They Call Me Coach

I just came to a terrifying realization.

I am the decisive element for my team.

My approach to EVERYTHING creates the climate.

My daily mood and interactions make the weather.

As a coach, I have the power to make or break my athletes.

As a coach, I have the power to make an athlete’s life miserable or full of joy.

As a coach, I can be a tool of torture and pain or a source of inspiration and encouragement.

I can hurt or help, humiliate or humor, harm or heal.

In everything, every day, it is my response that decides whether a conflict or crisis will escalate out of control or de-escalate.

And in everything I do, every day, I impact how my athletes believe in themselves or doubt themselves. I impact whether they live and play with peace and confidence or live and play with anxiety and fear.

...

You can substitute teacher for coach, students for athletes, and classroom for team. But you can't substitute any thing for the impact that a leader, a coach, or a teacher has on their athletes and students. We have the ability to make or break the people we lead. Don't take that responsibility lightly. Think about that responsibility with every interaction that you have.

Week 17 Devo | Love Your Competition - Love Your Neighbor

When I was growing up, I hated playing against a team called the Razorbacks. They were the best team in the league, and they would let you know it.

They would talk trash to you, they would foul you hard, and their parents were the loudest in the stands. There are some teams I didn’t mind losing to, but the Razorbacks were not one of them. They would beat you and then rub it in your face.

As much as I didn’t like them, the Razorbacks brought the best out of us. They pushed us harder and farther than we could push ourselves. We eventually got to the point where we could play with them and beat them, and that was the best feeling as a young athlete. Finally beating them taught me that by having a goal and working hard for that goal, I could achieve my dreams.

They taught me that adversity is a part of everyone’s journey, and how to plan for adversity and losses in my goal setting process.

COMPETITION REVEALS THE GREATNESS THAT IS ALREADY WITHIN YOU.

They also taught me that some people are harder to deal with than others, and it’s important to learn how to live, work, and play with difficult people.

As an adult, I run into mean, hurtful, difficult people all of the time; we all do. The lessons I learned from competing against Razorbacks have helped me deal with them in a positive way. Living, working, and playing with great people is easy. Living, working, and playing with difficult people is difficult.

A message from Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount is another message that I lean on when dealing with difficult people. He told His disciples during His Sermon on the Mount:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust ‭‭(Matthew‬ ‭5:43-45).”

He went on to say:

“For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew‬ ‭5:46-48).”

It’s easy to love people who are easy to love, but the best find and share love with everyone - that is what makes them the best.

As a coach, it’s easy for me to coach the athletes who are locked-in and committed to being the best they can be, but the best coaches can motivate, encourage, and inspire the athletes who aren’t as committed.

As a teammate, it’s easy to love the teammates who are easy to get along with. But the best teammates find a way to give, share, and show love to and with ALL of their teammates.

Jesus loved the people who eventually killed him. He loved them so much that he died for them. We won’t like everyone all of the time, but love your enemies and pray for them because God makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

THIS WEEK

1 - What is one friend or teammate that you can show more love to?

2 - What is one way that you can share more love with someone who is hard to love?

3 - What is one barrier that keeps you from showing love to others?

4 - What is a Bible verse or inspirational quote you can lean on when sharing or showing love is difficult?

For a Google doc version of this devo, click here: Week 17 Devo

Week 16 Devo | You Are the Light of the World

There is a saying that winning cures all problems. We praise winners, and we criticize or dismiss the losers. When you are winning, everyone is happy. When losing comes, so do the excuses, finger-pointing, and blaming.

The best teams and the best teammates learn how to manage both winning and losing in a productive way. I say learn because managing winning and losing effectively can take time. 

When you have momentum and when you are winning, try not to get too high. Stay humble, keep working hard, and keep making the next, right play.

When you are losing, don't get too down. Stay hungry and confident, and find ways to make the next, right play.

Success in sports and life are all about making the next, right play.

But doing the right thing is easier when you have momentum and when everything is going your way. Anybody can be a great teammate when things are going great. The best teammates can be a light in darkness and do the right thing when nothing is going right and hope is lost.

Being a light in ALL circumstances is exactly what Jesus called us to do.

In Matthew, Chapter 5, Jesus had just begun preaching when he went up on a mountainside, sat down, and gave his famous Sermon on the Mount. 

In Matthew, Chapter 5:14-16, Jesus told his disciples:

"You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven."

What does it mean to be a light of the world? Light dispels darkness. You can't have darkness when you have light. You also can't be positive and negative at the same time. As a follower of Jesus, be a light for others by bringing positive energy to everything that you do. That can be hard because negativity often has a stronger pull on people than positivity, but that is why being a light of the world is so important.

