The End of the Season — Session 2: Who You Became in It

Last week we looked at what the season was.

This week I want to ask a different question. Not what the season produced on the scoreboard — you already know that. What did the season produce in you? Who are you now that you weren’t before it started?

Because seasons form people. The record tells you one thing. The formation tells you something more durable.

Read this passage slowly.

Let that sit for a second before you move.

Being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory. The transformation described in 2 Corinthians 3 is not contingent on the circumstances being favorable. It happens in the contemplation — in the looking toward something worth becoming — and the Spirit is the agent of it. The season is the context, not the cause.

What did this season demand of you that you hadn’t been asked for before? The answer to that question is usually where the formation is. The injury that required patience you didn’t know you had. The losing streak that required staying engaged when disengagement would have been easier. The role change that required humility. The teammate conflict that required a kind of courage you weren’t sure you had.

The record doesn’t capture any of that. And the record will matter less over time than the person the season built. The athlete who had a successful season and learned nothing from it is in a more fragile position than the one who had a hard season and came out of it with something the record doesn’t show.

What did this season build in you? Name it specifically. That is what you carry forward when the scoreboard is forgotten.

Specific and personal. The most honest answers are often the most surprising. Let them land without commentary.