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 5th/6th grade team and our
3rd/4th 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
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