A Christmas Wish- Your Very Best

Today marks a huge milestone in the annals of sports. The UConn ladies basketball team does something that has never been done before. With todays win they have forever put their names in the history books as being the all-time consecutive wins leader in any sport. The last team to do such a feet was the UCLA Bruins Men's basketball team. Their feat accomplished many decades before.
The UConn team in and of itself isn't the real story. The real story is in the pageantry of sport and the determination of athletes of all stripes to achieve a goal. That is the real story. Many of you may have seen the movie "Facing the Giants". In this independent movie, produced by a local area church, the coach of a hapless group of students is trying to do something that had never been accomplished in their schools history. Their goal was to win.
The coach had to wrestle with the mentality of a group of people that was used to loosing. They knew  that they were losers and no one was going to sway their own opinion of themselves. Now if that aint a tough nut to crack, I don't know what is. Sometimes it is so hard to get people to believe in your dream. That's hard enough. Not everyone is going to believe in your dream. As a matter of fact, most people won't.
It was said that when MicroSoft was being founded that Bill Gates assembled a large handful of people in his garage and told them that one day there company was going to dominate the software jungle, 2/3rds of the people assembled walked out of that meeting. The rest as they say is history.
So most people won't embrace your dreams but that obstacle pales in comparison to the monumental wall that is erected by the unbelief of one towards their ownselves. This is the problem that the coach in our story was battling.
He, the coach assembled the team for a practice and was discussing the strategy for their game against another school. This game was going to be tough but the coach believed that his team could win. This was not the case for one of his leaders on the team, we'll call him Jake. Jake laid back on the grassy field and challenged the encouragement of the coach and said that he didn't believe that the team could do it. The next 5 minutes of this movie, "Facing the Giants" will forever go down in history, as one of the greatest dramatic moments in movie history.
The coach told Jake that he would prove to him and the rest  of the team that they had more in them than they ever could imagine. He challenged Jake to do an exercise that would prove his point. The manuever was called the "Deadmans carry". One man would walk on all fore's while carrying another man on his back. Jake happily said that he would do the feat at least 20 yards. The coach challenged him and said that he could go at least 30, but no matter the length, Jake would have to promise that he would give the very best effort that he could and not give up. To make things even more interesting, Jake would carry is load blindfolded.
As the exercise started, the coach calmly encouraged his team leader to keep going. Jake would ask from time to time, "How far have we gone so far, coach?" "Don't you worry about that, said the coach. You just give me your very best, you very best."
10 yards, 20 and then 30 yards passed. Jake was starting to show the signs of a man who was discouraged. "It's starting to hurt coach". Don't you stop Jake, you promised me that you would give me your very best. Now give me your best, your very best!!! Another 10, 20, and now 30 yards passed by. Jake started to cry out in pain. "I can't go any further, It HURTS, IT BURNS!!!" "Give me you BEST, Jake you promised me that you wouldn't quit, NOW GO."
At this point, the other team members started to take notice that Jake was really laboring and more than that he was going further than even they expected a man could go. As the coach, who now was screaming at the top of his lungs, slammed the ground in demanding the very last bit of strength that Jake had in him continued on. Jake strained and stretched to muster his very best for his coach and for his promise.
Finally, he could go no further. Jake collapsed in sheer exhaustion. The coach said, "Take off your blindfold Jake, you've just carried a 150lb man on your back over 100yards". "Don't you ever tell me you can't do anything. You've just got to believe in yourself and believe that God is able to give you the strength to accomplish the task."
This story above all illustrates that with man all things are impossible. Whether is be to invent the cure for some dreaded disease or solve some age old problem, like running the mile in under 4minutes. But with God all things are possible. Is there some dream that you have feared starting because you've felt that you are wholly inadequate for the task? Well let me encourage you, The only goal that is not achieved is the one that is not pursued" Pursue your dreams friends, pursue it with the determination of one who wants to give their best, their very best and see what kind of results you get. Like Jake, you may achieve exceedingly abundantly more than you could ask for or even imagine.