CHARGER NATION: GAME #12

Charger Nation,

            Round #3 of the playoffs is here!  Tonight we get a rematch of an earlier contest against Wesleyan.  I felt like then Wesleyan was a school we would have to beat to win the state championship.  Often times, the two best teams get matched up in the quarterfinals.  I believe it has happened when ELCA plays Wesleyan tonight. It will be a good one.  We have worked hard this week correcting our mistakes from last game.  Our boys were focused all week and had great attitudes.  I could ask for nothing more of them.  They gave us their all.  The coaches coached them hard.  Now its time to go play!

            This is the seventh year in a row that we have been able to play on thanksgiving week.  Most teams never get to this point.  I told the boys yesterday that they really don’t know to be thankful for football on Thanksgiving because they know no other way.  There is no such thing as sweet if there is no bitter.  If you have never tasted bad than you will never truly appreciate what tastes good.  If one year we ever missed the opportunity to play on thanksgiving because we didn’t make the playoffs or lost in round 1 or 2, the following year the boys would have a new appreciation for the honor it is to be playing thanksgiving week. 

            In the same way, I imagine the man or woman who has tasted death in this life through overcoming a life threatening disease or injury, finds a little time on thanksgiving to be thankful for life.  For the person who has never faced a life threatening disease or injury, he or she probably does not even think to be thankful for life.   The man who has been sick is thankful for health.  The man who has never been sick does not even think to be thankful for health. 

            Before I surrendered my life to Christ, I never thought to be thankful for Christ on thanksgiving.  But when God opened my eyes to my wretched state due to my sin and revealed to me the hope I have in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior in my life, I find time on thanksgiving to praise God for his amazing grace in my life and in the life of other Christians.   I also pray that he would open up the eyes of those who do not know Him.  Before Christ opened my eyes to my sin, to the eternal death and punishment of my soul for my sin, and the bondage to sin I lived in my earthy life, Christ was just a man and never meant much to me.   Before Christ, I could not see the wretchedness of who I was.  I could not see the evilness of sin.  I did not understand how my flesh was enslaved to sin that lived inside of me.  I could not see that all I cared about was self and glorifying myself.  I was a dead man walking and did not know it.  But when Christ revealed this to me I then saw the sweet and the bitter.  Christ is nothing until the eyes of our hearts are opened to see our sinful state.

            Now that I have a full understanding of what sin has done to this world and to mankind; that the punishment for man’s sin is eternal death and punishment by a Righteous God, I have a new thankfulness for Jesus Christ every thanksgiving.  Here are four things I wrote down I praise God for each Thanksgiving Day:

1.)   We were dead in our sins and deserving of eternal damnation.  But God, being rich in his love and mercy, sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to pay the price for my and your sin.  Jesus willfully came and became death for us.  He paid the price.  He reversed the curse of death on us and became eternal life for those who put their hope and trust in Him.  Praise Jesus Christ.

2.)   That is what Jesus did over 2000 years ago and God had that planned from the beginning.  But in my life, God opened my eyes to my sin at 23 and led me to surrender all to him.  That is the work of the Holy Spirit in my life.  God opened my eyes to my sinful state but I was not left hopeless.  As soon as I saw my sinful state I understood Christ was the answer.  The Holy Spirit working in my life opened my eyes to my sin and showed me Christ.  Praise Jesus Christ.

3.)   This started the process of growing in Christ.  A person in bondage to sin just does not break the chains of sin in a moment.  Through the work of Christ in my life, God is constantly molding me and shaping me into his image.  Through life in the Spirit, God gives us the power to overcome sin.  He didn’t just leave us in bondage hoping for a different life when we die.  He gave us the power to overcome sin now through living life in Jesus Christ.  Praise Jesus Christ.

4.)   He keeps me.  I mess up and screw up.  I am still a sinful man.  I still sin.  I am a sinner.  We will never be perfect this side of heaven.  We can strive and strive but we are always going to fail.  I don’t really understand why he can’t just make us perfect now.  But I also don’t understand why we can’t play perfect football each Friday night either.  We work really hard so we should be perfect on Fridays.  I want desperately to be sinless but it doesn’t happen.  I praise God that he does not reject me when I sin.  He keeps me.  He upholds me.  When I repent, He restores me.  He leads me to repent.  By the grace of God I do not deny my sin and find a way to be at peace with it.  No, God continues to lead me and uphold me in the better way.  He never stops loving me.  He never stops teaching me.   Praise Jesus Christ.  (**I hope in some fashion this is the type of coach I am.  I want to push them and challenge them hard.  I want a very high standard that is almost impossible to live up to.  But they know no matter what I will always love them.  Being perfect isn’t the goal in our program cause it will never happen.  But the desire to be perfect is the goal.  Give me your all!  In the end, I’ll never reject them as long as they stick to it.  Win or lose, they are my guys and when it’s all said and done, I am proud of them.   I love them.  That is the most important thing.)

