I'll share some recent thoughts and lessons I'm learning through my vocation.
1. The importance of preaching to yourself.
If I let the gymnasts do their beam routines as I quietly watch, they may or may not fall. But, they will certainly miss some specific movements. They will probably wobble, they won't do their split jump big enough. They certainly won't finish their full turn on highest releve. They'll probably have poor posture on their leap, and they will, without a doubt, forget to point their toes.
But, a strange thing will happen if they are doing their routine and I am constantly talking to them. If I'm saying helpful cues, I literally see them hear the words, and change what they are doing to apply my instruction. All of a sudden, their wobbles are gone. They have pointed toes. Their leaps are more aggressive. They look confident and competent.
The only thing that changed was who they were listening to. I try to remind them that the most influential person in their lives is themselves, because they talk the most to themselves. If they can remember what I say, and say it to themselves, then at the competition they will be rock solid competitors.
Same for my own spiritual life. If I can preach the gospel to myself, my faith wouldn't waver so much and I would be less prone to sin. I must remember that God loves me not because of what I do or don't do, but because of who He is. I must remember that God has set me free in Christ from sin and slavery and I don't have to respond in sin. I must remember that I more sinful than I ever could have imagined, but I'm more loved and welcomed than I could have ever dared hope.
2. God cares more than I care.
A typical conversation I have with anyone of my 35 gymnasts that I see on a regular basis is one that goes like this:
Me: Do you care about your gymnastics?
Gymnast: Yeah.
Me: But, I've given you the same correction 10 different ways. I've spotted you on this drill 5 times. I've encouraged you, pushed you, pressured you, and everything is the same. You're not making any corrections. There's not much effort to change what I've asked you to change. It seems to me that you don't value what I'm telling you. I can't care about your gymnastics more than you care about your gymnastics.
Because this sport is so intense for the coach, the gymnast and their family, we are encouraged to make sure the gymnasts care more about their gymnastics than the coach. If it's the other way around, the coach will carry a burden they can't bear and the gymnast will never live up to their expectations. The coach will always be disappointed and the gymnast will always be crushed from never meeting the coach's expectations.
At church this Sunday, my pastor said the most freeing, burden-lifting statement about the mission to make disciples throughout the whole earth. He said, "God cares more about his mission than you do." Because God has all authority, he will complete his mission--whether or not we do our part.
It was the opposite of what we tell the kids, and it was so freeing. I was free to go and make disciples because it doesn't depend on me. I'm completely approved by God whether my disciple-making efforts are successful or not.
Not only does he care about his mission more than I do, he has authority to complete it and he promises to be with me (Matt 28:16-20). So I'm abundantly confident his mission will be accomplished, and in knowing that he cares about it more than me has ironically made me care more about the mission.
Some videos of our young talent and fun pre-teens.
