The Sins of Others

There is an old saying, “you don’t get to heaven off the sins of others”, meaning, simply because other people are sinning worse than you, doesn’t make you worthy of heaven. This concept came up a lot during my football career. There were times when I was with an NFL team, competing with other players for a spot on the roster, and I found myself focusing on what my “competition” was doing, and not what I was doing. If they played well, that was bad for me, I thought. And if they played poorly, that was good for me. In those moments, I erroneously believed that the competition was between me and the other guy, but that’s not how it works in the NFL, or in any sports competition. Making an NFL roster is not a matter of proving that you are better than the next guy, it is proving that you are worthy of a spot on the team regardless of what the other guy is doing. Every moment I spent focusing on my “competition”, was less time that I was looking at myself, trying to improve myself, trying to make myself worthy of the spot on the roster. So, the competition was not with the other player, the competition was with yourself.