Draft Day

This year, I was invited to join a Fantasy Football league. Why I agreed to participate is still beyond me. Do I like football? Yes. Do I know how the game works? Yes. Do I know Peyton Manning’s total passing yards in the 2013 season off the top of my head? No. Not even close. I know how much a pair of Jimmy Choos cost, not how many touchdowns Dez Bryant scored in preseason.

And let me tell you, the people that sign up for these fantasy leagues do. The night of the draft I sat by my computer picking my team. I made sure I got my Packers, Aaron Rodgers and Eddie Lacy, (unfortunately Jordy was taken too quick) and then basically just picked players whose names I recognized/looked good on paper. I called us “Lacy and the Tramps,” (Pun off Lady and the Tramp) and nothing was going to stop us with Rodgers at QB.

Well here’s the thing, fantasy teams take work. You actually have to watch the games to see how your players are doing. You have to stay updated with injuries. Suspensions. Trades. Bye weeks. It’s the real deal. And the first month or so, I did. I was into it. I dropped players, picked up new players, switched up my bench, and watched more NFL games than I probably ever have. But after that month, things went downhill for Lacy and the Tramps. My starting lineup was usually half bye-week or injured players. Stats were neglected. And I probably wouldn’t have been able to tell you if I won or lost that week. I had given up. The excitement slowly faded and my team suffered. We made it to playoffs, but the 6th place overall finish wasn’t too much to brag about in a league of ten.

Okay Rachael, we get you’re not meant for fantasy football… so what?
Here’s the point. It’s 2015. A brand new year. And every year we all have our list of New Year’s resolutions.
“I’ll go to church more”
“I’ll spend more time with my family”
“I’ll workout”
“I’ll read my Bible more”
And then a month in, the same thing that happened to my fantasy football league happens to us. We lose our excitement and we give up.

As Christians, goals are a necessity. If we don’t decide how we want to grow in Christ, we will end up letting other people decide for us. And ultimately end up right where we started the year. Goals are statements of faith. The bigger the goal, the more faith required to follow through.

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.” Ephesians 3:20

But how do we keep these goals? How to we prevent a 6th place finish? Proverbs 16:9 says it best,

“We plan the way we want to live, but only GOD makes us able to live it.”

We can plan out a list of goals for the New Year, but without God, the transformation is impossible. Rick Warren states, "It's not based on willpower, it's based on God's power. It's not based on trying, it's based on trusting." 

Trust that God will hep you stay faithful to your goals in 2015. Trust that He will build your character in the process. And trust that the goals He has placed on your heart will cause you to trust Him more, depend on Him more, love Him more, and love others more. 

Meanwhile, I’ll resolve to avoid Fantasy Football leagues. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Meet Me Under the Mistletoe.

Image
Christmas is officially here. The season where families are reunited. Friends are gathered together. And Santa’s Elves on Shelves are hard at work keeping kids in check.  But Christmas is also a season that digs up our secret hurts. The couple whose marriage was broken will spend their first Christmas apart. The parents who lost their newborn baby will carefully tuck away the “Baby’s first Christmas” ornament. And the child in an orphanage will only read of Christmas through books.  The truth is, Christmas can hurt.  And recently I have struggled with this.  Struggled with seeing all my friends post their Christmas dates or family Christmas pictures and wondering when my time is. Wondering why I don’t have that.  Yes I am only 23. Yes this past year I went half way across the world on a mission trip to the Philippines that changed my life. Yes I started my own company all by myself this past fall. And yes I am blessed with an amazing family whose parents have been mar
Read more

Just Keep Swimming

Image
“Go Lawrence, go!” we yelled from our wooden raft docked in the lake. My little brother has been trying to learn how to swim and somehow always manages to sink to the bottom. Yesterday, he dove under the water and swam all the way from the safety of the shore to our raft in the middle of the lake. As I watched him struggle to stay afloat, arms flailing side to side, I thought about how scared he must have been at that moment. His little legs could no longer reach the safety of the sand under his toes. His lungs gasping for as much air as possible. Each stroke was moving him closer and closer to the safety of the raft. As we were yelling for Lawrence to “just swim” to us. I thought back on how much courage that must have taken him. It seems like such an easy task to most of us, but learning how to swim is probably one of the scariest development challenges. Lawrence had to not only trust in his abilities, but he also had to trust that his family waiting for him on the raft would
Read more

Overcomer.

Image
Happy Resurrection Day! It is crazy to think how fast time is flying. It feels like it was just yesterday I was sitting in freshman orientation, and now here I am, three weeks away from calling myself a Texas A&M GRADUATE . To start off, I want to thank all of you who have taken the time to read my blog. I was overwhelmed last month by the amount of support I received from family, friends, and even strangers. Your messages and comments have meant more to me than you’ll ever know. To top it off, my blog reached 4,000 views and the numbers keep climbing! This past month I have seen God work in ways I never thought possible. During one of the hardest times of my life, I chose to let God get between me and my storm. I chose to keep holding His hand through each day and trusting His plan. As much as I would like to say He took the storm away, He didn’t. But He did use the storm to change me. And He used the storm for my testimony. Today is Easter. The cross is a symbol o
Read more