Trouble and being troubled are two completely different things. Trouble is being down by a run, nobody on base, with two outs in the bottom of the ninth and our worst hitter coming to the plate. Being troubled is having no strategy for this scenario and not being prepared to accept the possible consequences that are about to come.

As coaches, there will be many times when we will have to declare to our team, “Don’t worry, everything will be okay.” We might even complete our short speech with the same words that Jesus did: “Believe in me.” But if we haven’t demonstrated believability to our players, these words will have absolutely no value. Without having the same credibility that Jesus had, our words will be like wisps of air.

Those of us who watch a lot of sports programs on television have probably seen the St. Louis Cardinals’ “blanket” commercial. It begins with a man who wraps a red St. Louis Cardinals’ blanket around himself. As it turns out, the blanket is the one constant in his life as he grows up. As a child, he uses it as a cape when he runs up the steps, and he drapes it over his bed when he studies. It is on the seat when he learns to play the drums as a teenager, in the trunk when he moves out of the house, and around his girlfriend while they watch a movie. The commercial ends with the man wrapping the blanket around his child as these words come on the screen: “Without sports, what would we hold on to?”