Roger Federer in 2012 (Photo Courtesy: Christian Mesiano/Flickr)
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” — James 1:2-4
Roger Federer, Lebron James, Sidney Crosby, Mike Trout. They are complete athletes who lack nothing. In their sport, they can do it all. And they do it all while making it look incredibly easy. But striving to reach this elite level, and stay there, is most assuredly not as effortless as they make it look. They have pushed their body and mind to their limits to get where they are. Their steadfastness has been tested every step of the way.
As followers of Jesus, it is easy to tell ourselves we want to achieve an elite level of faith like our Bible heroes had. What would it be like to live with the spiritual strength of Elijah, who defeated 450 false prophets and called down fire from Heaven? How does one reach Elijah-like status?
James says that trials and the testing of our faith is what is required to make us perfect and complete. The same Elijah who was the key player in the Mount Carmel miracle of 1 Kings 18 was in a state of deep despair not long after and wanted his life to be taken. God’s plan for perfecting Elijah involved a very intense trial and testing of his faith.
We love the mountaintop experiences of life, and there is nothing wrong with enjoying victories that God graciously allows along our path. But may we always remember that it is in the difficult times that we are perfected in our faith, and in those times may we be able to count it all joy.
— Craig Nixon
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Fans at a game between the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers, Nov. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that.” — Luke 6:32-33
Few things in sports create a stronger sense of identity than putting on your team’s jersey. For Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers fans, that jersey can instantly turn a room into “us” and “them.”
Rivalry is part of what makes sports fun. We cheer for our team, celebrate victories, and maybe enjoy a little bantering back and forth. But there’s a point where competition can become division.
Jesus addressed this very human tendency in Luke 6:32-33 (above). It’s easy to be kind to someone wearing the same jersey. The real test comes when a Green Bay fan encounters a Chicago fan — or a Chicago fan encounters a Green Bay fan — in a crowded stadium, a grocery store, or somewhere else in everyday life.
Do we choose mockery and pride, or do we choose kindness and respect? In a culture that can be divided and quick to label others as the enemy, sports fans who follow Christ have an opportunity to model something different. We can enjoy the rivalry without allowing the rivalry to control how we treat people.
Romans 12:18 says, “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.” We can’t control how another person behaves, but we can control our own response. We can congratulate an opposing fan after a hard-fought game. We can show courtesy in the checkout line. We can laugh together about the rivalry without mocking the other person.
Our team jersey may tell people which team we support, but our actions should show whom we serve. Colossians 3:14 says, “And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.” Love your team. Enjoy the rivalry. Compete fiercely. But love your rival, too.
The final score will eventually be forgotten. The way we treated another person may be remembered much longer. And that’s a victory that transcends the scoreboard.
Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney looks on in a game against North Carolina, Sept. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Jacob Kupferman)
Dabo Swinney heard the noise last season. After a 1-3 start, fans and media pundits questioned whether his time as the Clemson head coach had run its course.
The Tigers made the College Football Playoff the year prior but lost in the first round to Texas. That’s the only taste Clemson has had of the CFP since the 2020-21 season, when it lost to Ohio State in the Sugar Bowl semifinal. That loss came on the tail end of a dominant run by Swinney-coached teams at Clemson, including going to the national championship game four times in five years (2015-16 to 2019-20) and winning it all twice.
That 2024-25 CFP loss came in the first year the tournament expanded to 12 teams. A fanbase that was used to their team being a mainstay in the four-team CFP has found little patience as the team seeks to return in the expanded format.
The Tigers finished 7-6 last season — the most losses for a Swinney-coached team since 2010 — and a loss to Penn State in the Pinstripe Bowl didn’t help quell the frustration. Neither did a 51-10 loss to LSU to start this 2026-27 season. But Clemson has since won two straight, including a 22-7 win over Georgia Southern and a 28-20 win over North Carolina on Saturday.
Swinney was asked about how he handles that pressure week to week when the expectations from fans are still so high. Never one to shy away from speaking about his faith, he pointed to God.
“God’s on the throne,” Swinney said in his postgame press conference Saturday. “Football don’t define me. Scoreboards don’t define me. God’s on the throne whether we win or lose. Even if I never win another game, God is still good. That’s where my peace comes from. Period, the end.”
Last year’s record could’ve looked different had Clemson been truer to its identity over the years, Swinney pointed out. With an assist from a sports information staffer, Swinney noted that Clemson has the nation’s highest winning percentage in one-score games dating back to 2011. The Tigers went 1-3 in one-score games last season, including a 46-45 home loss to Duke.
