and energy and effort, and they're fine. But there's a scripture here that I want to read because I think it held shape our identity statement around who we are in Christ and not who we are as an athlete. So Colossians two ten, it says, you are made complete in Christ. What's word you've That
Jared Lacoste:Does anywhere in there say your make complete based on how many bucks you make? No. It actually doesn't even say anything about having fun. Right? Because before you even step foot on the court or whatever field of play that your sport brings you to, the reality is is that it's already made complete.
Jared Lacoste:God can love you no less or no worse or no greater depending on what to do. And that actually gives us some freedom to throw that performance strap out the door for ourselves personally, because at the end of the day, our value and our worth is not dictated on what we do. Our value and worth is dictated on who we are. And if we're in Christ, which is the next verse I wanna share, second Corinthians five seventeen, it says, in Christ, we are a new creation. We're made new.
Jared Lacoste:We're made complete. Before you ever even touch a ball or a stick or anything that you plan on doing, Right? There's sports across the board, and I'm probably gonna leave some out. But the reality is is for us, regardless of whatever happens, we could come back to this truth and identity statement that we are made complete in Christ before anything else. I wanna share a story with you.
Jared Lacoste:As I said, I have shifted my focus to playing golf more often than not. And you probably don't follow it, which is fine. But there's this guy named Scottie Scheffler Probably, there's no argument to be made. He's the best dolphin in the world, and it's not even close. It's not even close.
Jared Lacoste:I read a stat the other day that said the gap between him and second is greater than the gap between second and seven hundred and ninety fifth in the world. Just think about that for a second. He is so much better than the second best person in the world than the gap between the second best and, like, the seven hundred and fiftieth. It's wild to me. He's on an unbelievable tear right now.
Jared Lacoste:I love watching him play, not because he's this great golfer, but because every time that he got an opportunity to deflect the glory that people are trying to give him, he stands firmly and goes, it's not about me. God loves me whether I'm in this tetrack, whether I delve. Now think about that. Best person in the world at their sport. Everyone's gonna be like, Anna, you did this.
Jared Lacoste:Look at all these accolades. Look at all this money. Look at all this fame. And I love this quote from him. And he goes, pretty soon, my wife's gonna have a child.
Jared Lacoste:He just won the Masters, which is one of the greatest golf tournaments in the world. And he goes, pretty soon, golf is gonna be my fourth priority. My relationship with Jesus, my relationship with my wife, soon to be my relationship with my newborn child, and then golf. That's wild to me, to think that there's this person out there who has made it to the pinnacle of their sport, and when everything should be about him, he deflects it away from himself because he knows that it's not about performance. He knows that he's secure in Christ because when he walks off that golf course, whether he won it or whether he lost it, god sees him no differently.
Jared Lacoste:I want you guys to put yourself in that situation. Think about the sport that you love, this court that you play. Put yourself at the highest point where you're considered the greatest. Right? We have debates all the time in sport about, oh, who's the greatest of all time?
Jared Lacoste:Usually ends up being one of the biggest arguments because everyone has their opinion about something. But say it is unanimous. In your core, you're the greatest. Because I'd believe it's in these moments where God can actually use sport to influence his kingdom. Because I'm sitting here talking about it.
Jared Lacoste:I've never met the guy. And yet his testimony, his obedience, his ability to deflect the glory away from himself and put it back on Christ is reaching people for the gospel. Now, we'll probably never find ourselves at that big of a stage, I hope we do. Because I hope that if you do find yourself in that situation, that you might think about this and put that back on the one who gave us everything that we have. But if we go back to 70 Corinthians five twenty one, says one of the greatest responsibilities if you're a follower of Jesus, this is one of the greatest responsibilities that's been put upon us.
Jared Lacoste:It says, you are my ambassador. Some translations say you're an ambassador for him or for Christ. How many of you feel like that's a heavy responsibility? Yeah. It comes with a little bit of responsibility and a little bit of weight.
Jared Lacoste:But what we don't understand sometimes is that we can stand on that platform because what? We've already been made complete and innocent. So there's nothing that we can do or say that's gonna change. And so I wanna talk to you a little bit about how we do that. I get people come up here all the time.
