Charger Nation: Game #4
Charger Nation,
Here is a verse that Coach
Dallas loves to quote which has resonated with me since he has been here:
“for
the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
Nehemiah 8:10
**To have this joy is a
daily WAR!
This has been a crazy week because it has been homecoming
week. I believe the boys have had fun
with it and I know everyone is looking forward to tonight. Usually you are supposed to play a bad team
for homecoming, but we don’t have a bad team on our schedule. Mt. Pisgah is a good team and they beat us
last year. But we are focused and
ready. Three of the five starters who
were out last week are back and should be able to go tonight. I’m excited to play this game tonight against
a team that we need to be able to beat if we are a state championship caliber
team.
In the life of a coach, losing takes one to the bottom
emotionally and physically. I know
everyone in their particular careers face this same issue. I don’t care who we lose to or how good they
are or the circumstances as to why we lose, I am way down after a loss. Dangerous thoughts creep into the mind: “I’m
a loser;” “I can’t do this;” “I’m a failure;” “We aren’t doing the right
things;” you get the point of the stuff that enters into the mind.
As I play with Uriah he is getting old enough to get very
aggravated when he can’t do something.
We were throwing in the backyard and he got real aggravated that he
couldn’t catch the ball and started saying and crying that he couldn’t. He even gets mad at me when I throw a bad
pass (they actually are catchable passes he just is learning he is a center
like his daddy—tough lesson.) As a Daddy
it made me mad that he wasn’t saying he couldn’t…we will just keep trying! I don’t care if he can catch the ball or not,
but I do care if he thinks he can’t. I
do care if he quits trying. I do not
want to hear negativity coming from him.
In the same way but so much more we have a Father who
loves us and cares for us and does not want to hear us say negative
things. He does not want the seed of
doubt to enter our minds. As I woke up wallowing in self pity on the inside for
our loss against GAC the Holy Spirit convicted me with these thoughts: “Get
over yourself.” That thought turned into
me praying: “Lord, strip me of myself.”
You see, one of the problems with all of us is we are prideful. I’m wallowing in self-pity Saturday morning
because I am embarrassed. When I fail at
the job everyone knows it and everyone sees.
In fact, everyone critiques it.
I take great pride in winning and probably have the exact opposite
feeling when we lose.
I’m not wallowing in self-pity to the extent of
depression and locking myself up. No, I
function rather well but I do not have joy and I certainly do not have joy in
the gifts that God has given me. My
little boy wants to wake up Saturday morning and jump on the trampoline with
his dad who he doesn’t see very much or play racecars. He could care less if we won or lost and, in
reality, most people don’t care. I need
to get over myself and enjoy the time I have with my little boy and my
family. God has given me great gifts but
my pride and my ego destroy my joy in the great gifts God has given me.
So I stood their convicted and praying, “Lord, strip me
of myself.” It was freeing to pray this
prayer. It was like the ropes that were
entangling me choking me started to loosen their grip. I came back to the verse that I love so
dearly:
“I
have been crucified with Christ. It is
no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live
by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
Galatians 2:20.
If
I have been crucified in and with Christ, then my pride and my ego don’t exist
anymore. In fact, my pride and my ego are
now in Christ. Christ is the reason I
live and Christ is in what I will boast.
So when I wake up Saturday morning and we have lost, I need to claim
Christ who is the one who has conquered death.
I am never a loser in Jesus Christ.
He is the All-Powerful Savior of the world. He controls all things. When we lose it is for my good and our teams
good because he promises to work out all things for our good. He is my Hope and my Trust. In success and in failure I can be a man of strength
and courage because my strength and courage does not lie in my power, but in
the power of Jesus Christ.
In life I do not control much. God has given each of us complete control
into the effort we put into things and the attitude with which we approach
those things. But we do not control the
outcome. A farmer can do everything
correctly but he does not control the rain.
I think it is important that we have great joy in the toil God has given
us and trust in him with great anticipation. And even in failure always have great
anticipation of what is to come. Never
give up! Never let the seed of doubt set
in and take over. It will whisper, but
claim Christ and kill it! We must stand firm and never give up due to
failure or become prideful in success.
Never be too high in success or too low in failure with the things here
on earth; but always take great pride in the things of Jesus Christ. If we want joy here on this earth that does
not revolve around our circumstances then we must die to ourselves and live in
Jesus Christ.
Just as my pride can be wrapped up in my performance
Friday night, I often see dads whose pride is wrapped up in the success or
failure of their son on Friday night. I
feel great sadness for their sons. Their
sons are learning that their Dad’s joy is in their success. Can you imagine how paralyzing this is for
high school boys? They are learning that
their Dad’s happiness in them or just overall joy revolves around their performance
in a game. I know Dad’s don’t mean to do
this but it is the unintended consequence of pride. As I have a two year old I see how not only
can my pride kill me, but it can kill the spirit of my Son. I pray daily God will strip me of myself not
so I just don’t destroy my spirit, but my little boys as well. We must learn to not put our happiness into
on the field performance, but rather the day-to-day effort and attitude our
boys put forth in their pursuit of excellence. We must learn to put our pride in their
pursuit of Christ and the overseeing of this process. We must learn to love our boys for the young
men God has made them and not what we so desperately want them to be. It will be freeing for our sons and our
personal souls! Since it is so easy for
us to be blind to our pride, we must walk vigilantly with our eyes on Christ,
not on this world.
Therefore, after having died to my prideful self and
living in Christ, I run to this game tonight with great anticipation and
excitement. I will have great joy in
this day God has given me. And win or
lose tonight, I will wake up tomorrow fighting for humility if we win and joy
if we lose because who I am is not wrapped up in what I do but in Jesus
Christ. Jesus Christ: This is where
steadfast joy, strength and courage exist!
He destroys the bonds of sin that entangle us and gives us new
life. In Christ there is freedom.
Win the Day!
“The
horse is made ready for Battle, but victory belongs to the Lord.”
Proverbs 21:31
Wholly for Christ!
Coach Gess
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