“Obviously we screwed that up last year. That’s on me. That my job to win the close games,” he said in his press conference. “That’s a pretty big stat to lead the nation in one-score wins, but that’s how we’ve won. We’ve won close games. If you’re going to have a great season, you’ve got to win close games. Everybody’s got good players. Everybody’s got good coaches. You’re not just going to walk out there and blow everybody out. You have to win some four-quarter, down-to-the-last-play games.”
Several of his undefeated or one-loss teams could’ve had several more losses if not for winning close games. Those types of wins tend to compound and help a team build momentum, Swinney said. He feels like Saturday’s 28-20 win over UNC can be one of those wins.
“It just puts wind in your sails,” he said in his press conference. “It just creates that confidence, and you have to have that because we’ll have some more tough games along the way. We didn’t win the ACC today, but we’re 1-0, and you can’t win two until you win one. So that’s all we’ve got. We’ve just got to keep moving forward.”
"My purpose as a man is to glorify God in all that I do. To be a great husband and father. And then to use that platform of football and education to build great men."@ClemsonFB coach Dabo Swinney is our guest on a brand new Sports Spectrum podcast with @MattForte22. pic.twitter.com/Y8HG5wFUHz
After taking over as head coach mid-season in October 2008, Swinney is now in his 19th season as Clemson’s head coach. He’s 189-54 over that span and is Clemson’s all-time winningest coach. At 56 years old, he still feels like he has plenty of tread left. Last season, he made it clear that if Clemson decides to move on from him at any point, he plans to keep coaching somewhere else.
But whatever this next leg of his career looks like, he knows his peace comes from the Lord.
“I know where I came from and God has shown so much favor on my life,” he said in Saturday’s press conference. “I’d just have to be an idiot to lose my peace now because something ain’t going right. Listen, God never says, ‘Oops.’ It’s what I believe. Just keep going. Just keep going, man. Don’t ever quit. I don’t ever quit, I just keep going. I love what I do. Love who I do it with. But my peace comes from knowing that God’s on the throne. That’s where my peace comes from, and no football game can change that. So I don’t care what happens.”
Swinney has long strived to be genuine and authentic, and he makes it well known to recruits and their families that’s he’s a Christian. He lets them know his job is to coach football, but his purpose is to glorify God.
“My purpose as a man is to glorify God in all that I do,” he said on the Sports Spectrum Podcast in August 2025, “to be a great husband and father, and then to use this platform of football and education to build great men, to build transformational leaders. That’s my purpose in life.”
Swinney and Clemson continue ACC play at Cal on Saturday, with kickoff set for 10:30 p.m. ET
Carolina Hurricanes forward Logan Stankoven in the Stanley Cup Final, June 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Karl DeBlaker)
“Be very careful, then, how you live — not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.” — Ephesians 5:15-16
The final minutes of a game are when composure matters most. You’ve got the lead, the clock is winding down, and every decision feels heavier. Push too hard and you risk a turnover. Hold too long and you let momentum slip. Managing the clock isn’t just about protecting a lead — it’s about knowing when to act, when to wait, and when to trust your teammates.
The best players are able to stay aware of the circumstances and finish strong. They make intentional choices with every shift, knowing how to control the pace and make the time they have count.
In the same way, the apostle Paul was calling attention to the importance of living with intention in Ephesians 5:15-16: “Be very careful, then, how you live — not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.” Life doesn’t give extra time or redo opportunities, so each moment matters. The decisions you make, the way you spend your energy, and the priorities you set shape your life. They also impact your growth, influence and legacy. Wisdom isn’t just speed or effort; it’s intentionality.
So be careful how you live and manage the clock well. Be intentional both on the ice and in your walk with God. Play the periods you’ve been given with focus. Finish strong, and make every second count.
— Sam Gonzalez, Hockey Ministries International chaplain
From left: Dodgers players Tommy Edman, Mookie Betts, Blake Treinen, Justin Wrobleski, Evan Phillips and Alex Call at Faith Day, Sept. 20, 2026. (Photo via Instagram/@acad_8)
The Los Angeles Dodgers have already clinched their fifth straight National League Division championship and now have their sights set on October, where they hope to become just the third franchise to win three consecutive World Series titles. There’s loads of talent up and down the roster, and there’s also a strong core of believers who are vocal about their faith in God.
Six players — utility man Tommy Edman, star outfielder Mookie Betts, reliever Blake Treinen, starting pitcher Justin Wrobleski, reliever Evan Phillips and outfielder Alex Call — joined team chaplain Brandon Cash for Faith and Family Day on Sunday, where they shared their testimonies and how their faith guides them as professional baseball players. It’s an annual event many teams hold, like the Cleveland Guardians and Pittsburgh Pirates.