Jared Lacoste:I work with professional football players. I still pinch myself every now and then because I've never played a Dallas football in my life. People go, oh, Jared. You must have played football at Braga. Nope.
Jared Lacoste:Didn't. Don't know anything about it. I look at the boards when I go into the stadium, and I might as well be reading the sheet music because I don't know what it's saying either. But for me, I sit there and I go, God has given me an opportunity to have space in people's lives to bring them back, to help them understand what it looks like to not only pursue Christ, but do it in the midst of trying to be the best at what they do. It's hard.
Jared Lacoste:I'm not gonna sit here and say being a Christian in the world of sport is easy, because there's a lot of influences that tell us to do things a certain way, to assess certain things, to be involved in a culture that might not necessarily be helpful or beneficial or even healthy, and yet that's what we're faced with on a day to day basis. But I believe that if you can enter into that space already rooted and secure in who you are in Christ, that it becomes a little bit easier. I got players all the time who go, Jared, it's not fair. You're a pastor. You're supposed to tell people about Jesus.
Jared Lacoste:It's easy for you. I'll tell you why. I I walk into that locker room every single day with the thought in the back of my mind of, who am I? What do I have to offer? There's nothing that I could say to give any sort of credibility to being in the locker room with a bunch of football players.
Jared Lacoste:Those are the things that I enter the building with every day going, god, why would you pick me? Why would you use me? I can't relate to them. I can't do this. I start to get in this mode of I can't do what you're calling me to do.
Jared Lacoste:And do you know what god does often? He goes, perfect. Lean on me. I don't want you to go in under your own strength. Because if you go in under your own strength, you're gonna fail.
Jared Lacoste:So I'm telling you this, if you try and do it under your own strength, if you try and and go in and pursue your teammates and the people that you're around under your own strength, you're probably gonna fail. Because some of the things that God wants us to do, we need his spirit in us in order to accomplish them. So I wanna give you some practical sayings that you can do that I believe are fairly simple, but have the ability to impact your team, your culture, the world that you might find yourself in. Okay? Like I said, I don't know most of your circumstances, but you're here, and I wanna be able to help you when you enter into that space.
Jared Lacoste:One of the easiest things as a Christian, if you consider yourself a follower of Jesus Christ, if you walk into your locker room, one of the best things that you can do is love your teammates. I've played on some teams that have been so competitive that I did not like spending time with my teammates. It was an environment that was so unhealthy and so toxic because every one of us was so driven by the idea of being better than the next person that we lost the capacity to see that we were actually together. As soon as we started seeing things as me, me, me, or them, or this idea of not together, we run the risk of damaging relationships because we're worried about ourself. A quote that I wanna share with you.
Jared Lacoste:It's one of my favorite quotes. I have it written on my board in my office. It says, sometimes God doesn't need you to give an explanation of Jesus. He just wants you to demonstrate who he is. K?
Jared Lacoste:I'll say it again. Sometimes you don't need to give an explanation of Jesus, rather just be in demonstration of him. So instead of actually saying anything, just act in a way that is honoring just act in a way that actually just points people to the fact that what you're doing doesn't make sense. I've had people time and time again come up to me and go, what's different about you? You treat me differently.
Jared Lacoste:Because I believe that if we're pursuing Christ and if we're demonstrating his love for people, you're gonna stand out. Because we're in a world that's the gift that you two take care of yourself for. Look out for yourself. Look out for number one. Make sure that you're taken care of.
Jared Lacoste:This story and this narrative of Jesus and being in Christ is actually the opposite. Ephesians two six two six says, because of his love, we are made alive with him. Because of his love, we are made alive. K? So when you walk into a space or you're walking in lies with a teammate, someone maybe it's an opponent.
Jared Lacoste:If we can start to seeing them with the same value and worth that god has he does, we actually have the ability to see things differently. And I wanna ask for tell you something because I experienced it firsthand. The freedom that comes when you know that you're secure in who you are because of Christ is one of the most incredible feelings. Winning still sucks. Or, sorry, losing still sucks.