There is more than enough negativity in our world. There are more than enough complainers and excuse-makers in losing locker rooms. Bring positivity everywhere you go by being a light that produces love, joy, and peace.

And don't let anyone dim your light by stealing your love, your joy, or your peace. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden, and neither can your light if you live and lead with love, joy, and peace. Don't let your circumstances dictate how your light shines; shine bright through the good and the bad.

It is easy to allow the negativity of a toxic team or locker room to turn you into a negative person, but you can't allow negativity to win.

It would have been easy for Jesus to allow negativity to win. He knew that one of his disciples and friends, Judas Iscariot, was going to turn him in to the chief priests and elders, and he knew that they were going to beat him, torture him, and kill him. But what did he do? 

He hosted The Last Supper, and he washed Judas’s feet (John 13:1-17). He continued to be a symbol of love, joy, and peace even in the face of death.

Those last days could not have been easy for Jesus. The night he was captured and taken in, Jesus prayed so hard that Luke, a physician and one of his disciples, recorded that Jesus’s sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground (Luke 22:44). Jesus even prayed that God would take this cup, or responsibility, away from him, but instead of relieving Jesus, He sent an angel to strengthen Him (Luke 22:4-43).

Jesus endured the cross for us. He showed us that even facing the worst circumstances imaginable, we can still bless others, we can still be a light of the world, and we can still share love, joy, and peace.

THIS WEEK

1 - What is one way that you can be a light for those around you?

2 - Storms will come. What can you do, or what is one Bible verse or inspirational quote can you lean on that will help you shine your light through the storms?

3 - Who is someone you might need to be a light for?

For a Google doc version of this devo, click here: You Are the Light of the World

Week 15 Devo | Salt of the Earth

Every team has great teammates who bring out the best in each other. Every person has talents and gifts, and every person has flaws. The best teams bring out the gifts and talents of each teammate, and the best teams cover up for each other's flaws.

The best teammate I ever had was a guy named Dee. I played college basketball with Dee. When Dee was a freshman, he was younger than all of us, smaller, and slower than all of us. Our coach almost made him sit out and redshirt his freshman year, but he worked his way onto our roster.

Dee didn't play much our freshman year, but he was our hardest worker, and he made practice fun. He was always talking and always bringing energy and enthusiasm. He never stopped talking, in a positive way, in practice. He was always clapping, always cheering, and always encouraging us.

He brought out the best in all of us. We were a better team because he was in our locker room, and we were better people because he was in our life.

Dee was a living example of what it means to be the salt of the earth.

In chapter 5 of the book of Matthew, Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them what is called the famous Sermon on the Mount.

Jesus first gave them the Beatitudes, a vision for how we can keep living as Jesus calls us even when life is hard, and a reminder that our rewards will be worth the struggles when we live and work with faith.

He then said to them,

“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.”

But what does this mean? The Salt Association is the trade association representing UK manufacturers of salt. They wrote, “Salt is one of the essential mineral components of a healthy diet, helping the body to perform vital functions,” and, “For thousands of years, salt has been used to preserve food and to improve taste.”

Salt is a natural preservative that has been used for 1,000s of years to preserve many different types of foods. Long before the invention of refrigerators, salt was used to keep food safe and fresh.

God’s Word has also been around for 1,000s of years, and when Christ tells us that we are the salt of the earth, He might have been saying that it is our responsibility to preserve the truth of God’s word and the Bible. Growing closer to God by reading the Bible and speaking to God in prayer are two of the best ways to get to know the truth of God so that you can preserve it. 

A good place to start is The Greatest Commandment. In Matthew 22:36, Jesus was asked, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’"

Another place to start when trying to learn the truth of God’s word and the Bible are with the fruits of the spirit. In Matthew 7, Jesus said, “Beware of false prophets. You will know them by their fruits. A good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.” In Galatians, it is written, “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” 

My teammate Dee embodied all of those characteristics.

Salt is also a seasoning that brings flavor and brings out the best in food. In the same way, we are supposed to bring flavor and bring out the best in others. It starts with seeing the good in yourself, seeing the good in others, and seeing the good in every situation. God puts good in everybody, but everybody has their own flaws too. We get to choose the see the good or the bad in everything. When you are the salt of the earth, you search for the good and help bring the best out of people. You have the ability to bring the flavor out in others.

Finally, salt can make you thirsty. When people see you and the way you live your life, hopefully, it creates thirst and craving for God. When people see you, they should see something different in you and they should have a thirst for something that you have. They should see the love, joy, and peace that you live with and want some of that. They should see the impact of God in the way you talk, act, and interact with others.

When people see you, they should see something different, and they should want more of it.

