Death Crawl

The death crawl scene in “Facing the Giants” is one of the most memorable movie scenes. Coach Taylor tells Brock, one of his players, to do the death crawl with his teammate on his back to the 50-yard line. As the scene plays out, Brock is told to keep his knees up and stay straight. But, when he gets tired and wants to give up, Coach Taylor shouts at him to go farther and to let it burn, continually saying, “Keep going.” He gets on the ground with Brock, crawls beside him, and tells him, “Find more strength.” By the end of the scene, the entire team is in awe as Brock collapses at the end zone, going 50 yards more than he thought he could.

This scene is about physical strength. But what if this exact scene was about spiritual strength?

Jesus came to this world and did exactly what Coach Taylor did and more. He got down on His hands and knees, drew near to His people, and said, “Go and do as I have done.” And because of this command, we start. Just like Brock, we get tired. But this is when we hear God speaking through Scripture, “Press on.” When we get weak, we hear, “When you are weak, I am strong. Find strength in me.” When we think we cannot do it anymore and doubt if we can go one step further, we hear, “I will complete a good work in you.”

Are we willing to get down, beat the ground, crawl beside someone, and say, “Press on. Find strength. There is a way, and that way is Jesus. It hurts sometimes, but there is an end to this hurt. Keep going.”

Brock only made it because his coach stayed by his side. Coaches have a major impact on their athletes’ physical lives but even more on their spiritual lives.