CHARGER NATION GAME #6

Charger Nation,

Tonight is a big game for us.  From what the polls say, #1 is playing #2.  Not that the polls mean anything at this point, but it does make this a pretty big game at this moment in time.  If you are a football player, this game tonight is why you play the game.  There is nothing better:  Wesleyan is 5-0 and we are 5-0.  Both teams have won all of their games handily.  On paper it looks like both teams are extremely even.  Both sides think they are going to win—now it’s time for the talk to end and the play to begin!

            Before I begin, our JV and middle school program won last night to extend their undefeated seasons.  Our 5^th/6^th grade team and our 3^rd/4^th grade team both play at ELCA tomorrow morning starting at 10.  As always, I really appreciate all the coaches that invest in our football program.  These men spend countless hours with your sons helping them become men; helping them understand right from wrong.  It’s a grueling process with middle school and high school aged boys, but these men do it well.  As always, I thank the parents for letting us coach their boys!

            I don’t know what happens to a coach’s mind as he heads into a big game, but there is a tendency to over work and over analyze. Well, that tendency is there all the time but it is magnified in a week like this.  We stress over every area of the game and live and die on perfection at practice.  Then we watch film of that practice, then correct mistakes with our players as we make them watch film.  Then we do it again at the next practice.  Then we game plan more.  It never stops.  It is really overwhelming.  It is paralyzing really.  I find comfort in the process of how we practice and prepare during the week.  I find peace in thinking that the other team is not out preparing us and is not teaching their players like us.  So when I get overwhelmed I go back to thinking Win the Day:  “Trust in the process we have here at ELCA.  It has worked and it will work again.  Do what we do!” 

            “Trust in the process.”  As I was thinking Tuesday morning God revealed something to me:  I cannot create an idol out of the process.  I cannot allow the process to be my strength, peace and comfort.  The sinful human heart is always trying to make an idol out of anything.  When I say idol I mean something we worship.  When I put my trust in the process of how we do business I have made me that master of my fate.  I have made me my idol.  I have made the process that I have come up with my idol.  Basically I am finding strength and comfort in something that has been created. 

            The process cannot be my hope.  The process will let me down.  It has let me down.  In no way am I saying hard work and having a system is not essential to building a great program or business.  In our sin we operate like this:  God shows us something and builds something and we trust in him the entire time.  He led us and we followed.  Then when it is created we worship it as if we did it.  This is sin.  Taking the good gifts God has given us and worshiping them, idolizing them and making them our own is sin.  Instead of looking at what God has done and where he has led us and giving him all the glory we try and steal it.  We go from “How great thou Art” to “How great I am.”  And this happens so fast because we are naturally sinful people who worship and serve self.  At birth, our DNA was corrupt.

Do not get me wrong here.  I am not saying working hard is not important.  It is honoring to God for us to work hard to create great products and services.  But we must always keep the work in perspective.  It is for God’s glory and God’s honor I work.  Working hard is essential and a command of God.  But our hope, peace, and strength must always be in Jesus Christ: “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.  Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.  It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives his beloved sleep.” (Psalm 127:1) 

            Why is it that hard working women and men make the process their idol? Success is our God.  I am hyper competitive.  The thought of losing paralyzes me.  Not being any good scares me to death.  How would I survive?  Why would I even need to live?  So I then take control of my life and invest everything in the process and get to work.  I become my strength.  My work, my process, becomes my hope.  That is the sinful side of me that I battle everyday.  Yes it drives me but it also destroys me and can destroy my hope and trust in Jesus Christ.  The sins of the flesh destroy and kill anything good in our lives.  This is where Jesus Christ comes in and I take on Galatians 2:20: “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.”  Maybe you are not as sinful as me, but I constantly am telling myself to die and remind myself to take on Christ.  (Well the Holy Spirit is telling me that.)

