My Hill...

Last night I was watching SportsCenter, while I washed the dishes, and I saw an inspiring story. It was a story about the workout regimen of Ladainian Tomlinson. Now, this guy is an incredible running back with a lot of natural talent, but he also works out a ton. During the story they focused on one aspect of his training regimen – the hill. In his backyard LT has a short, steep, sandy hill that he runs up over and over and over and over again during the off-season. He goes up it forwards, backwards, he jumps up it. It was pretty impressive and pretty similar to the workout routine of Walter Peyton back in the 1980’s.

During the interview, Emmitt Smith asked LT this question, “To me that hill is a Ray Lewis, the toughest defense you have to face every year, what does that hill mean to you? Here is what LT said, “that hill is a beast, it can wear you out, make you quit, that hill is 2,000 yards, the touchdown record, a super bowl championship.

To LT that hill represents his biggest challenge, AND his biggest reward!

Watching this video made me ask the question: What’s my hill? What’s my biggest challenge? What’s the thing that scares me the most? What’s the biggest obstacle in my life?

This weekend I’m facing my biggest hill, my biggest challenge. To be honest, one of the things that scares me the most is speaking in public, yet I get the awesome privilege of doing it for a living. Every week I get the wonderful opportunity to talk with teenagers and adults about the great love that God has for them in Jesus. And every week I get nervous, sometimes frightened, before I speak. Thoughts go through my head like…

What if I don’t make sense?
What if people are disappointed?
What if my talk bombs big time?
What if I totally forget what I want to say?

When I get up to speak in public I get flashbacks from 6th and 10th grade. During both of those school years I had to give a speach, and both times I was so nervous. I remember sweating really bad, and almost fainting as I gave those speeches – no lie. It was a mess.

And now, I get to do it all the time. Isn’t God funny? So, this weekend I get to face my biggest hill again, my biggest challenge, and I’m looking forward to it. Why? Because when I’m facing my biggest challenge that is when I feel the most alive.

By the way, here’s the segment on LT…