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