Saxony Lutheran Hoops

"Hope is never to be found in your performance, no matter what actions you are able to point to."
- Paul David Tripp, 40 Days of Hope

We talk about identity in sports a lot. This morning though, I want to shift and talk about hope. I want us to meditate on this question:

How do we know when our hope has quietly shifted into our performance?

I believe we need to answer this deeper question: What is driving our performance?

At the root of every pursuit is love. We don't just perform because we have to. We perform because we love something. The question is not if we love, but what we love most.

If we love approval, we perform to be noticed.
If we love control, we perform to guarantee outcomes.
If we love reputation, we perform so others think well of us.
If we love success, we perform because winning tells us we matter.

When those things become what we love most, performance quietly becomes the object of our hope. Then our hearts rise and fall with the scoreboard. A win makes us feel secure. A loss exposes us. A mistake feels heavier than it should.

Why? Because we've asked performance to give us what it was never designed to give-identity and hope.

The gospel frees us from that weight. Our hope is not rooted in what we do, but in what Christ has done. We compete and pursue excellence, but not because our identity depends on it.

We perform from hope, not for hope.

God Bless,
Coach Scott

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Beeson Media Game Day (Boys Basketball)
February 2, 2026.

Kelly Hawks Basketball will travel north on I-55 to exit 105, proceeding to Saxony Lutheran High School.

Kelly Hawks Broadcasting YouTube Channel by accessing this link: https://youtube.com/?si=Z4AO5l_2wsNqlvTF.

Tune in to Mike Riley, known as The Voice of The Kelly Hawks, as he provides play-by-play commentary as the Hawks hit the court against Saxony Lutheran on the Kelly Hawks Broadcasting YouTube Channel.

Thus shall you say to them: “The gods who did not make the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth and from under the heavens.”
Jeremiah 10:11