            It is only natural for sinful man to put his hope and trust in himself as he seeks daily to exalt himself.  But this is not why we were created.  Yes, you may have worldly success, but trusting in the process in order to exalt self will destroy your relationship with Jesus Christ.  God did not put me on this earth to take this team and beat Wesleyan or win other football games.  He put me here to bring glory and honor to Him.  He put me here to be a Godly man who pursues Christ and who teaches young men how to be Godly men and pursue Jesus Christ.  He made me a dad to be a dad and he made me a husband to be a husband:  All for the glory of Jesus Christ. 

            So, yes, the process is important.  I want us to do things right and be the most prepared football team in America.  But we do not stand on the process or self.  I cannot find peace in my process because I know it is flawed.  I do not control man (especially 14-17 year old minds!).  There is no good process for a 14-17 year old boy.  Everyday is an adventure with them.  But I serve a God who is Sovereign and in control of all things.  In this I find rest.  “God, I am going to work hard and do my best.  I rest in your Sovereign plan.  Your will be done.”  This is my comfort zone.  I can go into this game tonight with no fear because my hope and trust is in Jesus Christ.  The Sovereign God who is in control of all things.  Only Proverbs 21:31 sums it up best: “The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but the victory belongs the Lord.” 

BEAT WESLEYAN!

Wholly for Christ,

Coach Gess

CHARGER NATION: GAME #5

Charger Nation,

            I hope everyone has had a great week.  I want to congratulate both our middle school and our JV for winning games yesterday.  Being fall break, it was an awkward week being out of school but our boys still worked hard in practice and then yesterday in their games.  I appreciate the coaches of both teams being there all week preparing the boys.  I appreciate the parents for working around your schedules to have the boys at practice!  They worked hard this week and played well yesterday.  Both teams are 4-0!

            Tonight the varsity is playing game #5.  This marks the midpoint of our football season.  At this point the great teams start to distinguish themselves from each other.  The bad teams have stopped getting better after about two weeks of practice.  The average teams stop getting better at the midpoint of the season.  The great teams push through and continue to get better each and every week well beyond seasons mid-point.   Great teams/great players have the ability to look into the future and see what they want to become and then channel that vision into a daily commitment to giving their all to become what they envisioned.  I think we all have visions of what we want to be, but very few people have the daily commitment to make those visions become a reality.  The dream is the easy part.  The work is what gets everyone!

                As you look out and see what is going on in college football and high school football, the teams that seem to be the best at this point might not be the best 10 weeks from now.  There is no way for us to see this, but it is the team that is committed to daily excellence, to daily working hard and getting better, that is going to be the best team 10 weeks from now when it matters.  I say this all the time but it is so true: Winning on Friday night is a by-product of winning Monday through Thursday at practice.  Poor practice habits will eventually catch up with us.  It is imperative that we take every day seriously:  What we do today will impact our tomorrow! 

            As we finished practice yesterday we had a little discussion on how sin can and will destroy your life.  I don’t stand before the boys and tell them that sin isn’t fun in the moment.  In the moment, sin is good and enjoyable.  The problem is that sin destroys.  This is why God calls it sin.  God did not make laws for us that were harmful for us.  He made laws for us so that we would not fall into the damaging effects of sin, the destroying effects of sin.  His law is given to us to save us.  People hear God’s laws and think it is so restrictive.  But it is the opposite: God’s law is given to us to set us free from sin, free from death.  The law of the flesh (sin), it is what enslaves and destroys.  It is what is restrictive. 

            When we are at practice and a starter is loafing and the coaches get on to them sometimes they look at us like we are clueless.  If they are having a really bad day they will be disrespectful to us in their own little way.  Here we are as coaches warning them that if they do not give their all they will never become all they can become and it will catch up with them.  But their flesh is telling them to loaf and that there coaches are idiots.  As coaches, we know what is coming if pride and poor effort take over a team.  However, often times, a young man is blind to his pride and his poor effort.  He is also blind to the damaging effects of these two sins.  We are here to warn him but he thinks we are stupid.  If he won’t listen to us then he will have to learn his lesson from the master teacher: Actual failure in life.  In our case that would be losing a football game or the player having a really bad game.  Winning hides poor performance though so usually it has to be losing that makes a team or player aware of their sin.  As coaches we are doing everything we can to show them the right way.  But it ultimately comes down to the team and its leadership choosing to take our advice and purse daily excellence.

