28 Sep Knowing Who (and Whose) We Are

If you know me, you know I am somewhat of a sports fan—I grew up playing quite a lot of different sports, and I love the idea of competition, of having great teammates and experiencing things with them, and the feeling that comes when you overcome obstacles and improve (and yes, win!).

Now, of course, being a father, I have the joy of watching my kids play sports, and love getting to coach them when I can, especially in baseball.

Over the years, as a coach, I’ve discovered a key that usually helps any player, regardless of skill or background, do better:

Typically, when I am coaching hitting, for example, I will ask the player, “What are you thinking when you step into the batter’s box?”

(Again, please forgive the sports metaphor if this is not you—I’m trying to go somewhere with this).

At first, the answers I got were a little surprising, but I’ve heard the same things so often I believe this to be a universal truth:

Almost every kid says something like, “I’m just trying to not strike out.” Or, “I just want to put my bat on it.” Or, “I just don’t want to swing at a bad pitch.”

Did you catch that? Almost every response every player almost always gives me has little to do with possible success, but everything to do with trying to avoid failure.

At which point, I will inevitably say to them: “Let me give you something I think you should think before anything else. Before you ever get in the batter’s box, you should be saying to yourself: I am a good hitter, and I can hit that guy (or girl).”

Usually, at this point, they kind of look at me in unbelief, but then I make them repeat back to me those words, “I am a good hitter”.

Now, it may not be true of them at this moment in time, but I have watched over and over again the change that comes when a young man moves from a negative internal monologue that focuses on avoiding failure, and moves to a much more positive one that imagines the possibility of success. All of a sudden, he swings with more confidence, he begins to believe that he can do it—all because someone (his coach) believed in him in the first place.

I think this is a little picture of how God works with us and desires for us to move out into the world. You should not take what I am saying as just positive thinking, or wishful thinking—and yes, it’s true that if a kid is fundamentally terrible, his performance may not improve that much; but what he has learned in that moment he can take and translate into an area he is gifted in, and something great will happen. Why?

It is because it is not just our skills or our talent in life that are most important, but it is our heart that is most important. Having a heart that says, along with the apostle Paul, “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength” is an appropriate response to any situation—whether it is a simple game, or facing down something much more complex and challenging, such as the loss of a loved one or a betrayal by a friend.

Those words I speak to those kids, and that I have them repeat to themselves, aren’t just something for their mind; they are words for their hearts. I speak them to give them a courage they would not, and do not, possess on their own.

How much more should we have courage as the people of God? Our faith isn’t built on something that even a well-meaning person says to us, but it rests on the Word of God himself, who loved us and gave Himself for us!

What situation are you facing right now? Would you have just a small bit of faith to say what your Heavenly Father already said about you: That you can do all the things He is asking you to do? Not because of who you are on your own, but because of His grace in your life. I have discovered that one way that faith grows in my life is when I say about myself what God has already said about me.

I think that was the kind of spirit that Jonathan had, in I Samuel 14, when faced with how to defeat the Philistines, who were raiding his land and people and discouraging them left and right. Jonathan said to his armor bearer:

“It may be that the Lord will work for us, for nothing can hinder the Lord from saving by many or by few.” And his armor-bearer said to him, “Do all that is in your heart. Do as you wish. Behold, I am with you heart and soul.”

If God is for us, who can be against us?

Morgan