And yes, of course I am so thankful for Dee, Uriah, my parents, my family, and the ELCA Football family on thanksgiving.  But you know what, all of those things mean so much more to me with Jesus Christ at the center of my life. 

Tonight before the game, at about 7:12, we will take a knee and sing 10,000 Reasons as a team.  The main lyrics below are exactly what I want to sing when thinking about Christ has done for us all:

Bless the Lord oh my soul

Oh my soul

Worship His Holy name

Sing like never before

Oh my soul

I’ll worship Your Holy name

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

                                                                                                Proverbs 21:31

BEAT Wesleyan!

Wholly for Christ,

Coach Gess

CHARGER NATION: Game #11

Charger Nation,

            It’s playoff time.  Our boys have maintained a focused mindset through the bye week and have had a good week of practice this week.  They are ready and prepared for the challenge FPD will give us tonight.  It’s hard to convince everyone of this but all the teams that are in the playoffs are good.  When you get to the final 16 you have to come and be ready to play.  FPD has good skill players and a huge line.  I told our boys all week to prepare for a battle like the Landmark game.  FPD is going to come up here thinking they can win and they have the talent to do so.  We must be on point!

            First Presbyterian Day School is a special place for me because it is where I first began coaching and a place where I really grew as a Christian man.  When I was in the Air Force in Macon, Dee and I started attending a church and the pastor’s name was Bob Veazey.  He loved football and coached the middle school team at FPD.  He asked me to help after work and I did.  It was one of those things where I said I would help but didn’t really want to do it.  But once I started working with the kids I loved it.  The next year, the head coach of the varsity program, Gregg Moore, asked me to coach the varsity offensive line.  I did it and I loved it.  This is when the Lord really starting moving in my heart to coach high school football.  The next year Coach Moore got me a spot at the school working so I got out of the Air Force and began my coaching career with FPD and Coach Moore. 

            I learned a lot of football from Coach Moore.  He is a very good offensive mind and a Godly man.  Formations, passing, wide receivers, strategy—the foundation of knowledge of those things came from him.  I will forever be grateful that God led me to work with the people at FPD and Coach Moore.  Being 24-26 years old and trying to figure out how to be a Godly man and husband, there was not a better environment in which God could have put me.  God is faithful.

            Playing FPD makes me think about the sanctification process.  Many people often strive really hard to figure out what God’s will for there life is.  Everyone tells us that we are made for greatness so we are always looking for the next big step to take because surely that is God’s will.  I am to become the greatest on earth and do great things for God so God’s will must be that I do something amazing next: “What do I do God?”  The Bible never says any of that stuff.  But it does say this: “For this is the will of God, your sanctification” (1 Thessalonians 4:3). 

            Sanctification is the consistent growing to become more and more like Christ.  It requires our pursuit of Christ and then God working in our lives.  If we don’t pursue Christ we don’t grow in Christ.  If we don’t grow in Christ we don’t become what God created us to be.  We then miss the will of God for our lives.  So often, people spend so much time chasing the will of God and trying to figure it out that they neglect the actual pursuit of becoming more and more like Christ.  In trying to find the will of God in their lives they have missed the will of God. 

            Win the Day is our sanctification battle cry.  From a football perspective it means pursue those things daily that are going to help you become everything you can become as an athlete.  Are we working hard in the weight room, are we mastering the fundamentals on the football field, are we keeping a great attitude and giving great effort at practice everyday.   If we do these things each day, if we follow the plan, then we will grow as football players and a football team over the course of the season and become all that we could have become as individuals and a team. 

            It is no different in our Christian walk.  Do not be consumed with God’s will for your life in your profession.  I don’t know if it is God’s will for us to beat FPD or not.  I don’t know if it is God’s will for us to win a state championship or not.  But I do know this, we wouldn’t have a chance to win this game tonight if we did not work our tails off each day: If we did not Win the Day.  In the same way, I do not know God’s will for me 10 years from now, 20, 30, etc…but what I do know is God’s will for me today is to grow in Jesus Christ and pursue him. 

            The Monday before the Landmark game or last year’s Monday before the state championship game, I had no clue whether we were going to win the game or lose the game.  But what I did know is that we better work our tails off that Monday to have a chance to win.  To be consumed with worrying about winning on Friday would take away the opportunity that actually would help us win on Friday: Doing everything right on Monday. 

            So what is my point?  I look back to when I was working at FPD to where we are here at ELCA now.  It was never about pursuing God’s professional will in my life.  The most important thing I have learned is to pursue Christ.  We must make it our life ambition to grow in Christ: To grow in Holiness, Godliness, Faithfulness and Righteousness.  We must reprioritize how we think.  It is natural to think about our career and our life and use God as a means to get there.  But this is not God’s will.  His will is our sanctification.  Pursue Christ with all diligence and do not worry about your life, trust God to order your steps exactly how He desires.  As we pursue Christ he transforms us and His will becomes our will.  He transforms the desires of our heart. Pursue Christ, Work hard and do not fret about anything else.  WIN THE DAY! “But seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.  Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself.  Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”  Matthew 6:33-3

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

Beat FPD!

