CHARGER NATION: GAME #2

 

Charger Nation,

            It is Game Day! Game #2 is upon us!  Tonight we play Jonesboro High School.  Jonesboro has been a program that has put out amazing football players.  They will have talented football players tonight.  The top corner in the nation is Cam Sutton from Tennessee and he played at Jonesboro.  There are many more I could mention.  I believe our boys are excited and prepared to take on the challenge.  I look forward to the game tonight.

            I want to congratulate Coach Tom Mertz, John Buckley, and Al Hosford and the rest of the 5^th/6^th coaches for their big win last night.  Our 5^th/6^th grade team looked real good and was well prepared.  The defense was dominant and set the tone and that is how you win football games.  Our youth football coaches and middle school coaches work hard with the boys in our program and I am very appreciative for this.  There is a culture of excellence all the way down into our youth football teams and it is beautiful to see! 

            Before the season began we chose 1 Corinthians 13:11 as our team verse: “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.  When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.”  Our young men battle to understand what is a REAL man.  I battle many days in living out the mandate to be a REAL man.  The world says a man is someone who does everything in his power to reach his dreams and selfish ambitions.  Christ says a REAL man dies to self for the greater good of all of those around him.  We are on a mission this football season to show and challenge our young men to be REAL.  We are calling it Operation REAL.

            As a football coach, I feel like my biggest battle is not X’s and O’s but to demand our young men became REAL men.  Being a REAL man is being a man of Jesus Christ.  Being a man is putting on Christ and living in a way that will bring glory and honor to God.  What does a REAL man look like?  God gives example after example in the Bible to understand what a REAL man is.  We simply define it as a man who sacrifices all the things of this world to be a faithful husband, loving father, and man who will impact the world for the glory of God.  In those three things is packed a whole lot of responsibility.  In those three things are packed many opportunities for failure. 

            For men in this sinful world it is hard to be a faithful husband.  It is hard to be  loving father.  It is hard to be a man who impacts the world for God’s glory.  Why?  Because we are selfish.  We want what we want.  We want to chase our dreams, desires, and passions at all costs.  Why do we chase these things when it damages the things that really matter?  For our own glory—it’s man greatest sin—chasing glory (pride).  You, me, the boys I coach, we are all about us.  My glory, my fame, me, me, me—it is the sinful side of all of us!  A REAL man is a man who rejects the sinful side of oneself and the pursuit of the world to put on and pursue Christ.  A REAL man is a man who lives by Proverbs 3:5-6: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.”  A REAL man does not trust in his own knowledge and understanding, but is led by Christ who will lead him to find the correct way.

            So what does REAL look like for a 13-18 year old boy?  We do expect our 17-18 year olds to be more mature than our 13-15 year olds but we expect a growth in maturity from all of the boys in our program.  For us, a REAL man comes to practice each and everyday with a focused mind to get better.  A REAL man takes ownership of his actions and strives to grow from every situation.  A REAL man goes to school everyday and gives his teachers and administrators great respect.  A REAL man seeks to become the very best student he can become in the classroom.  A REAL man is respectful to his mother and his father at all times.  A REAL man is humble.  A REAL man dies to self and puts on Christ: “I have been crucified with Christ.  It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me.  And the life I know live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20.

            Due to our sin nature and the sinfulness of this world, it is impossible to be a REAL man.  As adults our selfishness and pride, our sin, drives a wedge in our marriages, in our relationship with our children, and in the community in which we live.  It makes the kids we coach uncoachable as everyone has a better way.  Praise be to Jesus Christ.  With man it is impossible to be REAL, but with God all things are possible.  It is only when I surrender all things to Christ that he can make my paths straight.  God will put in our hearts a desire to serve others and not self, to live for others and not self. 

            As we come to Christ and accept him as our Lord and Savior and give him our lives understand this: It is not where you have been or what you have done, but it is all about where you are going and what you will do.  When we are in Christ we do not live in the sins of the past.  As I coach high school boys we have great days and we have bad days.  We practice good some days and then other days are awful.  The objective is to learn from the mistakes of yesterday and use them to empower our future.  If we are going to be REAL, we cannot let the sins of yesterday determine our future.  We must repent and as we move forward and live in the power and strength of Jesus Christ as he abides in us.  Just because I have had a messed up marriage in the past does not mean this is who I am moving forward.  Just because my relationship with my children was out of balance in the past, does not mean this is who I am moving forward.  Just because I did nothing in the community to be a light for Jesus Christ in the past, does not mean this is who I am moving forward.   In Christ we are new creations.  My sins of yesterday do not define who I am today.   God will meet us right where are at this moment and make our paths straight as we entrust all things to him.  He will make us REAL! 

            This is exactly what we preach to the boys we coach and to ourselves as coaches.  Everyday is a learning opportunity to become REAL men.  We have a sign in our locker room that says: “Our past failures FUEL our future.”  Our failures of yesterday serve as learning moments for our football team.  We evaluate and analyze our mistakes and we make a commitment to fix the areas that need improvement that led to those mistakes.  This is what a REAL man does.  We come to Christ in humility and we ask him to show us our sin, show us our areas of weakness and to show us the areas we are not measuring up as children of God.  As King David wrote in Psalm 139:23-24: “Search me, O God, and know my heart!  Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!” 

            For this football team, both in how we play the game and in our pursuit of becoming REAL men:  It is not where we have been but rather where we are going.  It is not what we have done but rather what we are going to do.  Our failures of the past must not define us, but must fuel us to become a better team and better men.  We are on a quest to become REAL!

 

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

Proverbs 21:31, ESV

 

Wholly for Christ,

 

Coach Gess