Zak Keefer of TheAthletic.com recently wrote a fascinating long-form profile article about Troy Aikman.
After a stellar career as a quarterback with the Cowboys, where he won three Super Bowls, he now teams up with Joe Buck on Monday Night Football. They are in their 23rd season in the booth together, making them the longest-tenured broadcast team in NFL history.
The profile unpacks how Aikman has always been hardworking, driven, and competitive, which has led to great success. However, it also reveals how he has struggled along the way.
Keefer writes, “The success everyone saw masked the inner turmoil no one knew about. Aikman’s wrestled with it for decades, warring against his own happiness, chasing a finish line he isn’t even sure exists.”
Aikman put it like this: “Contentment was always a four-letter word. I never wanted to be content. I didn’t wanna be around anyone who was content. That’s just not a place I could land.”
The article describes his discipline, intensity, drive, and desire to get better and keep pushing himself even with his playing days long over. He’s obsessed, still likes to be coached hard as a broadcaster, and his competitive juices remain.
Keefer writes, “Years passed. The more Aikman ran from contentment, the more it robbed him of his own happiness. His first marriage fell apart. Then, his second. So he went to work on himself, trying to balance something that took years for him to accept: the traits that made him a Hall of Famer were the same ones keeping him from life’s simple joys.”
Aikman has been on a journey, but his perspective has changed. Keefer adds, “He realized everyone doesn’t think like a quarterback, and that being content wasn’t a sign of weakness—or worse yet, a character flaw.”
Aikman acknowledges, “I’ve found contentment, if you can believe it. And it’s a really good feeling.”
Most of us will never win three Super Bowls or be a broadcaster for Monday Night Football. Still, I wonder how many of us can relate to Aikman’s story by struggling to find contentment.
We, too, want to be driven and highly motivated and have the desire to succeed, but we find ourselves always wanting more and can’t slow down. I believe it’s a battle many people encounter because it’s never enough; we’re too competitive and always want to be better.
But why is that? What is our motivation? What’s really driving us to be disciplined, hardworking, and excellent? Why doesn’t it lead to contentment? What underlying brokenness, insecurity, or lies are causing discontentment?
Is greed, stress, selfish ambition, envy, comparing, dissatisfaction, and frustration taking over and robbing us of contentment? Why don’t we enjoy where we’re at and the journey God has us on?
As followers of Jesus, we must address the tension. Of course, we want to become more and more like Jesus, be at our best, not become complacent or lazy, and pursue excellence in all we do for the glory of God. The problem is that we can get caught up in more success, power, money, and prestige for all the wrong reasons.
Jesus says in Luke 12:15 (NIV), “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”
Hebrews 13:5 (ESV) implores us, “Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for He has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’”
We can buy the lie that a little more is what we are missing, and then we’ll be content, but it’s always a moving target. Even though we’ve “won 3 Super Bowls,” we can be guilty of saying “yeah, but” when it comes to never being satisfied with our current situation and status in life.
Ultimately, we find true and lasting contentment in Christ. We can be content regardless of our circumstances when we base our contentment on knowing Him, loving Him, and serving Him. He is the One who gives us the strength and ability to be content.
Paul writes in Philippians 4:11-13 (NLT), “Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.”
Today, let’s rely on Jesus’ strength to help us be content, and let’s choose not to allow our competitiveness and drive for success to rob us of experiencing a satisfying life with Christ.
Be encouraged by 1 Timothy 6:6-8 (ESV): “But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.”
I’m Bryce Johnson, and you can UNPACK that!
PRAYER: Heavenly Father, forgive me for being dissatisfied and ungrateful about the many blessings in my life. Help me to be motivated by the right things and to find my contentment in Christ. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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