While the offseason can mean many things for professional athletes the most integral part of this time is to capitalize on the opportunity to find rest. With the Major League Soccer season beginning preseason preparations in February and the championship game being held in mid-December, there is little true rest to be had for the players and their families who endure such a lengthy season. Even the offseason, with its time away from the game presents many different opportunities that get in the way of taking that rest.
For some players, they can spend several weeks overseas training with other clubs. Others will be invited into camp for their respective national teams to play in friendly matches. Still others have the task of rehabbing the injury that ended a season or that they suffered with throughout the year. Still others will try to find to get married, return home, or spend some time with friends and family that have had to come second to their professional careers throughout the season. Some of the athletes that I work with will be worried about coming into preseason camp at the appropriate weight; others have an offseason workout plan to keep them on track. So, what does rest in this world look like?
By definition, rest means to “cease work or movement in order to relax, refresh oneself, or recover strength.” It can also find a range of definiton from sleeping to death. In truth, rest for the athlete (and really for us) should be close to the idea of sabbath that are part of Judeo-Christian values. Within the framework of the Jewish and Christian faiths, there is this idea that one ought to “rest” from normal labors and to consider, with thanksgiving, God and the blessings that he has bestowed.

Disc Golf provides a lot of rest for me.
As a pastor and chaplain, my rest often is found in spending time with my family or playing disc golf with some friends. Occasionally, my rest includes going on a trip or retreat. There are many different ways that I try to find rest – some friends of mine don’t feel “rested” until they have pushed their bodies to the brink of physical exhaustion with a mountain climb or bike ride. What this speaks to is the need for our bodies and our souls to experience “rest” – rest is not merely physical, but it is emotional and spiritual as well. And with the taxing demands of our world – consider with social media and how “in touch” we are, today, there is even more need for rest than ever before.
Perhaps as you consider your own need for rest you might take a stress/burnout inventory test such as this one from Psychology Today. Another way to assess is to look at your calendar – how much margin and space do you have? For you? For your family? For God? I pray that you will take steps – just like I need to, to find rest. A final thought – consider the words of God to the prophet Jeremiah (Jer. 6:16), for a people needing rest:
This is what the Lord says:
“Stand at the crossroads and look;
ask for the ancient paths,
ask where the good way is, and walk in it,
and you will find rest for your souls.
Blessings,
Rev. Brad Kenney





During seminary, I recall a particular moment when I was contemplating what future ministry would look like: one scenario, meant fundraising for salary and ministry to work with the Colorado Rapids as chaplain; the other scenario, meant working and doing the chaplaincy within the “margins” of life and work. As I relayed my fear and aversion of trying to raise money to my best friend, he simply said, “Oh, you must be an Ezra.” His statement caught me off-guard and I begged an elaboration. He proceeded to share that in looking at different personality types, it had been helpful for him to compare the contemporaries of Ezra and Nehemiah. Both men of God, they both made a return to Jerusalem in different ways. Nehemiah went and asked the king, Ezra was simply sent. Thinking I had discovered myself, I proclaimed, “Yep, that’s me, Ezra. Just send me, Lord!” However, my friend didn’t let me off so easy – sometimes within ministry we need to be like Ezra and sometimes we need to be like Nehemiah. But I don’t like the whole asking-for-money thing, I explained to my friend. It doesn’t matter, if God lays something on your heart…
Today, I have come to know that part of God’s call on my life has been the ministry that serves as CrossTraining. Direct chaplaincy ministry to the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer and an indirect, yet continuing ministry to hundreds of alumni that are now scattered around the globe for me this community are the “returned exiles” that I weep for and am heartbroken for before God, much like what is described in
The evangelist, D.L. Moody once said, “Character is what you are in the dark.” Who are we when no one is looking? Who are we when no one is around? Perhaps, for the professional athlete, this question seems irrelevant – much of the professional life is spent in front of cameras, events and comments are captured by smartphones, minutia is tweeted, facebooked, instagrammed and more. Is there any dark in an athletes’ life? Is there any moment when the crowds or coaches, family or friends aren’t watching?
Through the course of my life’s work, there have been many moments in which I have been confronted with death. Perhaps this has made me more melancholy as I age; however, there is for me a realization that many of these places – difficult as they may be, are sacred spaces or “thin places” as the Celtic people use to call them. Thin places were those places where heaven and earth seemed to touch – there is a solemnity to many of these moments and sometimes there is a strange sense of relief, even joy for those that are present when someone they love dies.

2. Rest in the Midst of the Drought – The story of the prophet Elijah features a major drought and famine in the land. There is time when Elijah, hiding and on the run during the drought, was fed by the Lord by ravens (I Kings 17) and another time at the end of the drought period (I Kings 19) when an angel of the Lord cared for Elijah who was at the point of utter desperation. The vitally important reminder is that there are periods when we cannot go on in and of ourselves and we need to be cared for by others – especially in our faith. We need to receive Divine “assistance” and sometimes a direct touch from the Lord. Many times in the midst of the drought and slump as people we tend to try and “push through” or we change routines over and over until we can rediscover or find that rhythm or success. We fail, though, to rest in those periods and to realize the benefits of resting in the midst of the slumps of life.

At the most recent Colorado Rapids home game, the club recognized the 5th member of the Gallery of Honor, current coach and former player Pablo Mastroeni. As a player, Mastroeni was the Rapids’ 
God is calling you and me, to be part of this Hall of Fame, this Gallery of Honor. To be people who, filled with faith, live out our lives with distinction – it matters not what earthly accomplishments or achievements that we earn, it matters little what recognition or fame we earn. What matters is that we live out our faith and trust in God – through good and bad times, through times of success and times of failure because God is planning something better for us. He is planning something that, together, will see us perfected and champions for eternity.
I meet many men who tell me, “I don’t sing.” Many of these men are speaking from a church context and about modern worship styles and trends
Pope Francis