When you work hard
September 1, 2010 (Wednesday)
The Texans beat the Cowboys Saturday night. By a hefty margin. The Texans “whupped up on ‘em.” I was glad to see the Texans win, but I was also sad for the Cowboys.
The Cowboys’ stadium is the finest in the entire world. The sportscasters still rave about it as they announce the games. There’s nothing like it anywhere, and it cost more than a billion dollars.
It reminds me of an old sermon illustration about the coach who was losing and tried “everything.” He redesigned the team uniforms and made the patterns and colors exciting. He asked for a new type of helmet for his players. He asked for, and got, a brand new stadium with all the modern accessories. He put up big screens so that the crowd could see the plays close up through the camera. He even instituted taped replays to make the games more enjoyable and exciting. Nothing worked. His team kept losing games. Only then did the administration and alumni begin talking about a new coach.
Then an old-time, old-fashioned coach who had won many games in his career, gave the coach a call. He suggested majoring on blocking and tackling. So that’s what the coach did. The team got in shape, studied the plays, and threw themselves into the game with a winning attitude. Would you believe they started winning games?
There’s no way around the basics, be it a football team, a family, or a church. Some families and churches are dysfunctional. Some of them have discovered the right way to live in a family or church, and that calls for everyone majoring on the basics: love and respect, courtesy and kindness, and other things as well. Good homes and churches are like good teams: they don’t happen accidentally.