A Full Tank

What will fill our kids up? What will bring enduring joy? Dan Gable and his family built their lives around wrestling—in both his biological and his marital family. Their dedication paid off extraordinarily. Gable’s legendary accomplishments included: 64-0 in high school, 118-1 in college, an Olympic gold medal (without surrendering a point), 15 national titles in 21 seasons as the University of Iowa coach.

Initially, Dan’s wrestling was a refuge for his family after the rape and murder of his older sister. When it looked to him like his family might crumble after her tragic death, he rallied his parents around him and his high school wrestling.

 

Wrestling continued to be his sanctuary at University of Iowa, as an athlete and later as coach. The Iowa wrestling room (which he designed) was His spiritual home. It was like a confessional, a place where pain could be traded for absolution.

But wrestling couldn’t absolve his pain. Even with all of his success, Gable lives with wounds from his sister’s murder, wounds from his one loss, wounds from a recent IOC ruling to cut wrestling from the Olympics, wounds from the losses of his wrestlers. Andy Hamilton of the Des Moines Register claimed that “Gable quit coaching, in large part, because he could no longer stomach seeing wrestlers he cared about lose.“

 
Wouldn’t it be great if your child was the MVP of his league? or your state’s high school athlete of the year? or an NCAA champion? or the best golfer in the whole world? Sure, those would be fantastic accomplishments. But they have little to do with living a joyful, filled-to-the-brim life. Gable retired from his prolific career “to save his life.” Wrestling could not be his savior.

Each of us has a God-shaped hole that only God can fill. Trying to fill that vacuum with anything else is like trying to fill the Grand Canyon one marble at a time. We need to teach our child athletes that pursuing God is the only pursuit that will fill their tanks: Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well.

 

(**The quotes above come mostly from the excellent ESPN article (http://espn.go.com/espn/feature/story/_/page/Dan-Gable/the-losses-dan-gable) by Wright Thompson.)