My airplane pilot friend and I decided we were going to fly into Atwood Friday night for the football game. So we called a couple of our friends to fly with us. Friday night we left town at about 6:00 p.m. for the quick trip to Atwood and arrived there in plenty of time to catch a ride into town and watch the game.

After the game was over, we drove the courtesy car back to the airport and checked out our plane and took off headed north due to the wind was out of the north. There was no moon above as we left the ground. I was pilot in charge, sitting in the left seat as we took off and it was really, really dark out in front of us. There is almost nothing north of Atwood, since the airport is north of town. It was instrument flight conditions as we left the ground. But being just a visual flight rules pilot, I was not focused on my instruments, but was looking exclusively out the windshield.

I was pulling back on the yoke too much and at one point I could not pull it back anymore and was kind of fighting the yoke thinking what is going on? I looked over at my friend and he had his hand on the yoke and said to me, “Look at your instruments?” I did and saw immediately that the nose of the plane was too high.

So I pushed the yoke forward and put the nose of the plane where it needed to be and then did a 180 degree turn to head back home. As we headed south we flew right over Atwood and could see the long line of cars headed south on the highway. We now could fly VFR all the way home.

My pilot friend told me, as we flew home; that he had flown out of Atwood before at night and said it was good instrument training on a dark night. No telling what would have happened if my friend had not been with me that night.

Proverbs 13:20 Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.

All great performances with instrument, voice or games of football are preceded by lots of practice sessions.

Do you remember when the football coach would yell this at the team or an individual, “The day I quit yelling at you is the day I don’t care if you’re on the team or not anymore!” The coach was always trying to get us to improve.

During a junior varsity football game in Garden City one night, I was doing my best to avoid the middle linebacker in the first half. That guy had hit me so hard on a play that I had become intimidated of him. I was an offensive end and on sweeps to my side of the line my job was to double team the defensive tackle with our offensive tackle just briefly, then I was to step into the path of the linebacker and take him out of the play. So as an intimidated football player, I was only doing half my job on sweeps to my side. I was just staying with the double team on the defensive tackle.

During half-time our football coach looked me directly in the eyes and said, “I am disappointed in how you are playing.” The coach knew exactly what I was doing. I also knew exactly what I had been doing.

Well for the next ten minutes of half-time I did some soul searching. I had to decide if I was going to do my duty or quit. You can still be out for football, but be a quitter. You quit doing your job. Eventually, the coach will put you on the bench and you may never again get the opportunity to prove yourself.

When the second half started I knew what was coming. The coach was going to call a sweep to my side just to see what I was going to do. Several plays into the second half the sweep play was called. When the ball was snapped I helped double team the defensive tackle briefly and then stepped into the path of the middle linebacker. I can still see the play in my minds eye as I approach the linebacker. My eye is fixed on the ear hole on the helmet of the linebacker. The next thing that happened was this huge collision. Other than the several concussions I sustained playing football, this collision was right up there in the top 10 of my greatest hits!

In life today who is telling you they are disappointed in you and trying to get you to improve? Who is your coach? You have to have a really good friend who will step out of his comfort zone to tell you that you may need to change or improve in some area of your life. Maybe your priest or pastor might give a really good sermon or talk sometime that might get you to thinking about what you need to improve or change in your life.

The Holy Spirit is also here on earth constantly working on us and trying to get us to change or improve our lives. The Holy Spirit wants us to repent and come into a relationship with God the Father. This is a quote of Jesus below:

John 14:26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things.

We all need to improve and change our ways. We need transformed all the way into our souls, the only part of you that will still be alive a 100 years from now! Listen to the coach, the Holy Spirit; he won’t give up on you, until you quit breathing on this earth.

Do the words silence and football go together? At first glance or thought I am sure you would say no, but actually the two words do go together.

Back during my playing days of high school football, our team would board the bus for the trip to the out of town game. The next thing that would happen is Coach would address the team. He did not want any noise on the bus. He would tell us to be quiet and think about where we were going and what we were going to do once we got there. This was in the days before cell phones, I-pods and even walk-man radios. The guys would bring books and magazines to read. When we did talk to each other on the bus it was in whispers.

It did not matter if it was on the road or we were at home in our own fieldhouse, coach expected us to be quiet during pregame. The loudest noise in the locker room was the sound of our cleats clicking on the cement floor as we dressed in our uniforms.

Now why do you suppose Coach wanted it quiet? He wanted us to concentrate on the game. He did not want distractions and wanted laser like attention focused on what each of us as individuals were going to have to do to be successful as a team. Football is best played with passion and purpose and passion and purpose can be found in silence. The same is true for daily living.

So in your life today do you ever seek out silence? Do you have a place you go to everyday to just escape from all the noise of this world? We need to escape the phones, computers, television, radio, I-pods, people, cars, trucks anything that makes noise.

Your silent place might be the living room fifteen minutes before everyone gets up or thirty minutes after everyone goes to bed. Maybe you can go out in nature and sit among the trees or at the edge of a lake. One of my favorite silent places to go to is the sanctuary of my church. I will go in the evening time when no one else is around and just sit in the back pew and just escape the noise and be in the presence of God.

God is still in the business of speaking to us. Faith is by hearing and hearing by the word of God and most of the time God will speak to us through his book the Bible as we read and study it. God will also speak to us through other people. Someday you may hear a sermon that you will think the pastor is speaking directly to you. God also still speaks directly to us. But you must be in that silent place of yours to ever hear him.

When you first go to this silent place of yours be prepared. The world will just descend upon you. You will think of all the things you should be doing instead of sitting silently before God. Stop! Relax! Take a deep breath and try to clear your mind. Just know that Satan is shooting fiery darts your way.

You may need to say a prayer. Maybe you need to read one chapter of the Bible, but slowly after several weeks of being in this silence every day you will start to look forward to this time alone with God. You will not want to miss this part of your day ever again. Shoot for five to ten minutes to begin with in this place of quiet and silence.

Committed Christians are prayer warriors. They find their place of silence and develop a relationship with God. Every relationship on this earth is a two way street where both people talk to each other. If you spend time developing a relationship with God in your place of silence, expect God to speak to you, because he will.

Psalm 46:10 Be still and know that I am God

Athens, Georgia football coach teaches their players life lessons during “Manly Mondays”

Back when I was a young single guy, I spent a lot of time at the bar. We all knew each other by name. We played pool, snooker, darts and all other types of games. We talked about everything from sports, politics, religion and women. I felt accepted. If I didn’t show up the other guys would call on the phone and want to know why wasn’t I there?

Today, I spend a lot of time at church. I know everybody that walks in the door. My family feels accepted at the two different churches we go to. But within those churches some people have said and done things to make other people feel unaccepted at the one place on earth that everyone should be accepted equally no matter what.

For instance, when someone tells me about children making noise at church, I respond with this comment, “Children are the rebirth of this church. Those kids being in church is way more important than us being able to hear the pastor while preaching.”

No matter who walks through the door into the church, our job is to make those strangers feel accepted. Jesus is the only answer to all of our needs here on this earth and when folks are looking for Him they need to see Him in us.