I am not that kind of coach

I am not a coach...at least not that kind of coach. I do have a jersey that says Coach from being an assistant for my son's baseball team. [Not one of my more successful ventures, record wise, however we did get some good, fun, father-son time so it wasn't a complete loss.] But I have absolutely nothing in common with successful coaching legends in any division of organized sports: Tom Landry - Football, Phil Jackson - Basketball, G.A. Moore - H.S. Football, Gordon May - Baseball.

However, I think that all these great coaches do have one thing in common with us lesser coaches. All coaches that I've ever known, spend much of their time trying to convince their players that Football, Volleyball or [fill in with your sport of preference] is an all in kind of thing. The great ones are just better at it than the rest of us.They do that for at least a couple of reasons. We've all seen a skilled athlete who is all in. Pele? Nadia Comaneci? Michael Jordan? They are the reason that we are a nation, no, a world of sports fans. We all marvel at and aspire to the accomplishments of that special athlete whose image adorns the Wheaties box and stares at you from the walls of your favorite store in the mall.
We've also been inspired by someone with limited skill, who, because they were all in accomplished much more than anyone could have expected. Often they are immortalized in books or movies because their story inspires us to think that maybe, just maybe, if put in the right circumstance, we too would have been all in just the way he was. But like all things positive, there is an equal and opposite negative.
We've all seen someone with unmatched skill who isn't all in. Anyone remember Marcus Dupree? Yeah, if it weren't for an ESPN 30 for 30 special neither would I, yet he was one of the most gifted, special athletes to ever play football. We have a term for someone like that, someone with so much potential, who just never seems to make anything of the great gifts they've been given...A bust, that's the guy that everyone wants to avoid on draft day. There may be many reasons for a gifted athlete to become a bust, but one of the most common is the failure to commit. He [or she], despite their considerable physical skills, just isn't all in. They don't work hard, they don't practice hard, they take plays off, they loaf...half-hearted effort.
So every coach [great and not so great] wants Pele or Rudy, not John Daly right? [Oh, I know there is always a coach who will take a chance on Ryan Leaf or Ricky Williams, but it is exactly that, taking a chance.]
Well I told you I'm not a sports coach, but I am a coach of sorts. I spend much of my time coaching people in life through preaching and counseling, and in doing that, I've come to the conclusion that most people have problems in life because they aren't all in. They give a half-hearted effort at loving their spouse, disciplining their children, quitting tobacco, alcohol, or porn, forgiving their offender, unity in their church, supporting their family... They kind of try, then, when they don't experience the success that those who give it their all experience, they quit. They run for the sideline instead of turning up the field.
When I am doing my life coaching thing, guess what? I'm looking for Pele or Rudy too, or at least that one simple characteristic that they share; that all in mentality, that commitment that won't quit, that will to give all they've got, against all odds, in spite of all disadvantages. Rudy couldn't be Pele, but he could be the best version of Rudy he could be. I don't know your personal skills, but I do know that you can be the best version of you, or you can be a half-hearted caricature of you. Your coach wants that, your wife needs that, your kids depend on that, your church asks for that.Andrew didn't need to be Simon Peter, he just needed to be the best version of Andrew that he could be. That won't happen if you run with Loser's limp. Live your life...give it all you've got. Forget the failures of your past, we all have them, even Michael Jordan had them. Listen to what he said:

"I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life."

He's not the first guy to say something like that. Way back, about 2000 years ago, a guy who had everything, made some terrible choices, and woke up one day as the enemy of God, later in his life said this:

Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. - Philippians 3:13-14

So are you all in? You'll never know what you could have done until you are.