Jared Lacoste:It really does. I hate losing. Most of my friends in my family will say the same thing because anything that there's an opportunity to be to be competitive in, I usually tell myself that I should be good at it even though I've never done it. And so it doesn't take the thing of losing away, but what it does do is not allow us to spiral into this trap that we're worthless or that we don't have anything to offer because we weren't successful in what we were trying to do. I mean, it's something.
Participant 1:I
Jared Lacoste:wanna ask you a question, and I hope that maybe some of you would give us some feedback. But if I was to say to you right now, what's one way that you can invite God into your sport, what would it be? So how does that in mind and got into it all?
Participant 1:I ask him for his assistance in stay in the, good weather for I mean, but flying the sport.
Jared Lacoste:Perfect. Anyone else?
Participant 2:Great. I've got a w w j d on my hockey stick.
Jared Lacoste:K. What does that do?
Participant 2:It's like, wherever it's in a high stress situation or or that. I'm sorry. So I'm getting off track. I think I'm just looking at this if, and then just, we'll reset that.
Jared Lacoste:Perfect. Anyone else? Something maybe you do or things
Participant 3:you could do? I'm a for context to press somewhere with trainer, and I I look at it's my job too. Yeah. And so I I look at it as a man who goes out to his laboring does it with church in the evening. And as long as I can go there and stay focused on that, he takes care of the details.
Participant 3:And the success comes because I labored and still the evening. God is an idol, but I I did my job. I I worshiped him in my work. Yeah.
Participant 4:When I play basketball, I always strung in behind the other tingling. Being in my work, it's like, falsely out or something for a free girl, I'll, like, joke around with them. It's like, yeah. Like, can we show you something like that? It just, like I don't know.
Participant 4:It takes away detection in a lot of times. And
Jared Lacoste:Awesome. See, there's lots of examples of things that we're already doing. A practice that I got in the habit of doing was and someone touched on it. I found a place that I could put visible reminders for me so that when things did get hard or emotional you said I played hockey. Key to the moment, things happen.
Jared Lacoste:There's lots of stuff that can kinda go on a game. And if you don't check yourself regularly, emotions tend to get the better of every while I ask. And so for myself, I played the dinner, and I said this earlier. My Costco pretty mad at me sometimes because I would write stuff on my glove in Sharpie. Because every time I looked down at my thumb, I knew that ten, fifteen, 20 times the gain, I was gonna be looking down to take a face off.
Jared Lacoste:And so I knew if I put something on my thumb that I would see it. And even if the shift before I allowed my emotions to get the better of me, I didn't allow it to happen again because I had that moment where I could look down. And like the young man said in the back, it was a refocus. It was something that I could come back to. Visible reminders, whether it's the bracelet, whether it's something you write down, I see it all the time.
Jared Lacoste:People are gonna play for things. I see people who wear wristbands for family members who maybe passed away or causes that they are passionate about. We tend to put ourselves on this pedestal going, I'm gonna play for this or I'm gonna play for that. And those things are great. Those motivations can be great.
Jared Lacoste:But remember that if they're not rooted first and foremost in our relationship with Christ, then they become something that can take the distraction away from Jesus. Another thing that I think you can do as an athlete who wants to pursue God in their sport, find other people who feel the same as you. I've been in some locker rooms where I've been the only Christian, and it's the most lonely place you can be. Really is. When you're buy or sell, in any situation, it can be lonely.
Jared Lacoste:Like I said, I've worked with athletes at the professional level for over ten years, and I'll tell you something. The same thing gets shared every single time I talk to one of them. They go, Jared, this is lonely. God created us to be in community with each other. His intention for his children, which is you and I, his intention was for us to be in relationship with each other.
Jared Lacoste:He didn't intend for things to be done in isolation. He didn't intend for things to be done solo. There's a reason why in our justice system, the biggest form of punishment is to be left alone because that wasn't God's initial intention for us. So when you look at your when you look at what you're trying to do, if you're gonna try and live and embody some of these principles, find people who believe the same thing that you do and be there for each other. A good friend of mine, he uses this quote, and I wish I knew who the author was, but he says, If you wanna go fast, go alone, but if you wanna go far, go together.
