God and the Gridiron

I have been given the privilege of coaching sixteen eight and nine year old little boys in football. It is no secret that football is my favorite sport. I played from childhood right up through college. To this day I get excited when two a day football practices start, or when I walk through a smelly locker room and smell the sweaty pads. I love football. I love the big hits, the breakaway runs for a touchdown, the aired out passes, the bone jarring tackles, and especially the quarterback sacks. (I was a defensive lineman and have a special place in my heart for quarterbacks but especially when they are on their backs.)
This summer as I preached my way through the book of Colossians I have been drawn back to the reality that life really is about living for Christ. Jesus Christ is the greatest reality in the whole universe. [Col 1:13-23] [Col 1:27] [Col 2:1-12] [Col 2:17-18] After preaching one message I felt impressed to go to all our high school football coaches and challenge them to make this football season about glorifying Christ. That is when it dawned on me that as a Christian first, as a dad second, as a pastor third, and as a volunteer coach lastly, God was entrusting me with the same responsibility of investing spiritually into those sixteen young men I will be spending time with over the next two months. I determined then that I was going to make our team about Christ and promoting His glory.
I have always prayed with the teams I have coached in the past but this year I decided to take it to a whole new level. I talked to the parents the first day of practice and told them that I would be praying with their boys and doing a devotional with them after every practice. I told them I was the pastor of the First Baptist Church Paradise and that I would not shove it down their throats but that there are a lot more important things than football to teach these boys.
After each practice of hitting drills, trying to learn new plays, and running wind sprints, we huddle up and I share a verse of scripture and we have a closing prayer. My heart leapt within me yesterday morning when one of the families on our football team came and visited our Sunday school class and came to worship with us. That’s what it is all about. I trust throughout the course of the next couple of months I will have opportunities to share my faith and see others drawn to the Savior.
That is our responsibility. Yes, I want to win games and to have a successful season. Yet, the real measure of success should be for all believers how many people are coming to the Savior? [Rom 1:16] “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes to the Jew first and to the Greek.” You can mix God and the gridiron if we are not ashamed of Christ and His good news. The same thing can be done on the soccer field, basketball court, baseball diamond, and even out in the work place.
The Lord has just simply given me a way to take two of the greatest passions of my life; God and football and let them work together for God’s glory. I do not know how many if any games we will win this season but I know we are going to succeed at the bigger game of life. I know these boys are going to hear spiritual truth that potentially be life transforming. It makes it worth the time invested in practices and games if Christ is glorified by our little team.