By Todd Paetznick, November 28, 2024

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!  

As you settle into your day, enjoy your time off today, and remember to be thankful to God for all the blessings in our lives.  

Spending time with family and friends and sharing a meal is high on the lists of many of us today.  Another tradition is watching football.  

“Hope is not a strategy,” is a quote attributed to legendary Green Bay Packers head coach Vince Lombardi.  Lombardi’s point was not that the men on his football team should never have hope to win their games or be the best team in the world. He advocated for planning, establishing a strategy, preparing to achieve the desired outcomes, and executing the plan effectively.    

While watching football this afternoon, pay attention to the number of times “preparation” is mentioned by the announcers.  Most of us recognize the necessity of hard work and preparation that goes into competing as a player in the National Football League (NFL).  Preparation for nearly all of the players began many years before putting on a helmet for their professional team. Almost all NFL players started playing the game when they were young.  They worked hard to make their high school teams.  A few high school players were skilled enough to play in college.  But, only 7% of high school football players play the game in college, and only 3% play at the Division 1 level.  Of all the college football players, only 1.6% make it to the NFL; in 2023, only 259 people were drafted by an NFL team.  

Preparation for each game is significant. Typically, 53 players are on each NFL team’s roster, 12 people are on the coaching staff, and over 100 people make up the support staff. Seventy people are permitted to travel with the team to away games.  

Watching NFL teams can teach us much about managing our lives. They typically have the financial resources to do what they think is necessary and hire the people they believe will make them successful.  Below are some examples.

Objective

Every NFL football team has the objective of winning each game and, ultimately, the Superbowl, which is the championship at the end of the football season.  There are 32 NFL teams, but only one team will win the championship each year.  This means that 31 teams will not win.  

Every business and every person also needs an objective, a goal that directs their actions.  For Christians, winning personally is not always the objective.  Like a football game, not every player will score, but when all players work together to help, the team is much more likely to win.  The objective for the Christian needs to be directed toward God winning and being glorified.  When God is glorified, we fulfill our objective.

Strategy

Players and their coaches work to maximize their strengths and exploit the weaknesses of the players on the opposing team so they can win the game.  They watch films of previous games, study their actions, and build a strategy they believe will work to defeat the other team.  During a game, not everything happens as expected; coaches and analysts often have to adjust their plans to achieve their objectives.

Many Bible passages encourage Christ-followers to make plans and work with coaches.  Solomon wrote, “Without counsel, plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed” (Proverbs 15:22).  Strategy involves working with fellow believers to form strategies that lead toward God’s glorification.  But unlike football, God ultimately controls the outcomes of our plans to ensure He will be glorified.  

Preparation

Football players, coaches, and support staff are rarely engaged in actual games against an opponent. Most of their time is spent analyzing, planning, coaching, and practicing.  

Gathering together with fellow Christ-followers is vitally important for our personal preparation for life.  Through fellow believers, we are taught about God’s ways and learn important lessons of faith we need to fulfill our roles.  We must study the Bible to become equipped for the challenges we will face.  We pray to align our thoughts, minds, and plans with God’s.  We make plans, seek the counsel of wise people, and practice what we will do.

Execution

The better prepared a football team may be, the more likely they will successfully execute their plans in a game.  Their preparation also includes contingency plans and adjustments to be made at half-time to address unexpected situations.  

Like football, the better prepared a Christ-follower may be for the challenges they may face, the more likely their plans will align with God’s and their plans will succeed.  Unlike football, the Christian is never alone.  We have our fellow believers who the Holy Spirit also connects.  And we have God and His unlimited power to arrange circumstances according to His will and desires.  But our lives and the activities we choose to do are not to be for our glory, 

Hope

Hope alone is not a strategy for a football team or the Christian.  Hope represents a desired future outcome.  For the Christian, faith and hope are closely related.  Both represent future outcomes that God will bring about.  

For the football team and the Christian, we must know our objective, formulate our strategies, prepare for fulfilling our roles, and execute our plans.