Wholly for Christ,

Coach Gess

CHARGER NATION GAME #10

Charger Nation,

            The last game of the regular season is here.  All the hard work and sacrifice has gotten our boys to this point.  Tonight #1 vs #2.  9-0 vs 9-0.  They have great players and we have great players.  It’s a pretty awesome experience and opportunity for everyone involved.  We have had a great week of practice. The boys are focused.  The boys are ready.  Now it is time to go play!  Why do we do all the hard work year round?  So we can be in a game of this magnitude.  Not everyone gets to play in this game.  Enjoy the experience.

            I was talking to a reporter from the paper Wednesday night and he was asking me about this game.  He felt that from all his years covering us that this was the biggest ELCA/Landmark game that he could remember.  He asked me if I felt the same way.  I could honestly say no.  Ever since I got to ELCA ten years ago the ELCA/Landmark game has been a big game.  Last year we were 4-3 and they were 6-1 and it had playoff implications and region championship weight.  In 2014, they were ranked in the top 5 and we had to beat them just to get in the playoffs.  It was a big game.  In 2012, we were playing them for the region championship the last game of the season the year after they beat us in the semi-finals of the playoffs.  It was a big game.  Every year, the Landmark/ELCA game is going to be big and be significant.  That is why we feel the way we do today.

            The only pressure I feel during the week is the same pressure I feel all the time—I hate losing!  There is a sense of urgency as we diligently work hard to get everything right for Friday night.  The stress does not revolve around the game Friday night but rather in the preparation each day.  If we allow the game to be too big and too important we will make irrational decisions during the week.  At this point, you do what got you here and you continue to perfect what you do.  It all comes down to execution.  I don’t feel pressure tonight as I have great confidence in the preparation of our coaches and players. 

I want to win and I know you want to win.  But I do not have to win.  Football is not my God.  It is not my identity.  Nothing about it I have to have.  As we always say at ELCA football is a tool that we use to help boys become men.  It is a tool that we use to preach Jesus Christ.  We are going to give everything we have to be the very best we possible can be.  We are going to work our tails off to maximize our potential.  In all of this young boys are learning how to be productive men.  Most importantly, they are learning Christ, who can transform their life so they become men who impact the world for God’s glory. 

            I think about the young men I coach the same way I think about my son.  I sit and watch him and I want him to be good at things.  And then I think, it doesn’t matter.  I pray: “Lord, all I care about is that he know you.  That he love you and serve you.”  Jesus Christ has made us in his image for his glory.  He is our Creator.  He is the Savior of our souls.  He is Sovereign and in control of every single step.  He is the All-Powerful and All-Knowing is God.  It does not matter if Uriah is good at a game or smart.  What matters is that he knows God and gives his life to him.  For if he knows Christ, the eternal and everlasting Father, the Savior--THIS GOD--He can make Uriah all that he made him to be.  I cannot do it----God can.  If my Son knows Christ, I don’t have to worry about if he is a good athlete or smart, because God will be in control of his life and make him all that he created him to be.  This is truly my anxiety and worry each week—that the young men on this football team know Christ.  Because in knowing Christ they will find life and find their purpose. 

            If you are like me, you love to win and you love success.  If you’re a parent or a coach these are dangerous loves.  When we love winning too much and we love success too much we impart our sin upon our players and our sons.  We then love them based on their performance and their accolades rather than who they are in their soul.  We don’t even realize but we destroy their spirits as they can never live up to our expectations and dreams. 

            Here is the challenge for us tonight and it’s bigger than the football game.  We must love our sons and love our players more than we love winning tonight.  Don’t let the stress of the game get to you.  Don’t stress over your sons performance.  Don’t blame me for success or failure.  Find freedom and joy in loving the young men that give us the opportunity tonight to enjoy this game.  I know I’m not going to stress today.  I’m going to enjoy these young men I get to coach tonight.  I’ve done everything I can do.  Every play I call tonight on paper scores a touchdown (yes every single one and I’m always confused when it doesn’t score!)  There are no bad play calls because every play called has been designed to have every person blocked.  Coach Dallas scheme looks to allow no one a yard!  But of course our kids have to execute, block, tackle, etc.  But I’m not worried about this because I know they will mess up and fail at times.  But what is important is their heart!  Give me your all! Give me a great attitude!  In these things we will rejoice!  Christ has risen—nothing else matters!

Let’s go get this done!

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

Beat Landmark!

Wholly for Christ,

Coach Gess