All In.
It’s among the list of oft-used sports mottos printed on team shirts and hung from banners in locker rooms, right there with phrases like “Sold Out,” “The Will to Prepare,” “Win the Day” or “No Pain, No Gain.”
And now, it takes its place among one of the most prestigious lists in my mind: our FCA Camp themes. Based on Colossians 3:17 (“And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him”), this summer FCA campers will learn what it means to give everything they have of themselves on and off the field for Christ.
It’s a great camp theme and, just like those team mottos, it’s meant to help bind a group of individuals together and motivate them toward one common goal.
But once camp season comes to a close, will we still be committed to going All In? What would it look like if we were to go All In at our schools and jobs, with our families and with our churches? How could we change the world with an attitude like that?
When I think about going All In, I always go back to the 1999 Tennessee Titans. Yes, the team that ended up “One Yard Short” in Super Bowl XXXIV. Being around that team day in and day out as its offensive coordinator, I saw a group of men who were selfless and humble. None of them cared about stats or highlights. They were committed to one another and our team goals. They really were the greatest group of men I have ever worked with.
Who or what comes to mind when you think of going All In?
Since we’re all involved in the athletic world in some capacity, surely there are specific teams, coaches or athletes that immediately enter your thoughts. But what about the most influential case of a life lived All In—that of the selfless Son of God, Jesus Christ.
Jesus summarized His life—lived in complete service to His Father—when He gave this command to His disciples and to us in John 15:12-13, “...Love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, that someone would lay down his life for his friends.”
Jesus went All In when He laid down His sinless, pure life for us. Jesus, fully God but also fully man, chose to be beaten, shamed and nailed to a tree for you and for me! Who among us would do that for our friends? Why did He do that for us? Because He created us, loved us and chose us. Did you hear that? The God of the galaxies has chosen you and me! Jesus said in John 15:15b-16a: “I have called you friends… You did not choose Me, but I chose you.”
His life was such a model for going All In with love, truth and integrity that His legacy as the Son of God, the Messiah, has been around for more than 2,000 years. He tells us in John 13:15,17, we are blessed if we follow His example: “For I have given you an example that you also should do just as I have done for you… If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.”
So, are you ready to follow Christ’s example and go All In? There is nothing more exciting as a coach than to observe a team whose players go All In for the team, leaving zero interest for personal statistics while making the team their top priority.
What a sight to see within your team, your campus, your community—young Christian men and women truly living out their faith and following Christ’s example as they lay down their lives, wants and desires to make Him and the power of His resurrection known around the world.
Model the Master,
Les Steckel
FCA President/CEO
--This article appears in the July/August 2014 issue of FCA Magazine. To view the issue in its entirety digitally, click here: http://bit.ly/fcamagvol56issue4
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