20 Years From Now...

Do you ever wish you could fast forward 20 years from now and see what your coaching or athletic career produces?  I find that one of the most difficult things I’ve experienced as an athlete and now as a coach is the reality that we will not see the results of our efforts until months, years, and even decades down the line.  I also believe that it is one of the most beautiful aspects of sport and the journey of faith: taking a step forward in your efforts with the faith that there will be the result you desire for the future sometime down the line.  Joe Ehrmann, said in his book in InsideOut Coaching, “People often ask what kind of success my team will have this season.  I tell them I will let them know in 20 years.”

Hebrews 11 speaks of people like Abel, Noah, Abraham and Sarah, Moses, and Rahab who lived lives of faith, even in their flaws and weaknesses, without often seeing the results in their lifetimes (v.13) For example, it speaks of Moses’ life: “By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharoah’s daughter and chose to suffer with the people of God rather than enjoy the short-lived pleasure of sin.” (11:24) 

To what are we hoping to produce with our athletic and coaching careers?  I’m hoping my teammates remember years from now how I cared about them despite our differences, how I worked hard with humility and selflessness and how my faith in Christ was shown in real ways to them.  As a coach, I long to be in a place where I see my coaching daily as a way to teach and encourage our players to see who they really are in God’s eyes and how to give with the life they’ve been given. To measure our success based on seeing our players twenty years from now and they are still remembering how they felt a part of a family, how they grew in confidence, and how the season brought them closer to the love of God while seeing ways they could give from the love they were receiving.  Let’s ask God for the strength and faith to “run the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus…who for the joy that lay before Him endured a cross…” (Hebrews 12:2).