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