“Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” — James 4:8 (ESV)
Finish The Race
When my brother first started dating my sister-in-law, he was an avid hockey fan — but she didn’t care at all about sports. Carolyn lived in the suburbs, and every time they went to a game, which was often, Don would drive out and pick her up, then take her home after the game — a total of more than 80 miles for the evening.
Don didn’t mind the drive because he wanted to be with Carolyn. Sometimes Carolyn would take knitting to the game with her — she didn’t care about the hockey game, but she wanted to be with Don.
Oh, that we would desire the company of Jesus to that extent! No matter what our circumstances — whether we are doing something we enjoy or whether it’s something less than pleasurable — we will be filled with contentment if our focus is on our fellowship with Him.
Father God, please help us to rest and be satisfied in spending time with You.
— Lois Thomson
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Titans long snapper Morgan Cox (46) and the special teams line up against Houston, Jan. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Stew Milne)
“But show kindness to the sons of Barzillai of Gilead and let them be among those who eat at your table. They stood by me when I fled from your brother Absalom.” — 1 Kings 2:7
Morgan Cox isn’t the fastest, strongest or biggest player in the NFL, but he’s been to the Pro Bowl several times and helped his team win many games. However, most people wouldn’t recognize Cox if he walked into a restaurant. How could a professional football player be so unknown by the public?
Cox is a long snapper for punts and field goals. So most people don’t notice him unless he makes a bad snap — and that’s not very often. In 2013, Cox helped the Baltimore Ravens win the Super Bowl and he continues to perform well now for the Tennessee Titans. His excellence may not always be appreciated, but he’s a vital player for his team.
When I became a Christian, I grew to appreciate people who helped me along the way. After several years of church attendance and some tough life lessons, college friends led me to Christ in 1983. Soon afterward, I wrote some letters to thank people who taught me about Jesus through words and actions. These individuals in the background directed me toward being a minister without realizing it. When one of my former Sunday School teachers received the letter, he wrote back to me and said the message was much appreciated and he might still be a teacher at the church if people expressed more gratitude for what he did.
Some of the most important folks are unknown people who helped the well-known Bible heroes make it to their place of leadership or supported them during their worst times.
When King David’s own son, Absalom, tried to remove him from being king and wanted him dead, David struggled and lived out in the wilderness for a period of time. But a man named Barzillai wouldn’t let David go hungry when he was far away from Jerusalem (2 Samuel 17:27-29).
Though many years passed after Barzillai helped save David’s life, the king always remembered the courage of Barzillai to stand with him against the naysayers and his generosity to David and his men when they could have starved to death. So David gave back to Barzillai, his children and grandchildren. As David learned he’d soon die and Solomon would take his place as king, he instructed his son to continue to show kindness to Barzillai’s family (1 Kings 2:7, above).
Ultimately, God is the one who often sends friends in a surprising way to lift us up in a time of need and help us to keep going when we didn’t think we could. Are you willing to be that otherwise unknown friend or teammate — even possibly having to do an unglamorous job — so that others succeed for the glory of God? Can you look back on your life and spot those that did it for you? Have you shown them your gratitude?
— Bill Kent, Pastor of Memorial Baptist Church, Sylvania, Georgia
Isaquias Queiroz dos Santos is a Brazilian sprint canoeist with a remarkable story to tell. At first glance, one notices his incredible record: the only Brazilian athlete to ever win three medals at a single Olympic Games, and the third-most decorated Brazilian athlete overall with four medals total (a bronze, two silvers and a prized gold medal). He’s dominated the World Championships in his sport with 14 medals, half of them gold, as well as the Pan American Games.
But what may not be as obvious is the fact that the guy is a survivor in every sense of the word.
For starters, as a toddler, Isaquias spilled boiling water on himself and spent a month recovering in the hospital. At the age of 5, he was kidnapped and put up for adoption before being rescued by his mother in the nick of time. Five years later, he fell out of a tree while trying to catch a snake and ended up losing a kidney. Death seemed to be toying with the guy from the beginning. Some would argue that the odds were certainly against him ever living to adulthood, let alone becoming an elite athlete.
And yet, he owns the fact that all these things shaped him into the person he has become now. Following his Tokyo Olympic gold-medal performance, he reflected on his past and noted, “This is how I reached here. … I am not special for being here. I just tried and always believed in myself.” When asked what message he would want kids and listeners out there to know, he just repeated the need to believe in your potential. For him, the fact that he has had to endure so many challenges early in life and learn the power of belief and hope has given him perspective and motivation in ways that an easier path may not have afforded him.
While most of us may not ever endure the degree of severe suffering that Isaquias went through in his childhood, we all still have a story and history of things we’ve had to overcome. Some of us more and some less. We’ve all gone through shaping experiences and challenges that forced us to expand our faith and believe in the face of difficulties and setbacks. Jesus didn’t promise us an easy ride in this life but He did promise that those who belong to Him overcome these things through Him (1 John 5:4, above). Our faith is our assured victory.
It’s important to put our stories in perspective and realize that God is bigger than any odds. No complications or adversity can stop what He has planned or wants to do in your life or mine, and instead of looking at stuff that’s happened to us as a negatively defining point that hinders us throughout our life, we need to embrace it. We need to realize it’s all part of what got us here and has made us who we are. Our stories matter to God and they should matter to us.
