Are You A Good Coach?

As much as I dislike going to doctors, I guess it’s time I admit if I’m going to live any longer I need to put my trust in a good general practitioner. It happened to me again last week, that denial that something is going wrong in the body and it needs an attentive hand before it gets out of hand. But no, I can ride this thing out without a doctor. Wrong!! It’s amazing how a microscopic bug can take over the body, cause an infection and essentially shut down the whole digestive process. The body is a team effort and when one player goes down it’s time for the coach to make a decision. As a coach I haven’t been making very good decisions lately nor paying the attention I ought to my players. Life and health is a fragile thing, and old age ain’t for sissy’s, so I guess it’s about time I admit I need help with my general health and stop being so macho about the whole thing. Needless to say, I was very ill last week and recovering this week with some high-powered medicine. For best results, engage brain and use.
Before he was terminated by the Dallas Cowboys football team, Coach Barry Switzer was seeking advice all around the NFL on what ingredient makes for a winning football team. He eventually sought out Steve Mariucci of the San Francisco Forty-Niners, who told him the MOST important thing to having a winning football team was to have a quarterback who was extremely smart. As proof he took him over to quarterback, Steve Young, and asked Steve this question: “Who is you father’s brother’s nephew?” Steve Young, without hesitating a moment answered, “I am”. When Switzer returned to the Cowboys practice facilities, he went over to Troy Aikman and asked him the same question: “Who is your father’s brother’s nephew?” Troy thought about it for a moment and told the coach he needed some more time to come up with the right answer. Then, Troy went to Deion Sanders and asked him the question. Deion immediately replied, “Why, I am”. So Troy Aikman went back to Coach Switzer and said, “I have the answer. It’s Deion Sanders”. Switzer giggled and said, “No, No, you’re wrong. It’s Steve Young.” Not much has changed, has it.
A customer service representative for a national pager company received an unusual complaint on the phone one day. It seems a man keeps getting paged by a “Lucille”, somebody he doesn’t know and doesn’t want his wife to see. The rep instructed the man to simply call her and ask her to stop paging him. “She don’t never leave no number, so I can’t call her back”, replied the irritated customer. The rep asked how he knew it was Lucille if she didn’t leave a number. “She leaves her name”, was the reply. After establishing that the customer had a numeric-only pager the rep asked the customer to spell her name for him. Very slowly and methodically the customer said, “L-O-W-C-E-L-L.”
[Ephesians 6: 10-18] We use everything from vitamins to antibiotics to fend off unwanted germs and viruses harmful to our body, but what about our spirit? Paul talks about our war with spiritual forces always trying to invade our nature of love and kindness and goodness. When we let them in, we become like the world, and lose the image of God, of which we are made. Paul says, “Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of the dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Beware!