Jared Lacoste:If you wanna go fast, go alone. If you wanna go far, go together. I would encourage you as you get older, there are gonna be more things that come along with playing sport that you're gonna have to make a decision about. You're gonna have to decide. And I always say, you're gonna have to draw a line in the sand.
Jared Lacoste:What are you willing to do, and what are you not willing to do to pursue the sport that you love? Because if you don't have a line, chances are you've already crossed flight. I believe we've become a byproduct of the people we spend time. I had a young man who I worked with a couple years ago on the riders, and he said, Sharon, I just don't feel like I'm hearing God's voice. I said, okay.
Jared Lacoste:I said, if I would just phone you right now, if I didn't have caller ID, if you didn't see my name come across your phone, would you know who it is on the other end? He goes, yes. I would. I would know it's you because I recognize your voice. And I said, well, why do you recognize my voice?
Jared Lacoste:And he goes, because I spent time with you. It's no different when it comes to this walk in this journey of faith where if we're not hearing God's voice, it's likely because we're not spending time with him. We're not in the word. God says that this is my inspired word. These are the things that I have for you.
Jared Lacoste:These are the things that I wanna share with you. And so if you're not actually in the scriptures, it's gonna be hard to hear God's voice in these moments. We're a byproduct of who we spend time with. That comes with our spiritual faith and our journey of following Christ as well. We become more like him when we spend time with him.
Jared Lacoste:When we understand what it is that Jesus would do, which we understand who it is that Jesus is and how he would act and how he would respond, we become a little bit more like him. And, therefore, when we find ourselves in situations where we haven't choose between what does Jared wanna do and what does God wanna do, we choose the latter. We go, it's not about Jared. It's about God, and so I'm gonna act out of that instead of out of my own ambition. It's really hard to do that if you're not able to understand in those moments what it looks like to choose to live in that identity statement of being in Christ as opposed to being in myself.
Jared Lacoste:I wanna add on the how many of you wanna be great at something? Probably all of us. Maybe it's not sport. Maybe it's music. Maybe it's something else.
Jared Lacoste:Reality is is that we want to achieve things. We wanna be considered great at things, and that takes time.
Jared Lacoste:I always tell my kid, if you wanna be first at something, here's three places to start. Achieving greatness means I must be the first one to serve. I must be the first one to give, and I must be the first one to love. I believe that that is a formula to live by. First, to serve, first to give, and first to love.
Jared Lacoste:Because all of those things right there are not about me. And you might sit here and go, that's really hard to do it. But I would encourage you to go to the scriptures because Jesus isn't asking us to do anything that he didn't already do himself. Right? He's not putting this impossible standard on the wall and going, hey, this is what I want you to do.
Jared Lacoste:Now go do it. But we have no examples of it. The Bible is full of examples of what it means to be first to give. And we need to look no further than Jesus to see this lived out and acted out day by day by day in the New Testament.
Jared Lacoste:Have any of you wanted to quit? It's error. How come?
Participant 5:But, hopefully, it was just, like, caught The environment kit, yeah, out of this. I even when I was having some test and it's like, it's just kinda like kinda didn't, like, play editing.
Jared Lacoste:K. Anyone else? Took me a really long time to differentiate
Participant 6:It took a long time to differentiate between it being an being an idol from being, an enemy for what you're talking about. We do best to to a very long time.
Jared Lacoste:Injury? I feel you. I've had my fair share of injuries, and I my body does not thank me now as a 35 year old with something. Oh, yeah. That was direct result of punishing myself for years, chasing something that rarely loved me back. Anyone else?
Jared Lacoste:What was something that caused you to wanna quit? Getting the same free range three times in a row. Yeah. Obstacles. Right?
Jared Lacoste:Things get in the way. Anyone else? What makes you wanna quit? No progress. No progress.
