Spring is a great time of year! Amid the new growth and oncoming allergies, we see the preparation of ball fields, now donned by players and coaches, and outlined with an array colors from chairs filled with parents, grandparents, and friends. Now it’s in full swing as coaches and players do what they love!
Coaching seems quite normal in these seasons of kids’ lives and even as they grow older and move on up into college, and for a rare few into professional competition.
For many, however, being coached up by someone – or coaching someone else up – becomes a thing of the past as the field, court, track, etc. seemed to be the right context for being coached.
Would I get an odd glance from you if I were to ask, “Who’s coaching you?”
God made us to be coached and to coach others for life, and it’s likely that you’re coaching someone in some way – as a parent, grandparent, employer, or friend. You just may not think of it as coaching.
In 2 Timothy 2:1–2 Paul (coaching) tells Timothy (being coached), “You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.” This is multi-generational coaching – four generations to be specific! Paul (1st gen.) coached Timothy (2nd gen.), who was to coach others (3rd gen.) who would be faithful and able to coach others also (4th gen.).
Coaching is not only about information, it’s about transformation. True information (primarily in the Bible but also elsewhere in life) applied in the right way (you might call this technique) over time becomes part of who we are (transformation) and is intended to be handed down to another generation (wisdom in coaching).
This is what we see Abraham, Aaron, Jesus, Paul, and other biblical characters doing throughout the Bible’s storyline. Only one – Jesus – is a perfect coach. The rest were always needed improvement – like you and me.
One of the common, or shared, graces we all have is the ability to be in the middle of that coaching relationship. Someone coaching you as you coach another, in many areas of life. And of the many great areas of life to coach and be coached, none is more important than “being strengthened by” what Paul (above) called “the grace that is in Christ Jesus.” Ephesians 6:10 says it another way, that we can be “strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.” Did you see that? God actually gives us His strength! No matter how well we’re coached, we are still dealing with the imperfection that is ourselves. But Jesus not only coaches us through the Bible, but for everyone who comes to Him in faith He gives His power to actually perform what He calls us to through His power. I’ve never met another coach who could do that!
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