All six are regular attendees of team chapels and seen as leaders in the clubhouse as much as they are on the field. Call, for example, was traded from the Washington Nationals to L.A. at the trade deadline last season. Cash said he was excited because he heard Call was the spiritual leader in the Washington clubhouse, and he’s since carried that over to the Dodgers.
His testimony mirrored many of his teammates’ in a lot of ways in that he grew up in church with parents who modeled what it looked like to have a strong faith. Like a lot of believers, once he was on his own in college and then as a professional player, he had to decide if his faith was his own or just something he believed because his parents did.
“That’s where it kind of became real for me,” Call said. “I went from, ‘Yeah, I don’t do this or this because I’m a Christian’ to ‘God calls us all to be disciple makers. He calls us all to love and to be a blessing.’ That’s where I turned it up a notch and try not to be ashamed of the Gospel or anything else — just glorify Jesus in my daily life and on the field.”
Wrobleski had a similar upbringing thanks to a mother who set an example and raised him in the faith.
“It’s been a journey for me,” he said. “I’d be lying if I didn’t say there were ups and downs with my faith and God trying to show me things and get me back to where I need to be. Every time I feel like I’ve been down in my life or I feel like things aren’t going the way that I want, it’s just God showing me I need to get back to the Word and pray.”
A first-time All-Star this year, Wrobleski has been a pleasant surprise for the Dodgers and a mainstay in the rotation, making 22 starts with a 3.70 ERA. The Dodgers could use him either in the rotation or as a long reliever in the postseason like last year.
He shared that a verse that’s stuck with him lately is Romans 12:12, which says, “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.”
“That’s something I’m trying to live out right now,” he said. “It’s a journey. Knowing Jesus obviously gives you that peace when you’re out there. For me, it’s big before the game. It’s a super big blessing to pitch for the Dodgers, but there’s a lot of pressure that comes with it. Just knowing that the results aren’t always what matters; it’s just giving your performance to the Lord, good or bad, and that’s kind of been something I’m trying to do this year.”
That pressure is felt by all the players. They know the expectations that come with playing in L.A. They know their team is loaded with talent and high-priced players.
Edman — who shared that his faith grew substantially when he was in college at Stanford thanks to faith mentors and involvement in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes — said he handles the scrutiny of playing pro baseball by remembering that his identity is in Christ.
“As a baseball player, one of the big struggles that we have is our identity being tied up in our performance on the field or being just a baseball player,” Edman said. “Baseball is such a crazy long season and a rollercoaster of emotions that you can go up and down like crazy.
“I have my identity rooted in my role as a son of God and a follower of Jesus Christ. I always have that in my foundation. Not to say that helps me perform on the field, but it definitely allows me to have that inner peace regardless of how I’ve done on the baseball field.”
Each player has a different background that led them to where they are personally and professionally, and that’s something that makes the chapel dynamic unique, Cash said. For example, Betts didn’t really grow up in the church like some of his teammates did. He spent most of his weekends playing baseball, and going to church just wasn’t much of a priority.
“As I got a little older playing ball, I kind of wanted the sense of purpose, because ball is just an avenue to show what God has given me and given all of us,” said Betts, an eight-time All-Star. “Once I wanted to learn my purpose, I think going to chapel, getting to know Cash, getting to know these guys has really changed my life completely. These are literally like my brothers. Obviously we’ve grown playing baseball and winning together, but I think we’ve grown the most in our Bible studies and our chapels on Sundays.”
He said he just read through 1 and 2 Kings, where he read about King Soloman and how he was wise and felt on top of the world. Betts saw some similarities to pro baseball.
“When you’re on top of the world and everything’s going great, but you lose what’s important, which is God, you kind of lose everything,” he said. “No matter how good or bad I do, I make sure to give glory to God and I make sure that every day I pray and give glory to Him because everything we have here is for Him.”
Treinen, who’s now in his seventh season with the Dodgers, shared that he sort of begrudgingly attended church growing up. His mother was a member of the worship team, which meant he often spent all morning and part of the afternoon at church when he would’ve rather been home watching football.
“As I’ve gotten older, I’ve greatly appreciated the stubbornness and consistency that my mom put in my life for me and my brother to take us to church on Sunday,” he said. “It was a lot as a kid, but it built a structure of faith and a standard of worship in life.”
He recalled a moment at a youth conference at the University of Tennessee where he said he “felt the tangible presence of the Holy Spirit just rock me and put me in my seat.” He recounted how Christians should always be able to give an answer for the hope they have in Jesus, and that experience is what he goes back to when explaining where he first believed.
“We all have the right to believe what we want,” he said. “But when you see the truth and the facts and the tangible hand of God in your life, it separates just wanting to be a good person and knowing Jesus is real, to ‘this is absolute.’ I’ve experienced the presence of the Father and I will forever with my life.”
