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I was walking through Home Depot today and ran into a player I had coached in youth football many moons ago. He was about a foot taller and no longer possessed those pudgy pounds. Instead, he looked far more like a man than the shy child I had coached. He recognized me and said, "Hey Coach, are you doing your job?"
His mother, who was with him, laughed and said that was the most quoted line in their house and it applied to everything from school work, to chores to football. She said those three words were magical and she thanked me for bringing them into their lives.
I asked the young man if he was doing his job. He informed me he had gone from a C student to not being satisfied with anything but an A. He said he was conditioning when others were playing video games, and he reminded me that doing your job was more important than winning the game.
I listened as he recounted to his mother and me how upset he had been with me when we had the hardest practice of the season after a victory. He said. "You made everyone run because we did not do our jobs in the game even though we won."
Having been on other teams he had come to realize that success was not measured in wins and losses as much as it was in being relentless about doing your part.
And observe what the Lord your God requires: Walk in his ways, and keep his decrees and commands, his laws and requirements, as written in the Law of Moses, so that you may prosper in all you do and wherever you go.
1 Kings 2:3
God calls each of us to do our jobs. He has given us the game plan in the bible and through His commands He has tasked us with the responsibility of practicing His law and sharing the gospel.
He calls on us each day to "do our job" of making time for Him. Are we setting time aside to pray, are we setting time aside to read his word and have we taken an opportunity to share his word with others.
We are measured by our doing the job and not by the wins and losses of life. If we got a promotion at our job, recovered from an illness or made huge gains in the stock market, did we give thanks to God? All of these are successes when we measure them through the behavior of doing our job.
As my former player pointed out, being successful is not sufficient if the success was from a poor or misguided effort. We need to focus on controlling what we can control and making sure we are creating and executing the fundamental habits which prepare us for the more difficult opponents.
You always hear coaches say, "Don't play down to your opponents level." What they are asking is for their players to do their jobs which will elevate them above mediocrity as a team. It will allow them to defeat the giants and pull off the miraculous upset.
God has a plan for each of us but we have free will and must execute on the plan. Want to know what the plan is then pray. Want to know how to succeed, then read the bible. Want to slay the devil then spread the Gospel. It all starts with doing your job.
