Coaching a Winner
by Ashley Hamilton
I’ve always liked a good competition. Ever since I was a little girl I thought it was fun to play catch with my dad or shoot hoops in the driveway. I remember we had a pool table for a few years, and I thought it was so much fun trying to try to win a game. I also played a lot of sports when I was younger. I was on the soccer team in grade school mostly because that’s what everybody else was doing. The same went for softball and volleyball. It’s what everybody did, so I did it too. I even tried basketball one season when I was in the 6th grade, but I never really liked that sport. The one sport I really truly still love to this day is tennis. I played tennis for my high school and loved every day of it. There is something about playing a game of singles, where you are completely dependent on yourself for whether you win or lose a game. It’s a lot like life. Sometimes you are the only one in your end of the court. And you never know who you are going to be up against; who is going to be on the other side of that net. But the one inevitable truth about your opponent is that they want you to lose. Much the same as you want them to lose, so you can be the winner. This brings out the competitive streak in me. I never wanted to lose. No one ever wants to lose. But if one person ends up the winner, the other one has to be the loser.
I always wanted to be a good athlete. I never wanted to be the best necessarily--probably because I was never going to be the best at any one sport. But I did want to be good. I wanted to be my best. It was and is important to me to give it my all out there on the court. Of course, now that I am in my twenties and haven’t been on a sports team in years, I don’t ever compete in anything. I rarely face a competitive challenge where it’s me versus an opponent. But the motivation and determination that comes from wanting to win can still be very powerful, and I know it is still in me somewhere. If I were asked to compete, I know I wouldn’t back down from trying to win.
I have seen a lot of coaching styles over the years. Some coaches were more serious than others. Some were just downright scary. There are the coaches who jump for joy when you make a great play--just the way they taught you. There are others who scream at you when you make a mistake. And then there are the coaches who watch silently with a belief and faith that the training they have given you is going to pay off, and you are going to beat your opponent. The best coaches have a little bit of all of these traits, and it skillfully comes together to look like they are one of your fans just as much as the people in the bleachers. But more. They will be the first to give you the encouraging words you need to hear when you are down 5 games and are about to lose the set. And those words are inspiration enough for you to then win 6 games in a row and beat your opponent in a tie-breaker. When it seems impossible to win but you somehow still manage, you know you have to thank your coach because your coach was there mentally helping you along the way. Your coach is the voice in your head reminding you of techniques you need to know and the skills they taught you. Your coach is your guiding hand, your biggest supporter. They develop the talents you do or don’t possess to make you the best player you can be. Your coach’s one job is to prepare you for when you meet your opponent. And whether you succeed or fail is reflected in how well your coach prepared you.
I picture God to be a lot like this. Just call Him Coach. In fact, I think I will call Him Coach. If I am the only one on my side of the net and God is Coach, then my opponent is sin. I want to make the Coach proud and prove that He trained me well enough to not let sin dominate the game. And if each day is a new game, all the while God is there on the sidelines, like any coach would be, ready to cheer me on when I win a point against sin. He gets frustrated when I mess up or disappointed when I can’t get it right. All the little challenges or sins that come up during a day are like points in a tennis game. At the end of the day I either won or I lost. But no matter what, when I wake up the next day my Coach is still going to be there encouraging me and training me. God will still be there on the sidelines. Still hoping I make the right choices so it reflects well on Him. So people who are watching can see that He trained me well and I’m ready for whatever comes my way.
There are always going to be the days when I am down 5 games. Not just 5 points but 5 games. And it is those moments when the only thing there is to do is to walk over to the sidelines to talk to God. A pep talk, an encouraging word or sometimes a kick in the butt is what it might take to turn the game around. And no matter how far away Coach may be–perhaps watching one of the other players at the moment–the one thing I know I can count on is that my Coach is still near by. I may feel left all alone with this opponent, but He has not left me victim. There is a net between where I stand and where they stand, and that net is God’s love. Each time sin hits the ball over the net to my side of the court, it is that moment I get to decide if I am going to try to win or lose the point.
I imagine if I woke up each morning and thought, “Today I am going to be competing against sin, and its going to be a long match, but tonight when it’s all over I want to be the winner.” I wonder what kind of different choices I would make. Would that competitive streak come out in me and make it easier to not give in to sin? Athletes always want to win. So I want to win also. I want to look sin right in the face and say, “You lose because I’m better than you. I have the best Coach money could never buy. And I’ve been trained for this moment. Don’t even waste your time trying because my reward is too great to let you take it from me.” I want God cheering me on and giving high fives in Heaven when I do this. Because when I am who God wants me to be, it makes Him look good.
It means He coached a winner.