Football: It’s just a game. But, it’s our family’s game. We will spend the next five months talking football, watching football games on television and traveling to games, close and far away. The end of August starts football season and we are pumped up.
I’m invested in two teams and their coaches — Deion “Coach Prime” Sanders, head football coach at the University of Colorado Boulder, and Creede Wylie, assistant coach for the D team at New Mexico Highlands University. Why am I invested? Sanders is a winner and Wylie, my grandson, is also a winner.
They are pouring God’s principles into these young football players, making them winners, not only on the field, but showing them how to win in the real world.
I bought Sander’s book, “Elevate and Dominate: 21 Ways to Win On and Off the Field.” In the book, he asks “What’s your why? ... When I was seven, I told my mama, I was going to be rich and make a lot of money when I got older and that she was never going to have to work another day in her life. She looked at me, shook her head, and said, ‘OK, until then, go get the lawn mower and cut the grass.’
“That was a turning point in my life. I had my target, my Why…What are you passionate about? What do you love? What are things you could talk about for hours on end? What really lights you up?”
The news broadcasts how college students and young people, who work in the market place, cope with life. They have sunk to sucking on pacifiers. Companies even sell pacifier clips, beaded ones, vintage inspired colors that bring to mind a peaceful moment. Whoa. Hold the phone. These are for babies and the world has made them popular for grownups. What happened to these grownup kids?
These pacifiers, also known as binkies, help these grownup babies soothe themselves and provide comfort through sucking. These companies have catered to the pacifier addict. And this makes it OK? No. Absolutely not.
Generation Z, also known as Gen Z, born between 1995 and 2010, are taking their parents on job interviews. It is said in the news that they are the luckiest kids in history thanks to AI, despite mounting job displacement dread. What happened to this generation? Did they lose their why and never had a good reason to get out of bed?
I guess they have many things that could give them reason to give up. Is it because life is too hard for them and they are still living at home? Do you think that one of these babies, sucking on a pacifier, would dare walk onto Coach Prime’s or Wylie’s football field? Help us, Jesus.
It’s not really about age or circumstances, but how a person handles trials and difficulties along the way. I contemplated “why” in my own life. Why am I determined to walk again and not be trapped in a wheel chair for the rest of my days? My “why” explains why I’m still in physical therapy and walking up and down the stairs twice a day. I want to be able to attend all my grandson’s games, and I don’t want to be a burden on my family.
Some older people, who are done with life, are ready to check out. Why? They have lost their reason for living. It hurts to move; it’s easy to let others wait on you and even feel sorry for you. They might have lost their spouse, their home and even have had to move to an assistant living facility.
They don’t have to lose their reason for living. They do not have to give up. They just need to readjust their focus. Big projects are too big, but little projects are doable. The target could be something from their past — that thing they loved doing and were passionate about. They’ve spent years perfecting that skill; now maybe it’s time to share it in small ways.
I’m ready to watch two of my favorite coaches and see how they have motivated their teams to be winners — not only making them football players, but helping them figure out their whys in life.
Final brushstroke: I have not seen a pacifier in the mouth of any of those young men in their football uniforms. They work for their numbers, and know they will probably be knocked down and eat dirt, but the why keeps them in the game. They understand what it takes to live in the real world.
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