I did not eat Wheaties for breakfast. That is breakfast OF champions.
Instead, I shared breakfast WITH champions yesterday morning. I shared coffee cake and baked eggs and orange juice with seven other men and women who spend the months of September through March coaching children’s Bible quiz teams in our churches. We met together for a couple of hours to share ideas and experiences and to think about the upcoming quiz season.
It was rich.
I love coaching quizzing. I love getting to work toward a goal with the same kids week after week, focusing on something that matters to all of us. I love the funny stuff that happens, the “aha!” moments, the victories, and the challenges of defeat.
But most of all I love to think about the outcome in these kids’ lives.
In our denomination, I am constantly amazed to learn how many of the leaders among us–pastors, teachers, lay leaders, missionaries–have Bible quizzing somewhere in their background. The Bible, God’s Word to those who follow Him–the map for life He gives them–is unlike any other book. Because it is spirit-breathed (inspired by God, who is spirit), it has power to shape and change those who read it. Other books can do that, but in them the power is in the words, not in the person who wrote it. The Author of the Bible is the true life-giver, the Creator God of the universe who is unlimited in power. That is why those who devote themselves to learning what that Word says will be changed–it is impossible for that not to happen. And that makes a person who is ready to be sent on a mission.
So, yes, I had breakfast with champions Saturday. They are winners in the race because the outcome of their faithfulness to their calling is sure. And, come September, I will be spending every Wednesday night in the company of champions too–those kids who may or may not win medals or trophies for their achievements on the quiz bench but who will all, inasmuch as they have immersed themselves in God’s Word, come to possess trophies of the heart.
