True Competitor: A 10-Day Devotional for Athletes, Coaches & ParentsSample

Margin Of Victory

WisdomWalks Principle
As margin increases, victory becomes sure.

Michael Phelps, in hot pursuit of an earth-shattering eight Olympic Gold Medals at the 2008 Beijing games, finishes his flip-turn in the 100m butterfly in 7th place and trailing by almost a full body length. Surely, this deficit was insurmountable. Incredibly, Michael was able to close the gap, literally winning by the tip of his finger. When the times posted on the giant scoreboard, everyone was stunned. Even the underwater replays seemed to defy logic.

The margin of victory is the difference between winning and losing. It’s the difference between what we have and what we need. When margin decreases, stress increases. When margin increases, stress decreases. When you consider the demands of school, sports, training, work, and family, it seems like life is pulling apart at the seams. God wants us to have a positive margin, not negative.

There are two key areas where we need to protect a positive margin of victory: our time and our morals. In many ways, it seems like the way we are doing life looks a lot like how everybody else is doing life. We are just as busy as everybody else. We are just as exhausted and over-committed as everybody else. And we’re getting just as close to sin as everybody else is also. “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world.” – Romans 12:2

Time Margin is the difference between the time we have and the time we need. We are so busy today that the vast majority of kids even feel stressed out by the pressures of their schedules. We are addicted to busy. When the alarm goes off, we hit the ground running. When we have no time margin, the first thing to go is almost always our time with God. We have to learn to say no to some good things in order to make time for the best things.

Moral Margin is the distance between doing the right thing and doing the wrong thing. So many of us try to see how close we can get to sin without crossing the line. We keep the competition (our enemy) in the game and even give him a shot to win! But God wants us to keep our distance from temptation. When Joseph found himself in a compromising situation with Potiphar’s wife, he fled. But when David looked on Bathsheba’s beauty, he crossed the line of sin and eliminated his margin of victory, leaving a wake of destruction behind. Our goal with temptations is to create a significant margin of victory – to blow out our opponent.

When we have a very narrow “margin of victory” with our time and morals, we are at risk for burnout or breakdown. As we increase our time and moral margin, we are far less likely to compromise and we will have more energy and enthusiasm for the field and life. So increase your margin. If you do, victory becomes sure.

WisdomWalks SPORTS, Ellie Claire (Nashville, TN), pages 135-138.