The trouble with being a good sport is that you have to lose to prove it. That was one of the Sentence Sermons that Tina included in last Sunday’s church bulletin for our church members to ponder. That statement led Pastor Don to comment on it because our mighty Gators had just the day before defeated the South Carolina Gamecocks in a football game between two teams ironically both needing a win desperately! It led me immediately to two related thoughts on this topic.
The immediate thought I had was one of the true highlights of my personal life. That would be the privilege I had to coach all of Stevie’s city league baseball teams from age 7-14, sometimes two teams a year in the spring and fall. It allowed Stevie and I to spend quality time together and for me to teach him and some other boys the basics about baseball and also about competition. My opinion has always been that competing hard to win at anything is not bad. Competition at anything can make everyone better. This statement is as true in academics and getting a job as much as it is true in athletics. But if my goal is that I must win and my son must always win, then that crosses a line that I do not support. Yet, there were a few coaching dads who clearly felt that way and coached that way.
This leads me to the second point I thought of last Sunday morning sitting in church. That point was from another daily devotional from my Tim Tebow book One-Year Devotional: Mission Possible from September 13 titled What Is Your Motive? Tim begins his message with the following scripture:
Philippians 2:3-4 – Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
Tim begins the message with a quote from pastor Rick Warren from his book The Purpose Driven Life that “Humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less. Humility is thinking more of others.” Tim then continues:
When Scripture tells us to have humility in the way we work, it does not mean we should put ourselves down; it means we must shift the focus from our own lives to the world around us. It comes down to motive. Why are you doing the things you do? In mission-possible life, you can still strive to beat your personal best, hustle hard, and have big dreams, but it’s about doing that with a willing and obedient spirit. You use your God-given gifts not for selfish gain but because you know that God has blessed you so that you can bless others.
I tried my best as a coach to try and make all the boys on our team feel that they were equally important to whatever success we had as a team. Although each team had players with a wide variety of baseball ability, I tried my best to make them all feel equal. The best athletes on the team usually played shortstop and third base, and the lesser talented boys generally played second base and first base but everyone played the infield and outfield. Even my best players played right field although that was the least likely place where balls would be hit by the younger age teams. My purpose as a coach was to teach all players to understand the game of baseball and for each one of them to, hopefully, grow to love the game for a lifetime regardless of their ability.
I can tell you that another one of my great personal joys in life was to be able to attend many Gator baseball games with Stevie while he was in college and grad school here at UF and to discuss the possible strategies and options the coach might use for each hitter and defensively as well. Stevie has grown to love the game of baseball, which was my real goal in coaching.
In addition, both my 8- and 9-year old granddaughters are now playing on softball teams. I don’t know how long each of them might continue playing this game, but I can tell you it is a new highlight of my life to have worked with my 8-year-old granddaughter for the past year helping my next generation of family to learn and play this game just as I did with my son many years ago. I look forward to doing the same with my 9-year-old granddaughter if she also continues the game.
So, the bottom line to my message today is that competition in life can be good in everything we do, but that we need to keep it in perspective. We need to appreciate the opportunities God gives us to serve him and to be humble in our approach always, and to give all the glory to God.
Colossians 3:12 – Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.