I think the rest of the Crossfit athlete and coaching world can reside with the reality that anxiety and nervous energy often is a part of Open workout release day. Added to that anxiety is that currently Connor Felstead sits on the Junior Pan Am team but with a last minute qualifier happening in San Francisco this weekend we are hoping that he stays on the team.
In some ways the nerves I feel toward my athletes and the anxiety I get surrounding big events I know is because I care for their success. However, when I was in college I read a book from Francis Chan titled Crazy Love. In that book, Chan makes the point that often our worry and our stress displays a lack of trust in the sovereignty and goodness of God.
I read verses like these:
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.n“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” (Matthew 6:25-34, ESV)
n”Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7, ESV)
“Be strong, and let us use our strength for our people and for the cities of our God, and may the Lord do what seems good to him.” (1 Chronicles 19:13, ESV)
I can pull three ideas from Scripture that apply to this anxiety. First, my anxiety is often a lack of ability to really rest in the the sovereign will of God and trust His works and plans to be better than mine. Second, my guys have worked hard. They have done all they can and completed everything necessary to put them in the place they are now. Nothing more could be done. So, as long as I do my job to the best of my ability as a coach, the work has been done and the results will show that work. Thirdly, it’s good to be concerned with the well-being of my athletes. One of the biggest part of coaching for me is a personal investment in their lives and the success of their athletic career. That concern for their success however cannot lead to anxiety or stress or worry. Concern is an emotion tied to personal investment in my athletes. Anxiety is an emotion tied to a lack of trust in the Lord and the work already performed by my athletes.