A Life for the Playoffs

I will be sporting black and gold a lot this weekend. Tonight, I will be on the sidelines with the Chuckey-Doak High School Black Knights in their first game in the 3A Tennessee State Football playoffs. It has been an honor for me to stand behind the Black Knights as their chaplain for the last 10 weeks, and I am looking forward to it again, tonight. I have packed my mock turtle, ski jacket and ball cap for tonight’s game.

Monday night, I will not need my outerwear, because when I am watching the Steelers vs Bengals in my own living room, it will be much warmer. I will be donning my #43 jersey, the number of my favorite player in the NFL, Troy Polamalu of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

I like Polamalu for several reasons, and the hair is not one of them! I like his attitude on and off the field…he doesn’t have diarrhea of the mouth. Most of all, I love Polamalu’s stealth. As you watch the Steelers defense, when #43 makes a big play, many times you don’t see Polamalu on the screen until a second before he makes the big play, itself. He comes out of nowhere, he catches you by surprise.

I remember in junior high watching Junior Seau play for the San Diego Chargers. Seau’s nickname in the early 90’s was “Tasmanian Devil”. Again, I liked his stealth, his speed, his agility. I wish Seau would have been on the Steelers roster, but I have to have respect for a great athlete.

The Black Knights have some great athletes on their squad this year. Some of these players may go on and play in college. Many on this football team play multiple varsity sports. Going into the playoffs with a record of 7 and 3, I have witnessed, first-hand, some great athleticism…I have seen some great talent.

Being around a high school football team for the last few months, and being a fan of football for most of my life, has made me reflect today on why teams make the playoffs, and why teams don’t make the playoffs. You see, bad teams don’t make the playoffs. Teams that can’t work together don’t make the playoffs. Teams that clown around in practice don’t make the playoffs, or face losses early in the playoffs.

I attended one of the CDHS football practices this week. The first drill after the warm-ups was a tackling circuit. This is a learning tool with four stations with the players rotating between the four every so many minutes. Each station teaches a different fundamental in great tackling—hitting low, wrapping the defenders arms around the waist of the one being tackled, etc. I stood and watched these high school athletes learning to hit, to take hits. I heard grunting, pads and helmets slamming against one another. There were definitely some scraped elbows and probably a few were sore later. They were getting ready for a playoff game. They were suffering in order to learn the skills that they need.

1 Peter 4:1-2 (NIV) says, “Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin. As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God.”

Those who have suffered in their bodies, spiritually, are done with sin. I look at football and I cannot help but think about the struggle, the battle that we wage everyday against an enemy so much bigger than an opposing team. If you talk to a believer that has stealth, speed, agility and endurance in their life, you will find that they have done as Peter has said here—suffered. They have suffered in their bodies and they are done with sin and they do not live for what their bodies once desired. They have, as Paul says, beat themselves into submission. They have trained, they have worked.

Seau proved, and Poloamalu is still proving, that the skill of a great athlete starts with a small amount of talent and is capitalized in the work that is put in building upon the talent. CDHS football has a lot of talent, and as seen this week, the talent must be built upon in order to meet a formidable opponent in a playoff game.

The talent that we have been given as people in this world is Jesus Christ, Himself. He is the truth and the life that we need to get a life started on the right track. However, we are called upon to suffer to get over the sin in our life—the habits, the thoughts, the words that do not honor God.

A series of playoff games, if won in succession, leads to a championship. The good part is that if we have Christ on the throne of our life and we suffer and are done with sin, the championship is already won for us. Revelation 21:7 (NIV) says, “He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son.”

Are you living your life in the playoffs? Are you suffering in your body so that you can be done with sin? Do you have the stealth, the agility in your life that you desire? Or, are you sitting the bench watching someone else make the plays and looking in the stands seeing the fans wear someone else’s number?