            This picture I just gave of a coach and a player is exactly what Christ has done for us.  Christ shows us how to live our life through his Word.  He has sent his Holy Spirit to work in us and further teach our spirits in the way we should go and lead us in the right direction.  Just like it is that player’s choice to follow his coach’s instruction, it is our choice as to whether or not we will follow Christ.  Christ came to save us from ourselves and bring to us eternal life.  He gave us rules, laws and statutes that are not oppressive but empower our future and set us free from the enslaving nature of sin.  Sin whispers into that player’s ear that his coaches are fools and he need not listen to our instruction.  Sin whispers into our ear that we need not follow God’s law.  Death knocks on our door but it is beautiful and seductive.  God warns don’t open the door.  Who will we follow?  What will we do?  May we choose Christ.

            As I coach this great game, I see the daily battle of sin in each player’s lives.  You know why so much evil exists in this world?  Because of the individual battles lost in each person’s life.  The only thing that transforms is Jesus Christ.  Without him and without his power working in and through us, we all lose and become men and women he did not create.  When we choose sin over Christ we choose to be the son and daughter of death.   The end result is chaos.  So when we see chaos in our world what we are really seeing is A.) A rejection of Jesus Christ as Lord and then the end result of this: B.) Sons and daughters of death.

            May it never be for us!  May you and I be lights in this world for Jesus Christ.  May you and I choose to be sons and daughters of the Most High.  Surrendering all to Jesus Christ is beginning act towards a life of freedom and power.

“The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but victory belongs to the Lord.” Proverbs 21:31

Win the Day!

Wholly for Christ!

Coach Gess 

            

CHARGER NATION: GAME #4

Charger Nation,

            I want to congratulate our JV team for winning last night against Therrell 32-0.  This puts them at 3-0 for the season.  Our 5^th and 6^th grade team won 8-7 in the last .2 seconds of the game last night to continue an undefeated season.   I appreciate these coaches and the boys for all the time, effort and energy they put into being excellent.  To be 3-0 takes a whole lot of work.  Our coaches are teaching our young men excellence and the price that must be paid to achieve it.  I am thankful!  We had to go to Mike Cameron’s facility Monday cause of the rain for practice and guess who was waiting on us to finish so they could get their work in? The 5^th and 6^th grade team.  You have to pay the price!  Also, please be in prayer for Joe Bryan.  Joe is a critical piece to our coaching staff on the varsity level and he is in the hospital right now.  Pray that he get healthy and pray for his family while he is in the hospital. 

"You are the light of the world.  A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.  Nor do people light a lam and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.  In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven."  (Matthew 5:14-16 ESV)

One thing we say around our program is DEMAND EXCELLENCE.  Here is how I define excellence:  Excellence is seeking to bring God glory and honor by giving perfect effort to become your absolute best with the talent God has given you in ALL that God has called you to do.  It is very easy for us to understand what excellence looks like from a football perspective and academic perspective.  ** I said looks like—very hard to actually implement.  My challenge with the boys each day is Win the Day.  What I am really saying when I say that is give your absolute best to today to become all God has created you to be.  Not just on the football field but everywhere.  In the classroom, in your conduct, in your thoughts, in how you treat others; in every area of our life we should be striving for excellence. 

            Becoming all that God has created us to be is not easy.  It is not easy to excel in the classroom.  Because excelling in the classroom requires attentiveness each day.  It requires being diligent doing homework.  These things are hard.  I was watching a young man yesterday copy his math homework from a picture on his phone.  His friend took a picture of the homework he or she did and sent it to him and he copied it.  I told the kid that he is never going to be smart-that his mind will never become all that God intended it to become because he is taking short cuts.  Getting the quick and easy A for completed homework will mean nothing in the long run because he didn’t pay the price to earn that A.  Taking shortcuts will eventually catch up with us.  Maybe not this day, but it will catch up with us (probably test day).  We learn through the struggle and grind of working out math problems.  It is the student who will go home and battle with the math problem for hours who will eventually have a sharp intellectual mind.  But if we refuse to work and we consistently choose the easy road we will never become all that God intended us to be. 

