What’s So Important About Our Character?

A life in athletics and, in particular, as a coach offers many intersections with one’s faith. But being “called” into coaching or any profession doesn’t exclude one from the pressures created.

I had always been aware of the potential impact I might have on another as a player and then as a coach through baseball. But it was not until I became a Head Coach that I learned how much God could use the sport to impact me and how He used the pressure points of being a Head Coach to expose areas of my life in need of help. His help.

If God can do that for me through the game of baseball, what in your life can He use to reveal areas in need of His help?

What’s So Important About Our Character?

Baseball Chapel is an organization whose purpose is to provide Christian chaplains to professional baseball teams all the way from Rookie ball to the big leagues. Usually a local minister leads a service for players on Sunday’s somewhere in the ballpark, many times in the bullpen or batting cage. During my time in professional baseball and attending Baseball Chapel, I became convinced that God’s plan for many players was not that they get to the Big Leagues, but was instead for them to hear the gospel. And minor league baseball might be the closest many of these guys would ever get to hearing the Truth of the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Once out of pro ball, “Baseball Chapel” was continued at Texas A&M, then Mississippi State, and on to Baylor. Finding the “right” person to speak and lead such a service was the challenge. But God ALWAYS provided.

We struck gold at Baylor with Dr. Randall O’Brien. In addition to being among the most well-liked Professors on campus, he was a phenomenal communicator and a decorated Vietnam Veteran, serving in the 101st Airborne during the Vietnam War. Our guys knew dugouts. Dr. O’Brien knew fox holes. He immediately connected with the players and led chapels for over 10 years. In addition, Dr. Byron Weathersbee and later, Wes Yeary, led weekly Bible studies and traveled with us leading many chapels on the road. God used these men to plant and cultivate seeds of faith in the lives of guys whose common denominator was baseball.

But God didn’t just speak to players during Chapels. He also spoke to Coaches.

It was a question asked by a guest Chaplain that started me on my journey of understanding God’s purpose for baseball in my life. The question:

“Do you guys really believe God cares about baseball?”

Romans 5:3-4 says:

“...but we also rejoice in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces perseverance, perseverance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope.”

Using this text, our speaker talked about why and how God uses “afflictions” or “pressure” to develop our perseverance, our character, and ultimately, our hope in Him. And for everyone in the room, players and coaches alike, the game of baseball was the source of most of our pressure.

Until then, I had only thought of God using me in baseball. I had never thought of God using baseball in me. He was actually doing both.

God was using a game loved by many of His children to make them more like His Son.

But why is changing our character so important to God? Why is the character of those who profess to be followers of Jesus such a big deal?

Quite simply, in God’s redemptive plan for mankind, He has chosen to use His followers in that plan. God is determined that everyone will have the opportunity to know of His love and the sacrifice Jesus made by dying and then being raised from the tomb. Everyone will have the opportunity to accept or reject that love, sacrifice and victory over death.

For Coaches and players alike, the pressure of baseball is both the tool God uses to mold them as well as the platform He gives them to share the good news of Jesus.

Leaders in all walks of life often speak to their people about the importance of character and how overcoming challenges builds character.

But do those in leadership ever think of applying that lesson to themselves? That their character is also being refined in the fires of leading. In the fires of winning and losing. The fires of criticism and second-guessing.

Not until that question was asked of our players had I considered the connection between coaching, pressure, and its impact on my character. God cared about baseball because He could use it to change me. To refine my character and to continue to work in my life.

What’s the pressure in your life that God can use to mold you into the man or woman of God He wants you to be?

Dallas Willard sums it up like this: “The single most important thing in life is our eternal destiny, and the second is our character, for it is our character that makes us of use to God.”

I was far from perfect as a Christian coach. The “heat of the battle” often revealed the wickedness of my heart. The only consolation I found in those moments of personal failure was the opportunity to stand before the team and apologize. To ask for their forgiveness.

One such moment stands out. We had lost a Saturday afternoon home game with Nebraska having played very poorly. A bunch of mental errors and miscommunication on the field. Things that make a team look poorly coached.

Following the game, I unloaded on the team calling out several players for the mental mistakes and poor play.

Afterward one of our senior starters came to my office. As he spoke to me about his concerns in the game, he began to quietly cry. As tears streamed down he continued to talk. Once finished, he left, and I sat realizing my post game comments had been too personal and were driven by how the poor play made me look. While I may have wanted to “light a fire” or motivate them for the next day, I had done something quite different.

Later that evening I made two decisions which I communicated to the team the next morning. First, I apologized publicly to each player with whom my criticisms or remarks had gotten too personal. Second, I informed the team that I would no longer be meeting with them following games. I encouraged them to meet together, but I wanted them to know “the eyes you look into following the game will be the eyes of your teammates. Not mine.” I didn’t trust myself to be objective immediately following a game, and I did not want to continue to say or do things I would regret.

What transpired in the weeks to follow was unexpected. The team continued to meet without me present. Leaders on the team emerged. Instead of this being a “coach-fed team”, it became a “player-led team”. The team went on to win a Big 12 Conference Championship and became the first Baylor team to advance to the College World Series in 26 years.

I wish I could report that I never again went too far with words to a player or team. But I did. And with each misstep came the opportunity to own my words and apologize. While this was not the way in which I thought I would impact players as a Christian coach, it was definitely the way in which God impacted me.

Followers of Jesus are called to be either ministers or missionaries.

While God desires to change our character into that which reflects His Son, He has unending patience with each of us as we continue to grow in Him. And He often uses the most unexpected tools to chisel and prune. Even baseball.