Two Minute Drills from Coach Joe Gibbs

[Judy Harder]

The Company You Keep

Our moms and dads could be pretty picky about the kinds of friends we hung around with. They understood it doesn't always take much persuasion, even for the best of kids, to turn innocent fun into risky behavior. Being with the right people, they knew, makes peer pressure a good thing.

But peer pressure isn't something that automatically ends when we take on adult responsibilities. Just because we're not teenage boys being dared to drive too fast or stay out too late, that doesn't mean we're not influenced by the grown-up friends we keep. People we go hunting with and meet for lunch can still hold significant weight on what we do, think, and say, and what we consider to be normal.

That's why we need friends who make us want to be more like Jesus. Men who have deep convictions and compassionate hearts. Men who don't have a church side and a public side. Men who love their wives and invest in their kids. Men who make us want to be even more sold-out and godly, not the kind who convince us, whether out loud or by a certain look, that we're taking this Christian life too seriously.

"As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another," the Bible says (Proverbs 27:17). If peer pressure is something we can expect to have around for a long time, we'd better be sure we've got some guys around us who help us want to become everything we ought to be.

Pray this prayer: Father, I'm thankful for the friends of mine who bring out the best in me. And for those who don't, would you give me the courage to cut back on the time I spend with them?

[Judy Harder]

The Enemy Within

Dr. Larimore, writing in Game Plan for Life, talks about the "Four Wheels of Health"—physical, emotional, relational, spiritual. A fully healthy person is one who is consistently, continually achieving balance in each of these areas. If any of the four loses air or goes flat, the whole thing begins to weave and wobble.

But here's the deal. While it makes so much sense to hear him tell it, there is a big part of us that resists being healthy. Just knowing the value of green, leafy vegetables and cardiovascular exercise doesn't ensure we'll go after them. Just being aware that honesty and openness are essential to becoming authentic people is not enough to make us live it out. "Surely the mind and heart of man are cunning" (Psalm 64:6). We cannot trust even ourselves to look out for our own best interests.

That's why it is so important that our lives be centered and grounded in God. He alone is rock-steady in a world that can't help but feel uncertain, as well as in hearts that can't always seem to follow what our heads are telling them. "If we are faithless, he will remain faithful" (2 Timothy 2:13). He is our one-and-only hope of being and staying as healthy as we want to be.

Pray this prayer: Lord God, you've found me out. I'm inconsistent at best and self-destructive at worst.  I truly desire to be a whole and healthy man, but I realize that I can't do it without you. Please help me.

[Judy Harder]

A Promising Future

There are many hundreds of methods out there for maximizing your potential in life, in business, in all kinds of areas. Some are sound, some are not, some are absolutely wonderful (like Game Plan for Life, of course). But even the best can't help but be incomplete in spots. And none of us are able to follow them perfectly, even then.

So while we are wise to gather information and set our goals, to make our plans and chart our progress, we will meet days when not everything comes together. We will encounter challenges that weren't covered in the literature. We will feel the need to make adjustments and wonder why we hadn't noticed this sooner.

But that's okay—because our trust is not in methods and strategies. Though we are certainly responsible for how we handle ourselves, we are not in total charge of where our future is headed. It is no cop-out, after listening and learning and being diligent to pursue best practices, to say, "I cry out to God Most High, who fulfills his purpose for me" (Psalms 57:2).

Any success plan that isn't submitted to God is destined for failure. Any man who thinks he can make it on his own hunches will find out otherwise, the hard way. But when we trust God to do his work in us, he can take even our missteps and turn them into positive gain. He will fulfill his purpose for you.

Pray this prayer: Lord, I worry too much. I push myself hard, but it still leaves so much that seems undone. I need to rest in the knowledge that you are more than capable of accomplishing your will in me.

[Judy Harder]

Enemy Sightings

If you struggle with an addiction—be it substance abuse, or pornography, or gambling, or whatever—you certainly know by now that making a turnaround is not something that happens overnight. It takes a true change of heart and usually a good long time. Nothing easy about it.

