Crisp = Sharp

When you look at athletes that are the best, they are sharp.  I’m not referring to the way they dress, although looking the part is important.  A wide receiver or running back must make crisp cuts when running a route or hitting the hole. A soccer player needs to make crisp cuts when passing or dribbling. Basketball players must make quick, crisp cuts when running plays or making moves to the hoop.

The word “crisp” has been defined as “notably sharp and clean-cut.” Being sharp is the same as being crisp. If a football, soccer or basketball player makes slow, sloppy actions on the playing field or court, they decrease their chances of being successful.

In officiating, we must stay sharp.  If we decide to be “sloppy” one play, that could be the one play from the whole game that demands our full attention.  Staying sharp and focused increases our chances of being successful.

In the Book of Hebrews, God’s Word is described as living and powerful and sharper than a two-edged sword……..

“For the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating as far as to divide soul, spirit, joints, and marrow; it is a judge of the ideas and thoughts of the heart.” - Hebrews 4:12

In the Christian life, God’s Word keeps us sharp.  The key is we have to apply it and put it into action.  To make the most impact on the people around us, we don’t take short-cuts in what God’s Word tells us.  Just as in Hebrews 4: 12 says, the Bible gives us instruction that is sharper than a two-edged sword.  God’s Word penetrates our hearts and minds to keep us sharp.

Whether we are talking about our family life, our job, our spiritual life, or our officiating, stay sharp, stay crisp. Why?  So that we can increase our effectiveness and our success!

“It takes energy, mental toughness and spiritual reinforcement to successfully deal with life’s opportunities, and to reach your objectives.” ―Zig Ziglar

Credit given to…http://fcaresources.com/search/site?retain-filters=1&f%5B0%5D=type%3Adevotional

Sustain

Definition: endure without giving way or yielding.

When thinking about the meaning of Sustain, I really thought of it as “status quo”.  But, when you look at the definition, it’s really progressing forward without giving up or falling back under pressure.

Over the past few weeks, we have looked into the life of people going through Navy Seal training.  How important do you think it is for a Navy Seal to press forward without giving up or not to fall back under pressure?

What does it take to sustain…..

--Preparation

--Support

--Meditation

Preparation is key and proper preparation is vital to sustain.  Support from our crew, family, and friends sustains us through good and bad times. What do we meditate on…those things we have done to get us to where we are today.  It may be positive things or those struggles we had.  The focus should be on how we learned and adjusted to get better.  In the case of David, he faced many trials and threats, but his focus was on how the Lord sustained him.

1 Samuel 17:37:  And David said, “The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” And Saul said to David, “Go, and may the Lord be with you.”

David faced many trials, but he was sustained through them by the power of the Lord.  In 1 Samuel 17:37, David reflects/meditates on being delivered from the Lion’s Den and certain death.  This gives him confidence to face Goliath.

In officiating, how we transition/move on week to week is critical to our individual and crew performance.  Our preparation, support from crewmates, and mediation on past performance can help to sustain us week to week.  We don’t give in or yield to what we’ve done right or what we’ve done wrong.  We move forward without giving in to pressure.  We must never stop working at what we love to do………

“Confidence is the most important single factor in this game, and no matter how great your natural talent, there is only one way to obtain and sustain it: work.”  Jack Nicklaus

What did I do Wrong?

Sugar cookie—one of my favorite cookies.  But in Navy Seal training, being a Sugar Cookie was not something you wanted.  During physical training, the trainees would run up and down sand dunes, across the beach, and swim through the ocean.  If the Seal instructor gave you “The Look”, you were being punished and had to turn yourself into a Sugar Cookie.  This meant as soon as you came out of the water, you rolled around in the sand until you were totally covered in sand.  Then, you had to walk around like that the rest of the day with sand all over you.

As explained by Admiral William McRaven in his book “Make Your Bed”, this punishment was one of the toughest in all of training.  Not because of how uncomfortable it was to walk around with sand all over your body, but because you never knew “why” you were punished.  Even though a trainee thought he was at the top of his game, being a “Sugar Cookie” was a test of patience and determination.

As officials, we can often go through a game and think highly of our individual and crew performance.  But observers, graders, supervisors, other officials, administrators and coaches may have other “not so good” thoughts about our performance.  We may not receive a “great job”, “good call”, or “good position”.  We may only receive feedback that focuses on what we did wrong or what we need to improve on.

 

James 1:2-4

2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Being a “Sugar Cookie” was hard to accept in Navy Seal training because most often, the trainee never knew or did anything wrong to be punished.  In officiating, we can often get frustrated when we are “nitpicked” on the things we did not do as well when it really had no impact on the game.

As James explains in the verses above, take the trials--things that are pointed out wrong in our performance--and let them make us more mature and stronger officials.

Don’t complain, Don’t blame, just improve your game!

Start with Something—and Do It Right

Make your bed!  One thing I disliked doing as a kid.  It was simple and quick, but I did not like doing it.  In his book “Make Your Bed”, Admiral William H. McRaven stated the first task of the day in Navy Seal training was to make your bed.  Now, making his bed as a Navy Seal was a lot different than the way I made my bed as a kid and even today.  In Navy Seal training, there was a standard to making your bed and any deviation from the exact requirements resulted in “punishment”.

Admiral McRaven explained that making his bed was the one constant task he could count on completing each day.  The rest of the day could be filled with accomplishments, disappointments, failures, set-backs etc. But, when he came back to the barracks, he could atleast see he accomplished one thing—making his bed.

During games, we have ups and downs.  If we feel something did not go right--we missed a call, and/or our focus is not where it needs to be--we need to find one thing that we can count on to do right every play.  When we feel ourselves losing focus, decide for yourself what one simple thing you can accomplish every play to get your focus back.  For me, it is counting players.  When I find myself thinking about a previous play/call, I focus on counting to get myself back on the task/play at hand.

Proverbs 4:25 

²⁵ Let your eyes look directly forward,
    and your gaze be straight before you.

This Proverb tells us "To look right on" and "to look straight before one".  We need to fix our eyes/thoughts steadily (without swerving) upon the task before us. Don’t allow our “gaze” to deflect either to the right hand or to the left—focus on what’s ahead of us during the game.

Start with something simple and do it right!