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Who’s Your Head Coach in the Game of Life?

Have you ever had a phenomenal coach?  You know, the type that you never forget; that inspired you to do more than you thought possible and taught lessons you remember to this day?  What made them great?  I’ve been blessed to have many wonderful coaches and they all had the same things in common:  they cared, they were great teachers, and they set high expectations.  So if life is a big game, who’s your head coach?    

 

 

Who better to coach us through life than Jesus Christ?

 

The best coaches are the most dedicated.  They spend hours upon hours in preparation for the team; pouring over books and film, attending coaches clinics, etc.  They want the best for the team as well as each individual player.  They care, and they are willing to sacrifice their time and energy for the benefit of the team.  Christ cares so much for us He sacrificed His life!  Not for His own glory, not for ‘coach of the year’, but for the glory of His Father in Heaven and for our benefit.  Rest assured…..He cares about you.

 

When I reflect on the things I learned in athletics, for the life of me I can’t recall being taught any actual sports skills.  No drills, technique, or any of that.  I learned those things, I just can’t remember them being taught to me.  All I can seem to remember being taught are life lessons…..hard work, dedication, sacrifice, brotherhood.  It seems that the greatest coaches are life coaches.  They are teachers of principles that transcend any single sports season or phase of life.  I’m here to tell you that there is no better teacher of life lessons than Jesus Christ.  His teachings are as applicable today as they were 2,000 years ago, and I would submit that we need them more today than ever.  I liked a line in the new movie ‘Avatar’, “You can’t fill a cup that’s already full.”  Let’s allow ourselves to be taught by Him.

 

In high school football I remember running “the hills”.  Man I thought I would die!  Back in the woods behind the school was a huge hill.  Several times a week the coach would take us back there and we would all line up single file at the bottom.  Upon the coaches word “go” our objective was to catch up with and pass the runner ahead of us.  We would run our hardest all the way to the top, trot back down, and repeat (there was wailing and gnashing of teeth!).  What stands out to me after all this time isn’t the pain, but it was how hard we were pushed.  No one resented the coach; we knew it was for our own benefit.  In retrospect, I appreciate the demand placed upon me.  It made me a better football player and a better person.  The same holds true in life.  I have a major problem with the popular notion that Jesus does not demand anything of us.  That it’s alright to worship Him with our lips and not our heart.  I would submit that He demands everything of us……in fact not everything we have, but our entire selves as C.S. Lewis puts it.  He knows, and deep down we know as well, that this is the only way we will be the best “player” we can be.          

 

The Danger of being our Own Head Coach

Sometimes I like to think I have it all figured out.  Strangely enough, this seems to always happen right before I do something really stupid!  I’m beginning to think that maybe there’s some sort of connection here. I mean really, let’s look at this for a second from a football perspective.  How effectively could the quarterback coach the entire team while still in the game?  Better yet, let’s say he played both ways, offense and defense, and still had to coach the entire team.  Granted, some people would do a lot better job than others, but doesn’t that sound like a recipe for failure?  You say, ‘but in life I’m not responsible for an entire team, I’m only responsible for myself and I can manage myself’.  But that’s not the point.  The point is that we can’t see everything while were in the game.  The defense if blitzing, the offense has called an audible, and we miss all that because we can only see what right in front of our faces.  We have Lombardy standing on the sidelines waving his hands screaming "let me help, let me help!", but we dig in and call another play. 

 

We have the opportunity to be lead by the perfect Head Coach!  All we have to do is admit that we need Him and hand over the whistle.  It’s my testimony that he will transform as much of us as we are willing to give Him into things of beauty….into Heavenly Super Bowl Champs.

 

What say you?