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I once overheard of a group of coaches discussing what they were going to do with a certain player who had problems following the team rules. He’d had plenty of issues, but the final straw came when they found out he was caught up in drugs. Some of the coaches wanted to kick the young man off the team, but the head coach did not. He justified keeping the young man on the team by telling this story…
This Major League Baseball season has been tough on me. I've had to watch my favorite team battle through the first half of the season being devastated by injuries. This team, which was predicted by some to win the World Series, is now near the bottom of its division. They desperately need their All-Star players to return so that they can compete to win their division. These players aren't helping the team win by sitting on the bench.
This was the prayer of King Solomon as he was about to take office. Rather than ask for riches or power, he asked for wisdom and understanding. Solomon knew that the key characteristic for an effective leader was wisdom to make good decisions. His decisions often concerned life or death situations. Our decisions are more often about whether to pass or run, a fastball or curveball, inside or outside, man to man or zone.
Solomon also desired an understanding heart to judge the people. Solomon knew, and the best coaches know, that leadership is all about people, not systems. Coaches will be at their best when they are in tune with their players’ hearts.
Did you ever notice that discipline and disciple share the same root word? The concepts are the same: surrendering ourselves to something or someone, similar to an athlete surrendering his will to a coach. Discipline is defined as instruction, correction and the training which molds, strengthens and improves character. It is also moral education obtained by the enforcement of obedience through supervision and control. Discipline is required is every area of sports. Athletes must be disciplined to run the correct plays and follow their coach’s instruction. They must also be disciplined by working hard in the weight room and taking good care of their bodies by eating properly and getting enough rest.
Discipline is the responsibility of a coach to his team. A well-disciplined team is more than likely to be a successful team. However, the way in which a coach disciplines is crucially important. Hall of Fame basketball coach John Wooden knew discipline was vital, but he also knew there is a fine line between discipline and punishment.
Coaches are famous for using sayings and quotes to get players pumped up for whatever sport they’re playing. I have a friend who hangs signs with different sayings all over his team’s locker room. One sign in particular really resonates with me. It’s the one posted just above the door that leads out of the locker room. It says, “Discipline is not what I do TO you; it is what I do FOR you.”
You step to the free throw line and look at the rim. “Just put the ball through the hoop, and we go to overtime,” you say to yourself. You've done this thousands of times in practice. Bounce the ball three times, spin it in your hands, look up at the rim and let her fly. But just when you're about to shoot, you take your eyes off the rim and gaze through the glass backboard at what seems like a million fans yelling, screaming, waving things, and doing whatever they can to distract you from making this shot. A home crowd would never try to distract you, but this is enemy territory, and they will do whatever they can to make you miss this shot.
You try to refocus. You let the ball go. It heads toward the hoop, bounces off the rim, and out…
It had been a long day of doing things for my summer job, and it had thrown my schedule out of whack. The time I had put aside to do my lifting and running for football also got messed up. And if having my day split into pieces wasn’t bad enough, the aches and pains from the grind of summer workouts was beginning to wear down on me. That’s when the clouds rolled in and the rain started to fall.
Do you ever find it hard to sleep at night because your mind is racing and dwelling on things that you have absolutely no control over? I think that we are all prone to struggle and deal with worry. It's probably why Jesus told us not to worry in Matthew 6:25-34. My daughter Amber and I recently led a small group seminar at an FCA summer camp in Kentucky. What really impacted me was how practical this was to the students who attended. We began by asking those who attended our seminar to "Write down one to three things that you worry about on an ongoing basis."
I don’t know about your neighborhood, but when I was younger we had the “do over.” Remember? You took a swing and your foot went out from under you. You mis-kicked the ball in a kickball game because you slipped on some wet grass. What were the first words to come out of your mouth? “Do over!!”
Did you know that God gave us a “do over”? Paul wrote the church in Corinth that when they accepted Christ they became a new creation. Well, thousands of years later, the same is still true for us. When we accept Christ as Savior and Lord, we become a new creation.
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