            It is the same way on the practice field.  That kid was copying someone else’s math work, which is cheating and being lazy.  When young men come to the practice field and they are not giving their best they are cheating themselves and their teammates.  They are telling me they are ok with being mediocre.  They refuse to put the extra effort in to be great.  Of course they will tell me they want to be great and I’m sure they will be excited Friday night.  But the problem is if they do not live with a daily drive to be great Monday through Thursday eventually it will catch up with them.  They will not become their very best.

            This is so true in our Christian walk.  I saw a shirt the other day and it said this: “I love Jesus but I cuss a little.”  This is exactly why people see Christians as hypocrites.  To the young man that says he wants to be all that God created him to be but he cheats on his homework and he doesn’t practice hard, we see him as a hypocrite.  His actions do not align with his words.  He is living a false reality.  He is the opposite of what he proclaims.  It is the same way for Christians.  As a Christian my desire is Holiness, Righteousness, and Godliness.  These are terms of Excellence in the Christian life.  In my pursuit of excellence there is no justification or acceptance of sin.  I will never say my sin is ok.  As a football coach I will never tell a young man that poor effort is ok.  It is something a young man must fight against each day.  In the same way a Christian must fight to be Holy, Righteous and Godly each day.  Will we live a perfect life free from sin?  No way.  We are sinners and on this side of heaven will continue to struggle with sin.  But we can never justify sin and tell ourselves it is ok.  We will sin but when we allow ourselves to become ok with our sin and even wear our sin on our t-shirt we are in trouble.  When we catch ourselves beginning to justify our poor effort at practice or our lack of focus at practice, we are beginning a slide into mediocrity.  In our Christian walk, when we begin to justify sin we are beginning the slide into being hypocrites.  You can proclaim you wan to be great at something all day but if your actions to no align with your words you are the opposite of what you say you are.  It is the same as Christians.  I can say I am a Christian but if my actions and attitude is not aligned with God’s standards then I am a liar.  I am the opposite of what I say I am.  

             God did not create us in his image and for his glory so that we can live a life of mediocrity, or live a lie.  In all that we do we are to pursue excellence, more so, in our pursuit of living a life worthy of Jesus Christ.  To put the name of Jesus on a shirt that justifies using profanity is foolish.  To claim Christ but not work tirelessly to become all that one can become in the classroom is foolish.  To claim Christ but go to the practice field and give poor effort is foolish.  God has called Christians to be different and set apart from this evil world.  We are to be lights.  We cannot conform to the world’s standards (which is exactly what that shirt was proclaiming) but must be men and women of resolve and fortitude who live a life pursuing the excellence of Jesus Christ. As soon as we begin to justify sin we have blown our light out and can no longer influence the world for Jesus Christ.  We can call ourselves Christians but we are powerless to influence. 

"You are the light of the world.  A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.  Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.  In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that the may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven."  (Matthew 5:14-16)

"THE HORSE IS MADE READY FOR THE DAY OF BATTLE BUT VICTORY BELONGS TO THE LORD." Proverbs 21:31

BEAT HOLY INNOCENTS!

WHOLLY FOR CHRIST,

COACH GESS

Charger Nation: Game #3

CHARGER NATION: Game #3

Charger Nation,

            I want to congratulate our middle school team for winning 26-20 last night.  It was a very exciting game won in the last minute of the game.  Our JV took the field after them and won 30-0.  It’s always good and fun to win.  These coaches and players are putting a lot into winning Monday through Wednesday at practice and I think this is making all the difference.

            I am looking forward to tonight’s game, especially after a week off.  Tonight we play Hart County.  Everyone always asks me where are they located.  Hart County is right at the Georgia/South Carolina boarder on your way to Clemson.  I could be wrong but it has to be near Lake Hartwell.  They have a long tradition of success in the class AAA division.  They tied Elbert County (a AAA semifinalist team last year) in their first game and then got beat pretty good verse a very big program from South Carolina.  The best player they have is #1 their qb. He got hurt vs Elbert early and didn’t play in their second game.  I have no idea if he is playing tonight.  He makes them different and we prepared as if he was playing.