Jared Lacoste:Yeah. Anyone else? I wanna encourage you. This is something that a coach of mine drilled into me as a young adult. He said, good.
Jared Lacoste:You wanna quit? Good. Just show up tomorrow. And it was the most infuriating thing because he was like, just show up tomorrow. He fell on a quit, and they're like, do it tomorrow.
Jared Lacoste:And it was this idea of just keep showing up. Just keep showing up. Because eventually, I got to the reality that it was most of my reasons for wanting to quit come back to that thing I said at the beginning. It was about performance. It was about seeking out something that wasn't healthy from a perspective of what I was doing as opposed to who I truly was.
Jared Lacoste:Keep showing up. My mentor in the job and the role that I do now as a chaplain with professional athletes, he says this one thing all the time. He goes, Jared, more is caught up in time. People are going to experience things through your actions far more than they're gonna listen to the words you have to say. My favorite time of year is coming up because next week, we're drafting a whole new set of players to come and join our team.
Jared Lacoste:And I love sitting in those meetings, and I love listening to coaches talk about, oh, why would we choose this guy versus that guy? Or, you know, what is it about him that put him in a better position to be dragged over this person? And they start to analyze every single detail of these people's lives. And every single time, it doesn't come down to talent. Everyone that's being watched, everyone that's being looked at is talented.
Jared Lacoste:Finding talent is easy. It's those things that you don't necessarily hear, but you just witness. You just watch it, and you go, there's something different. You see how that guy lifted up his teammate? Do you see how this young lady right here encouraged her teammates or made an effort to have that sportsmanship or to do something that is beyond just the talent that we put out there, the performance that we put out there.
Jared Lacoste:It's incredible to me that when you put two people, if on the same board and they go, well, athletically, they're because it's kind of a why. Doesn't matter which one we choose. They're both good. They're both talented. What's gonna set you apart?
Jared Lacoste:Okay? Because if you wanna pursue your sport, which I believe a lot of you in here do, if you wanna go to that next level, whether it's junior, whether it's university, whether it's professionally, whatever it is that you're pursuing, I believe that if you approach it from the perspective that God has given everything to you, and therefore, what you do with it is a glory back to him, that things will start showing up in your day to day that will set you apart from anyone else. I wanna bring you back to these three verses, and then I'll leave time for questions. You're complete. Some of you might be sitting in here, not really sure what that means.
Jared Lacoste:But I want you to know that your value and your worth is tremendous. Not because I say it is. Not because of your teammates, to your coaches, your parents. Not because of anyone other than the fact that Jesus already died on the cross so that we could be made complete in him. So it's already been done.
Jared Lacoste:It's up to us to live out that truth in our lives. The second thing is when we find ourselves in a understanding and we accept that we are who we are in Christ and we're pursuing that, we're actually made new. You don't actually have to be viewed as this old self. Right? I think back to some of the times where I let sport get the better of me, and I go, that doesn't have to carry itself with me.
Jared Lacoste:I can let that go. My bad day doesn't have to follow me day by day by day because I'm made new in this understanding that Christ died for me. And the last one, which is what I've committed my life's work to, is that it is an absolute honor and a treat for me to be a representative of Jesus Christ on this earth and in the world of sport because he's called me to be an ambassador. He's called me to be someone to point people towards him and make his name known and not my own. And some of the greatest joys that I have in life are when people actually understand and live in that true purpose and potential that God has created for them.
Jared Lacoste:So I want to take a moment. I want to pray for you guys, and then we have fifteen minutes. I I'll open it up for questions if you have any, but let's let's pray first. Father, we thank you for each person in this room and those who are sitting in other sessions right now. Lord, I pray that each one of us would encounter you this weekend.
Jared Lacoste:Whether we already know you, whether we know nothing about you, I just pray that your Holy Spirit would allow each and every one of us to experience the love and the value and the worth that we have in your name, Jesus. And so, father, thank you for these young people, these leaders, and those who are here on campus this week. And I just pray that an outpouring of your love would just be bestowed upon each one of them. We just bring all this before you. In the name of Jesus, we pray.
Jared Lacoste:Amen.
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