Nick and Marcus Foligno have built long NHL careers on toughness, leadership and a willingness to rise in big moments. But this season, perhaps the moment that matters most won’t show up in a box score.
Though the two brothers play on separate teams, they’re teaming up to raise money for breast cancer research in honor of their late mother, Janis, who died in 2009. Through a partnership with the Chicago Blackhawks, Minnesota Wild, NHL, NHLPA and the V Foundation via Hockey Fights Cancer, the Foligno Face-Off has become one of the most meaningful initiatives of their careers.
“It’s really special,” Nick, the Blackhawks captain, recently told NHL.com. “Obviously, it’s something that’s near and dear to us with our mother and losing her to breast cancer. But the fight continues and that’s something Marcus and I have always said we would do in her honor is to continue to fight and continue to find ways to make it a better outcome for somebody else. I think she’d be proud of that.”
This year’s campaign invites fans to donate $17 — a nod to the number both brothers wear — or whatever they can give. One hundred percent of every donation goes directly to the V Foundation for breast cancer research, expanding the impact of the Janis Foligno Foundation, which has raised more than $1.2 million for research and patient care.
For the brothers, this is more than a cause. It’s a continuation of the life their mother helped shape. Her voice, her presence and her joy still echo in the memories that shaped them. While their dad, Mike, played in the NHL, Janis was often the one driving them to their own games and practices, which were often several hours away.
She made plenty of sacrifices to help both brothers reach their dreams of playing professional hockey.
“Our dad played hockey, and we listened to him for advice on how to play,” Marcus, a forward for the Wild, told The Athletic in 2023. “But if it wasn’t for our mom getting us where we needed to go, being such a supporter and booster of our confidence, I don’t think we would have made it.”
“She was the drill sergeant in the family, the motivator, the everything, really,” Nick told The Athletic. “She was the rock — which is why it really rocked our family when we lost her.”
Though she never saw the full arc of their NHL careers, she did see both boys get drafted and saw the start of Nick’s career after he was drafted in 2006 and made his debut in 2007. Marcus was drafted in June 2009 — by the Buffalo Sabres, one of the teams his father played for — and Janis passed away in July.
“It was emotional,” Marcus told The Athletic. “You think your mother hung on for that day, to see you get drafted. It was weird how full circle it was. Buffalo. It could have been anywhere in the NHL. She knew I’d be going home with a lot of family and friends there. She knew I’d be good. I’d be safe. It was a crazy, crazy, special moment.”
The lessons she instilled carry forward in both men’s lives, now shaping the way both brothers parent their own kids and the way they lead in their locker rooms.
Their faith in God also plays a central role in how they move through grief, success and every season in between. Both are actively involved with Hockey Ministries International.
Nick often returns to the clarity of Romans 12:12, which says, “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.”
“I just love how simple and direct a message it is,” he once told HMI. “I think it perfectly describes the journey we go on in our faith in Christ. Always be hopeful because without it, I firmly believe we are lost. When hard times come, be patient and strong and know it won’t last. And lastly be constantly in dialogue with Jesus because to me that’s how you stay connected.”
Marcus said he’s fortunate to be able to play the game he loves “with Christ guiding me through all the ups and downs.”
“Attending team chapels throughout the season also helps me,” he once told HMI. “Our schedule is demanding and it’s easy to get caught up in uncontrollable events. Chapel provides a place for me and some of my teammates to sit down, reflect and grow our faith together. It helps us see the bigger picture and ease the stresses that come with our job — and to let go and focus on Jesus.”
Nick missed the first of his face-offs with Marcus (Nov. 26) due to injury, but the brothers are scheduled to meet three more times this season (Jan. 27, March 17 and March 19). Each time, fans can choose between Team Nick or Team Marcus, and each donor will be entered to win a Hockey Fights Cancer jersey signed by both brothers, as well as a signed puck from one of the teams.
Collectively, those of us who have played, coached and/or trained at a high level have a long list of distaste for a lot that goes on in competitive youth hoops. At the top of that list is unsound, overly aggressive, full-court trapping defenses.
The reason we hate such tactics is because they are gimmicks, and youth coaches who win by playing these overly aggressive defenses prey on unequipped, underdeveloped young players who have yet to develop the knowledge, skills and tools to break the trapping defenses.
When these innocent, unprepared and yet-to-be-developed hoopers get older, stronger and more knowledgeable, and play for a coach with a trap-breaking offense, these gimmick defenses will quickly get exploited as the older version of these players will shred right through the defense and easily score.
Similar to experienced hoopers who have played at a high level, those who surrender to living life at the high level God has called them to can recognize the devil: a thief that is out to steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10). It’s no different than the youth coaches that prey on under-prepared, immature players that lack knowledge (see Matthew 22:29).
Much like those youth coaches, the devil, as stated in Proverbs 29:25 (above), sets a trap of fear and intimidation to hold us back from all that God has for us.
While that is the devil’s plan, we can relationally walk through life with God as the main voice in our life and commit to following His path. Humbly allow Him to transform your heart, mind and spirit from sinful to fruitful, get to know His Word, and allow your heart to overflow with knowledge of Scripture. Then you will transform just like a young, underdeveloped player who matures into an experienced player equipped with the right skills, tools and mentality.
When we rely on the Master Coach’s game plan to break the gimmick trap defense and score, we can live in the complete fullness of all God wants to do for us, and more importantly through us. The devil’s trap defense only works on spiritually underdeveloped players, but mature believers break through every time.