But one of the changes that needs to occur is your ability to see these temptations for what they really are. The rush that draws you to want a drug or a drink or a wide-eyed drive on the Internet is not coming from a friendly camp. Yes, these alluring appeals show up with claims of sweet relief. They feel like something you want and need. But actually, they are more like an "arrow that flies by day," like a "pestilence that stalks in the darkness," like a "plague that destroys at midday" (Psalms 91:5-6). Whenever they show up—morning, noon, and night, or all of the above—they are hired killers. They are sent to destroy.

Read all sixteen verses of Psalms 91 with this kind of focus and mind-set. See if you don't spot some new names, accounts, and descriptions of what your battle is like every day. And see if you don't find hope in the powerful protection of your Lord and Savior, who can enable you to "tread upon the lion and the cobra . . . to trample the great lion and the serpent" (Psalms 91:13).

Know your enemy. Trust your God. Live your victory.

Pray this prayer: Lord God, expose the teeth and sharp edges of every temptation that comes my way. Help me see them for what they are, and realize that I can only stay safe by stepping out of their path.

[Judy Harder]

Take a Knee

Some football players, when they break away for a go-ahead score or cause a key third-down sack, want to be sure they get their full ESPN's worth—the dances, the struts, the jerky moves they've been saving up for just such an opportunity.

Then there's the other approach—the guy who rips off a long touchdown run, flips the ball back to the referee, and trots to the sideline without all the show and the secret handshakes. He lives by this code: Don't act like it's the first time you've ever seen the inside of the end zone. Look like you've been there . . . like you never expected to be anywhere else.

When Jesus returns, you can be sure there will be a lot of people doing a lot of tap dancing, trying hard to prove why their occasional big plays should be enough to earn them a spot on his team. But eventually, "every knee" will bow, "in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Philippians 2:10-11). That's when the people who'd already humbled themselves before him on earth will have no hesitation taking a knee and giving him praise in heaven. It'll be like they've been there... like they never expected to be anywhere else. And where they'll be thankful now that there's no more penalty for excessive celebration.

Pray this prayer: Lord, I don't want be someone who only bows to you when they have to. I bow before you today, on this side of heaven. I want to go ahead and start getting good at this.

[Judy Harder]

Too Much Information?

It just can't be good that every credit card swipe we make, every phone call, every movement, it seems, is on somebody's computer somewhere. We're always watchful these days for privacy loss and identity theft, running our opened mail down the shredder to keep any more info about us from leaking out. It's even a little suspicious when the grocery sends us a dollar-off coupon for our favorite brand of ketchup, realizing we're only getting this because they know what we've been buying.

What people know about us today can hurt us. What they pull up on their screens can start coming out of our bank accounts. When people all over the world can see our driveway on a Google map, you've got to figure we're not totally safe from a smart intruder.

But even in a context like this, God has no problem admitting he knows your every thought. He knows the number of hairs on your head; knows the hopes and dreams that pulsate in your heart. He's able to "write in the register of the peoples: 'This one was born in Zion'" (Psalm 87:6)—in Charlotte, in Denver, in San Antonio. Everywhere you've been, everywhere you go, he's tracking you.

But not to hurt you. God uses his knowledge to direct your steps, to bring you growth opportunities, to meet very specific needs, to send you help when you're hurting. The more he knows, the better. The more you trust him, the safer you'll be.

Pray this prayer: Lord, I know I can't hide anything from you. But I pray you'll let me see this as a good thing. Knowing I'm constantly on your radar doesn't make me feel watched, just cared for.

[Judy Harder]

How Does He Do That?

One of the reasons we like watching a NASCAR race, or a PGA major, or a world-class track and field event is because we enjoy wondering how people are able to perform with that kind of skill, at that kind of level. Who stands over an iron shot in the heavy rough and mashes it 200 yards, within a few feet of the pin? Who runs a marathon in a little more than two hours and survives to make it to the medal ceremony? Wow.

If you ever want to spend a few minutes in your Bible having this same kind of feeling, the book of Job, chapters 38-41, will give you that sensation. You'll experience a tour de force through some of the greatest mysteries of God's Creation, and wonder, "How does he do that?"

