Love isn't out of reach

Today I was at a soccer camp where the goal is to raise expectations of ourselves and the coach finally gave one of his last pump up speeches of the camp. He said for some reason the bar is just set so low now and coaches tell us never to expect us to anywhere with our soccer careers.

With such a low bar set for the players and idea that stuck in their heads that it's impossible to make a living out of it, young players these days just don't want to work at it. They believe it's not worth it, despite their love for the game.

That's when he made the best point, it relates straight back to the idea Francis Chan had of swimming upstream. He told us there is no staying the same, we either get worse or get better, and obviously without working at it we will get worse.

His goal was to raise the bar of expectations so we would believe in ourselves. It's amazing how the level of play for everyone, especially I noticed in my game, increased in just this one week camp. If we just set the bar higher for ourselves, subconsciously we work to meet that bar.

Now think about our lives as young Christians. Many parents just don't expect their kid to be a good person. Almost all parents convince their kids that it's impossible to live our lives for Christ.

Once again, with a bar set so low and the idea that we can't totally live our lives for Christ, young Christians just don't want to make an effort to have a relationship with God. They believe there's no point to it. Therefore, if we don't work at it, there's no staying the same, and the typical young Christian goes backwards. Usually so back that the ideas of a "relationship" with God or loving others unconditionally are incomprehensible.

I believe that love and soccer are similar in so many ways in that way. I believe that if we start by raising the bars for ourselves and expecting the best from others, we will in turn get the best from everyone.

Remember, we our all made in the image of God. We are all made to love. All we have to do is set the bar higher for ourselves because we are all capable. Make the choice, expect the best person you can be with God and you will be that person.