Joel Osteen - Stay in the Game: No Adversity Is Too Great for You

My friend Dale Brown, the legendary coach of the LSU basketball team, told me about the time he was speaking to a group of soldiers at a military base in California. When he finished, a young man came up to him who stood nearly seven feet tall and weighed 250 pounds.

Coach Brown, the young man said, I want to try out for our basketball team, but I cant dunk the basketball. I can barely jump. When I run up and down the court, my legs tire out so quickly that I can only play a few minutes.

How long have you been in the military, son? Coach Brown asked him, gazing up at him, then down at his size-seventeen shoes.

Im not in the military, Coach. My father is. Im thirteen years old.

Coach Brown immediately decided to take this young man under his wing. He said, When I get back to Louisiana, Im going to send you my training program. It will help strengthen your legs and increase your endurance.

Three months later, he got a letter from the young man saying, Coach Brown, Ive done everything youve asked me to do, spent hours in the gym and in the weight room working out. But my basketball coach just cut me from the team. He told me that Im too big, too slow, too clumsy, that Ill never be able to play basketball. Nothing but negative labels were stuck to him.

Coach Brown wrote him back and said in effect, Son, if you just stay in the game, keep working out, keep being your best each day, and keep asking God to help you, He will get you to where youre supposed to be.

That young man had to make a decision. Am I going to wear these negative labels throughout my life? Too big. Too slow. Too clumsy. Or am I going to follow the dream that God has placed in my heart? Am I going to think better and live better? Am I going to believe Im a giant killer and I can do all things through Christ? He decided to remove the negative labels and stay in the game.

That young man, Shaquille ONeal, ended up going to LSU and playing college basketball for Coach Brown, where he broke all the records and became one of the greatest basketball players who ever played the game. Today there is a bronze statue of Shaquillethe clumsy kid who could barely jumpdunking the basketball in front of the LSU Tigers basketball practice facility. I wonder where he would be now if he had believed the negative labels, if he had thought, My coach is right. I guess I am too big, too slow, too clumsy. We wouldnt be talking about his nineteen-year NBA Hall of Fame career today.

Perhaps you feel like Shaquille did. Youve been told what you cant do, what you dont have, how youll never be good enough. Its easy to get discouraged, throw in the towel, and give up. But nothing that was spoken over you has to define you, and nothing thats happened in your past has to keep you from your destiny. God has designed you specifically for the race that youre in. He is saying to shake off the discouragement, stay in the game, and move forward with your life.

As you read these pages, Ill help you put on a new attitude and get back in the game. Keep fighting the good fight of faith, and one day soon you wont just be in the game, but youll be living the life of victory that you didnt think was possible.