"Who cuts a channel for the currents of rain, and a path for the thunderstorm?" (38:25) "From whose womb comes the ice? Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens?" (38:29) Who can give "the horse his strength or clothe his neck with a flowing mane?" (39:19) Who could "make a pet" of a giant whale or "put him on a leash for your girls" if he felt like it? (41:5)

It's amazing enough to look at the world around us and marvel at what we see. It's even more amazing to know that the God who loves us is the One who thought up, designed, and made it all.

Pray this prayer: Lord, whenever I'm impressed by what another man can do, help me see that it's nothing compared to the One who makes him able to do it. I stand in total awe of you again today.

[Judy Harder]

Anger Management

Whether at work or at home or in some other setting, you know what it's like when someone gets mad, gets their feelings hurt, and accuses you of something you didn't do. Instead of coming to find out what really happened or to talk it out calmly, they start right in with the accusations.

First reaction is what? "If they've got the nerve to come in here blaming me for things they don't even know about, they'd better have the guts to hear what I think of it . . . and of them."

Same thing happened to an Old Testament hero named Gideon, who famously took 300 men on a nighttime raid of a huge enemy encampment, armed with nothing more than trumpets, torches, and a bunch of empty jars. When God gave this tiny band an unlikely victory, some of the other fighting men of Israel swooped over to get into the action. But they were steamed that Gideon hadn't seen them fit to be part of the initial attack. "They criticized him sharply," the Bible says at the beginning of Judges 8. Still, instead of getting into a shouting match, he calmly told them he wasn't half the fighting man they were. Cooler heads carried the day. "At this, their resentment against him subsided."

Remember this:  "A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger" (Proverbs 15:1). Next time someone wants to start something, let your low-key response put an end to it.

Pray this prayer: Lord, teach me how to take a gentler tone with my wife and kids and the other people who irritate me sometimes. I don't want to be an angry man.

[Judy Harder]

Judgment Day

If there's one thing we learn from the Bible, it's that salvation is not something we can earn. God just gives it. Because of what Christ has already done on the cross, our penalty has been paid. Our forgiveness has been authorized. All we do is receive it by putting our faith in him.

Then why would God leave us with so many instructions on how to live, even after we're saved? Why would he keep reminding us that we'll have to stand before His "judgment seat"? Why would he feel the need to hold it over our head that "each of us will give an account of himself to God"? (Romans 14:12)

It's because he knows us. He understands that we don't always get very busy without a deadline hanging over us. We don't usually want to behave well unless acting badly has a consequence. So even though the believer has already been cleared to spend eternity with Christ, there's a reckoning day coming where we'll all have to answer for what we did with this gift of his.

This would sound terribly harsh and heavy-handed if not for the fact that sin is what's really harsh and heavy-handed. Disobeying God is not preferable to obeying him, not by the time it's made us miserable, like it always does. Turns out that an accounting bench and a judgment seat are more about God's mercy than his wrath. He loves us enough to make us want what's best for us.

Pray this prayer: Lord, I don't really like the thought of having to stand and give account. But I'd hate to think where I'd be if you just left me to monitor myself. I guess I'm glad for your accountability.

[Judy Harder]

Made to Worship

The challenge of sharing Jesus with another person can be frightening and intimidating. But there's at least one hurdle that's already been jumped for you: people are naturally wired to worship.

We see it when even a slumping slugger, who's failed to perform up to par all year, smacks a three-run homer late in a postseason game to swing the series back in their favor. Fans erupt in the home stadium, many of them bowing with both arms extended, honoring their hero.

Paul and Barnabas, two of the first Christian missionaries, experienced something similar while ministering in a city where the crowds became amazed at their power to heal. Word soon spread to a pagan priest, who began untying the sacrificial bulls and handing out ceremonial wreaths to anyone wanting to worship these men as gods. Hearing of this, Paul and Barnabas went ballistic: "Men, why are you doing this? We too are only men, humans like you. We are bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God" (Acts 14:15). Worship didn't need igniting that day, just redirecting.

So when sharing your faith, don't think people aren't wanting to believe that something greater exists than what they see around them. You just be bold enough to show them Jesus. Let him draw them to salvation in the one true God—the one their soul truly longs for, the only one worthy of worship.

Pray this prayer: Father, I pray for new boldness to share your Son, Jesus, with those who come my way. Help me not be deceived into thinking they're not already hungry for what you alone can provide.