            Tonight we will be giving shirts out to our TD members that have a War Horse on them and say FULLY CHARGED.  In history, a Charger is a War Horse.  I think the San Diego Chargers made it a lightning bolt, which we have adopted and copied.  I like the lightning bolt and theme of a storm and Bolt Up and stuff like this.  But I also love the idea of our boys adopting the mentality of War Horse. 

            The purpose of a War Horse (Charger) is clearly identified in scripture.  Job is a book about suffering.  Job, a man who had it all and was a firm believer in God, was allowed by God to be tested and see if he would deny God if all was taken from him.  All things—his family, his wealth, his status—all of it was taken from him to see if he would deny God.  He didn’t know he was being tested to see if he would deny God, all he knew is he lost everything.  Job gives us a behind the scenes look into what was going on between God and Satan as Job is suffering.  Job doesn’t see this.  Satan said Job would deny God and only loved God because of the abundance God had given him.  God said Job would be faithful to him if he took everything away.  God allows Satan to take Job’s family, money, power and health.  God has a purpose—he is proving that Job’s faith is genuine.  Job can’t see it but remaining faithful in the midst of suffering brought glory to God. 

As Job is suffering and deliberating back and forth with God, God begins to reveal to Job why he should not question God but have full and complete trust in God.  God uses the War Horse and how he has created him as an example of his omnipotent power:

            -------FULLY CHARGED-----

        “Do you give the horse his might?

                        Do you clothe his neck with a mane?

            Do you make him leap like the locust?

                        His majestic snorting is terrifying.

            He paws in the valley and exults in his strength;

                        he goes out to meet the weapons.

            He laughs at fear and is not dismayed;

                        he does not turn back from the sword.

            Upon him rattle the quiver,

                        the flashing spear, and the javelin.

            With fierceness and rage he swallows the ground;

                        he cannot stand still at the sound of the trumpet.

            When the trumpet sounds, he says ‘Aha!’

                        He smells the battle from afar,

                        the thunder of the captains, and the shouting. -Job 39:19-25

            I could read that to our football team 100 times hoping they adopt that mindset of a War Horse.  I hope I cant adopt this mindset.  I love that picture of the War Horse.  He runs to war.  He has no fear.  He attacks without hesitation.  The thought of failing never enters into his mind.  As all this is running through my mind, I have something else that jumps out at me: God made the horse this way.

            We live in an age where everyone tells us that everything has evolved over millions of years.  The world tells us there is no God and, therefore, no Creator.  Nothing has a purpose and things have just happened over all this time.  Here God is speaking clearly against this thought process.  He has made everything with a very specific purpose, even the War Horse. 

This world did just not happen.  This is one of Satan’s greatest lies to man.  We are fools to believe this lie.  How does the eye see?  How does the heart beat?  How does the body breath?  How does the nose smell?  How does the ear hear?  How does the tongue taste?  How does the body repair itself?  How does life even begin in the first place?  Why does the War Horse run to battle with no reservation?  I could go on and on--Just think about these things and you will see the hand of an Almighty and Powerful God.  Keep pondering over it and you will find Jesus Christ—the Author or Life and Savior of Man.  Do not blindly believe what this world is telling us.  It is a lie and will lead us to destruction. 

            So Chargers, as you see shirts that have a War Horse on them, may we all have two thoughts as we see this: 1.) We hope our boys play the game of football and live a life with the mindset of the War Horse [FULLY CHARGED]; and 2.) The War Horse is a great example of God’s intentional hand in Creation.  Do not be deceived by the lies of Satan and this world that everything just is and there is no reason for anything.  You and your son do not just exist and then die.  You didn’t just evolve.  What a lie!!!  You were created for a very specific purpose and your soul is eternal.  Find Christ and you will find your purpose.  Find Christ and you will find everlasting life for your soul and your sons soul 

 The Warriors Battle Cry:

The horse is made ready for the day of battle,
       but the victory belongs to the LORD.  –Proverbs 21:31

 Beat Hart County!

 Wholly for Christ,

 Coach Gess