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