Salt has over 14,000 other uses, and so do we. But if we can focus on persevering on God’s truth and bringing out the best in others, we will live a life where people thirst for more.

Preserve and share God’s truth by reading the Bible and through constant prayer with God. Bring out the best in the people you live, work, and play with. Influence people to want more Jesus, God, and the Bible because of the love, joy, and peace that you live with.

Be the salt of the earth. Be a blessing so that you can be a blessing. Make other people better just because you walk in the room or join the team.

Oh, and Dee went on to become the MVP of our team and had a very successful professional career.

THIS WEEK

1 - What can you do to learn more about God's Word so that you can help keep it, preserve it, and share it?

2 - What can you do to bring out the best in the people you live, work, and play with?

3 - How can you live life in a way that people will thirst more for the word of God?

For a Google doc version of this devo, click here: Salt of the Earth

What Could I Have Done Differently?

NFL champion Andrew Whitworth said, “How you handle attention and success, or how you handle negativity or negative times and adversity, and how you are willing to stand up and own those moments are things you can’t know about yourself until you have walked through them and experienced them.”

Boxing great Mike Tyson famously said, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”

We live life and we make decisions. Some of those decisions work out great, and many of them don’t. But we have to continue to live life with courage through the good times and the bad.

Peter Drucker is known as The man who invented management. He once said: “Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection, will come even more effective action.”

Reflection is about careful thought. In an article for the Harvard Business Review, executive coach Jennifer Porter wrote:

"Reflection gives the brain an opportunity to pause amidst the chaos, untangle and sort through observations and experiences, consider multiple possible interpretations, and create meaning. This meaning becomes learning, which can then inform future mindsets and actions. For leaders, this “meaning-making” is crucial to their ongoing growth and development."

She also wrote that a research study about call centers showed that workers who spent just 15 minutes at the end of the day reflecting on lessons learned performed 23% better after 10 days than those who did not reflect.

A simple way to see growth is through spending some time thinking about your day, what you did well, what you could have done better, and what you are going to do the same or different tomorrow.

In some games, I do a great job of leading and executing. In many games, I don’t. Nobody is perfect, nobody wins every game, and nobody wins every interaction. But we can all learn from every experience if we value and practice self-reflection.

Practicing self-reflection can help us learn and grow as we go through life. Practicing self-reflection can help us gain wisdom through the process of living life. And research shows that just 15 minutes a day of self-reflection can change your life.

4 QUESTIONS TO DRIVE SELF-REFLECTION

1 – What did I do well today?

2 – What did I struggle with today?

3 – What is something I need to do more of?

4 – What is something I need to do better or differently?

REFERENCES

Porter, Jennifer. Why You Should Make Time For Self-Reflection. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2017/03/why-you-should-make-time-for-self-reflection-even-if-you-hate-doing-it

WEEK 14 DEVO | THE BEATITUDES

Sports and life include challenges and setbacks. No matter what your goals are, adversity should be an expectation and not a surprise. Some of those struggles and challenges are the people who we play with and compete against. It would be great if everyone we play with and against were great to us, supportive, and displayed amazing sportsmanship, but opponents, and even some teammates, can be mean, rude, cruel, and ugly. It is important to learn how to deal with difficult people in a positive way, and it is equally important to have enough courage and confidence to keep going when adversity comes. As followers of Jesus, we have even more challenges because we have higher standards that we are called to live up to.

Early in the book of Matthew, Jesus taught his disciples a series of blessings called The Beatitudes during his famous Sermon on the Mount. The Sermon on the Mount was given early in his ministry. Jesus began preaching when he heard that John the Baptist, the preacher in the wilderness of Judea who prepared the way for him, was arrested. From that time, it was written that Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand (Matthew 4:17).”

Jesus went throughout all of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and great crowds began to follow him. Seeing the crowds, Jesus went up on a mountain, sat down, and his disciples came to him. That is when Jesus taught them the Beatitudes:

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way, they persecuted the prophets who were before you." (Matthew 5:3–12)

The Beatitudes are a vision for how we can keep living as Jesus calls us even when life is hard, and they remind us that our rewards will be worth the struggles when we live and work with faith.

Life can be hard. People can be hard on us and hard to work with. Adversity is a part of everyone’s journey. But each of The Beatitudes explains the blessings of following the teachings of Jesus.

THIS WEEK

1 – Which Beatitude do you like the most?

2 – How can you serve or bless someone this week by being a living example of the Beatitude you like the most?

3 – Which Beatitude do you need the most work on?

4 – What is something you can do this week to do a better job of fulfilling the Beatitude you need the most work on?

For a Google doc version of this devotional, click here: Week 14 Devo | The Beatitudes