Charger Nation: GAME 0
I think every year I start of
saying I can’t believe it is already football season. The older I get the more I understand the
Book of James in the Bible talking about life being just a vapor (James 4:14). Time moves fast and we always find ourselves
in the midst of another season of life. Tonight,
technically is only a scrimmage but we are treating it just like a game. Football games are so sweet because there are
so few of them so I want to make the most of every opportunity we get!
I love football not because of the
actual game. I love football because it
is a microcosm of life in the lives of these young men I coach. I love football because of the man building
process it allows us to have as coaches.
Commitment, sacrifice, selflessness, humility, loyalty, respect,
perseverance, ownership, integrity, work ethic, discipline toughness; these are
just a few of the character traits football cultivates and instills. In short, excellence. To be good at football, to be successful at
football; it demands excellence. If your
team lacks some of those character traits it will not be a successful football
season. And if we in our life lack some
of these character traits we will never reach our full potential.
After winning the state
championship two years in a row, having a bunch of returning starters, and a
huge senior class everyone just assumes ELCA will repeat as state champs. I met with the seniors last night and I warned
them: I believe you actually think all you have to do is show up and win. You are practicing like all you have to do is
show up. You lack a sense of
urgency. You lack a hunger, a passion, a
desire, that is necessary for any team to reach its true potential. Pride is so sneaky and so subtle. We can’t see it. We can’t see that we are plagued by it. It hides deep in our hearts and pumps out
with every heart beat into our entire being.
Pride takes a man who had to work his tail off to earn everything he had
and transforms that man into a person who thinks all he has to do is show up
and he deserves everything simply because he exists and it has been his
before. Pride screams quietly from the
heart: “I am the man and all I have to do is show up and we will be great
because I am great.” But the Lord
warns-the Bible warns: “Pride comes before the fall.”
Coach your being too negative? The boys need some positive thoughts. No, they don’t—sometimes they do but when all
that have is “I’m great” running through their minds someone needs to give them
a reality check! My job as a coach isn’t
to make them feel good about themselves all the time. My job is to be truthful and point them in
the right direction. Sometimes I must warn them that they think too positively
of themselves!
The most important thing I do as a
coach is not coach football. I coach
character. I look into a young man’s
soul and challenge him to be everything God created him to be. I warn him about sins grip and enslavement on
his life. I coach him through this. Football isn’t what I coach and if I find
myself only coaching football and not souls, we are in danger. I coach life and football is the tool. No man has life apart from Jesus Christ.
Yes, our goal and our quest is to
win. But it is not our purpose. Our purpose is to build men for Jesus
Christ. For in Jesus Christ is the only
way we truly live. For if we are not in
Christ we are enslaved to things that will destroy and we stare eternal death
and wrath in the face.
As we get rolling this football
season I realize that I am going to have so many opportunities to use the game
of football to build men for Jesus Christ.
We are going to work our tails off every day to win on the field, but
the true battle and war is off the field.
There is a much bigger battle going on in your son’s soul. Satan wants to destroy him.
It is easy for us to set our minds
on the opponent and think about him as the one to conquer. But do you know who the real enemy is? ME! We
all have ourselves to conquer. We all
dwell in an evil house that is our flesh.
We are consumed with self and are therefore utterly and completely
selfish. We like to talk of Jesus but
our real gods are money, power, glory, and fame. This is our master and what we serve
daily. Being enslaved to such a
worthless god, we let the flesh entirely consume us: Laziness, slothfulness,
anger, wrath, jealousy, envy, pride, covetousness, lust, greed, I can keep
going…we are enslaved to our wretched selves!
And this is what I go and coach every day. We are trying to take a bunch of young men
who are consumed with self and make them One.
An almost impossible task!
But we do have a message and there
is a way. And the very same message we
have for them about how to become a great teammate and great football player is
also one that will empower them to one day become great husbands, great
fathers, and men who will impact the community for good. Young man: strip away the chains of sin that
enslave you and be FREE! The blood of
Jesus Christ frees us from the bondage of sin, forgives me, and directs
me. You were not created to be a slave
but through the blood of Jesus Christ you are now invited to be a son, an heir,
an ambassador for the King of Kings. We
were once slaves to sin and self (the same thing) and capable of no good
thing. We were once slaves to only
seeking the good of me. And now, by the
blood of Jesus Christ we have been completely redeemed for a new purpose: Jesus
Christ. And in this purpose of seeking
and pursing the glory of God, we become men who will serve and lead
others. And this is freedom. My chains are gone and I have been set free!
This is what ELCA Football is all
about. And as we begin our journey
tonight I pray that God use every practice and every game for one purpose: To
point us to Him and then build us into men for Jesus Christ!
BEAT MT. ZION!
“The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but the
victory belongs to the Lord.”
-Proverbs
21:31
Win the Day!
Coach Gess
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