Adversity & Setbacks
You are in two places at once.
Part of you is here, in practice, in the building, doing the work the season requires. And part of you is wherever your family is right now, in whatever is happening that you cannot control and cannot fix from here. That divided attention is exhausting in a way that no physical training load produces, because it does not respond to rest.
Read this passage slowly.
Trust in him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.
Psalm 62:8 — NIVLet that sit for a second before you move.
Pour out your hearts to him. The invitation is specific: not manage the feelings, not perform composure, not find a way to function despite the weight. Pour it out. The pouring is the relief — not because the situation changes, but because the weight is no longer being carried entirely alone.
The athlete trying to compete while carrying significant family distress faces a specific psychological challenge. The cognitive and emotional resources that competition requires are being drawn on by two different urgent demands simultaneously. You cannot simply turn off the awareness of what is happening at home. And you cannot simply perform at your competitive best while carrying it unacknowledged.
Here is what is actually available to you: the permission to be honest about what you are carrying with someone you trust in this program — a coach, a chaplain, a teammate — so that you are not carrying it entirely alone in the competitive environment. That honesty does not solve the family situation. It reduces the isolation of carrying it, which frees some of the cognitive resource that isolation was consuming.
You are allowed to be in two places at once. You do not have to pretend that one of those places doesn’t exist. Tell someone. Pour it out. The refuge is available.
The isolation of carrying family distress alone in a competitive environment consumes cognitive resources. Telling someone does not solve the situation. It reduces the isolation. That matters.
Is there one person in this program you trust enough to tell what is actually happening at home right now? Have you told them?
Simple and direct. If the answer is no, follow up individually to provide that trusted relationship.
Tell someone. Pour it out. You do not have to carry this entirely alone.
This devotional is most effective one-on-one. Full-team delivery risks exposing a specific athlete’s situation in a way that feels invasive rather than supportive.