Confident Faith

“Confident faith” is a characteristic that we as coaches need to embrace every day of our lives.  Acts 6:1-7 is a great demonstration of “confident faith,” as the apostle Paul writes about discipleship.  The church was upset with numerous things within involving widows and therefore, the 12 disciples gave them a talk and told the congregation to pick seven men of good reputation to lead them.  The people liked what they had to say and decided to choose seven men to lead them.  The chosen seven were: Stephen, Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus.  You may have never heard of them before, but we read that the reason they were so special was because Paul tells us they were, “full of faith and of the Holy Spirit.”  We see at the end of the passage that the Word of God continued to be preached, the number of disciples multiplied, and even priests were being obedient to this faith!  How did this core group of seven chosen leaders accomplish this calling?  They were full of “confident faith,” and these are the characteristics that it displays.

1.    Confident faith sees every crisis as an opportunity to get better.  James chapter 1 tells us to, "count it all joy..."  Through failure and trials, we need to see that as an opportunity to become better.

    

2.  Confident faith spends its time doing what you are good at and called to do.  Don't get discouraged if you are not good at your calling right away.  You may not be good at it right away, but if it is your calling make sure to stick with it.

3.    Confident faith chooses the right people to tackle the problem.  The congregation chose 7 men who were full of the spirit and wisdom.  The right people that they chose were already in the church, but they just needed to be noticed.  Find somebody who is passionate about the fixing the problem even if they aren't experts.

4.    Confident faith trusts the team to come up with the solution.  Have faith in your team.  Don't try to do everything on you own.  The 12 disciples could have tried to fix everything on their own, but instead they allowed the church to pick their own leaders to find a solution.

Self-Discipline

"The ability to make yourself do what you should do when you should do it, whether you feel like it or not." - Brian Tracy (Taken from the book, "Extreme Focus" by Pat Williams

Coaching Lessons From Cirque du Soleil

Last night I was privileged to have a date with my lovely wife at the Cirque du Soleil La Nouba show in Downtown Disney.  Hearing that it was the best show in all of Orlando, I was very excited to go.  I am happy to announce that it exceeded all of my expectations and it even gave me some unexpected surprises that couldn’t stop me from thinking about coaching!  There were so many qualities and characteristics of the show that left me thinking, “If only I could get my players to play basketball the same way these people perform, we would win a lot more games.”  Some of the things that caught my attention were the trust, precision, focus, teamwork, and execution.

In every act of the show there was something that I could relate to coaching a basketball team.  First of all, there was a tight rope walker.  What better image of FOCUS and CONCENTRATION than someone who is walking on a one inch piece of rope, several feet above the ground.  One split second of giving up their FOCUS and it would be all over for them. 

There were also these bikers that reminded me of the X-games somewhat, but none the less were amazing.  Jumping over people, stopping on a dime, twisting and turning in ways only they know how.  I was so impressed with their PRECISION work and how they made inches seem like miles. 

Finally, I will finish off the article by telling you about my two favorite and impressive acts.  Three little girls headlined the show using toys called “Diabolos.”  The toy has two sticks with a string attached to both of them, and there is a cone shaped piece that spins and moves along the string.  You can toss it, juggle it, you name it you can do it.  Well, these girls mastered this thing and the show they put on was amazing.  They put on a TEAMWORK clinic and displayed such amazing FOCUS as they were flipping all over stage playing what looked to be the most fun game ever.  Lastly, the flying trapeze.  The TRUST that needs to be had here is outstanding.  Timing everything perfect so you don’t miss the bar or another person’s hands, or tossing a bar to another teammate.  The only way that I’m flipping hundreds of feet in the air is if I  know for a fact that I can TRUST someone will catch me or there will be a bar to grab onto at some point.  In all these acts the EXECUTION was significantly perfect and done so well.  I would recommend all you coaches to go to the show and tell me if you don’t agree with me.  This post probably makes it sound like a simple circus, but rather it was the perfect display of trust, precision, focus, teamwork, and execution that we as coaches could learn some valuable lessons from.

What Does "Coram Deo" Mean?

Coram Deo is the Latin translation for "Before the Face of God."  As coaches, this is a very important quality that we need to embrace and be an example of.  Everything that we do needs to be done, "Coram Deo."  That means what we do in practice, how we handle problems, the way we interact with our players off the court, and even how we live our lives.  Coaching "Coram Deo" not only will strive to help coaches learn about the game of basketball, but it will more importantly strive to teach coaches how to become a Christian coach.  Winning is important and no one likes to lose, but the only way we will ever become a truly successful coach is by the way we reflect our everyday tasks to the glory of Jesus.

Here are a couple links that I would strongly recommend looking at to better yourself at coaching "coram deo."

Coaches Sports Philosophy Network
Nations of Coaches