It was my freshmen year of Bible College in a northern Saskatchewan town called Nipawin. I was the missionary kid from Mexico. I was the one that not only didn’t know what a block heater was, I didn’t even have one in my ’85 Volkswagen Jetta! But I had lived in Mexico, so regardless of my other eccentricities, there were expectations on me.
Expectations that I knew how to play soccer.
I did play soccer. I played defense. A no-frills, solid type of defensemen. I was tall, so I couldn’t run as fast as that little guy with all the fancy moves, so my only hope was to stay on my man and let him make the mistake. Let him twist and jump and twirl, but I would still be there waiting when he was finished, ready to knock his shot away. Try and shove me aside, you’ll soon be looking up at me as your sitting on your backside. Get around me? Possibly, but not likely. Get through me? Not a chance.
And if I had the ball? Well, look out, cause my shot is going to knock your skinny little shorts right off. I’ll score on you from my half of the court just to save the time of having to bring the ball all the way down to your end.
And if you believe all that, I have some ocean front property in Nipawin, Saskatchewan to sell you…
That’s me being cocky. I was an average soccer player, nothing more, nothing less. Sure, I made some great plays, scored some clutch goals, and stopped some great players. But I was average. I made some stupid mistakes. I let shots through and passes go by that I should’ve had. As great as I want to make myself sound, I was just an average player.
I don’t know when it was, or which tournament we were playing in, but I was part of the Nipawin Bible Institute’s A-team, proudly playing defense. The competition was always fierce in these tournaments, as schools from other Saskatchewan Bible colleges would come as well as a team from the big, secular college called SIAST Kelsey in Saskatoon. There were no easy games in these tournaments, and due to the shortness of them, each game was life or death for us.
I remember we were resting in between games. I can’t remember what the outcome was of the game we had just played, but I know that I hadn’t played a very good game. Guys ran around me like I was a pillar holding up the gym ceiling. I was sitting in the bleachers in a pool of self-pity, wondering if I should play the next game when my brother came up. He was in his third and final year, one of the surly ‘veterans’ of the team. He knew I’d just had a horrible game, and I figured he was going to come up and tell me that I did Ok, and I shouldn’t be so hard on myself and it’s just a game. You know, useless but comforting words.
But he was my brother. Why would he say that?
He made no excuses for my play, didn’t even acknowledge my bad game. He just sat beside me and said, “You’ve gotta play cocky, Scott”.
I looked at him questioningly, “What?”
He said, “You play your best game when you’re cocky. You can play better than that. When you play cocky, nobody’s getting around you.” And that was it. No “It’s Ok” speech, no “You did good, no really you did!” line out of the side of his mouth. Just a quick little piece of advice that I have remembered to this day. He knew I had the skill in me, but he also knew that I wouldn’t play up to my potential unless I played with confidence.
Ya gotta play cocky.
So I did. I still don’t actually remember the outcome of the tournament, but I do know that I had some of my best games after that. No, I wasn’t perfect, but I played hard and I played cocky, in other words, confidently.
So what am I trying to say from all of this? How does my confidence in soccer translate to your spiritual journey? I want to focus this book around a couple chapters that Paul wrote in the book of Romans. First of all, let me quote Paul in chapter 8 where he tells us to “play cocky”.
“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man…The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.
Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you. Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it.
For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs —heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.” (Rom 8:1-17)
Paul says to be cocky! There is NO condemnation! Jesus set me free from the law of sin and death. I am NOT controlled by the sinful nature, but by the Spirit! My body is dead, but my spirit is alive! I have an obligation to God, because I was NOT given a spirit that makes me a slave to fear, but the spirit of SONSHIP. I am an heir of God. If that’s not enough to make you spiritually cocky, I don’t know what is! We have the power within us to be confident through Christ.
But confidence has to be properly placed.
When I was in grade 10 or so in Mexico, I got a mountain bike. At first, my buddy Shawn and I just rode our bikes around the city and through the mountain trails just outside of the city limits. We had a lot of fun, but it was just casual weekend rides. That’s when we started thinking about racing. Mountain biking was just catching on in the city of Chihuahua, and they were starting to hold races in various locations near the city. We decided to enter our first race which was held in a national park called “Majalca” about two hours north west of the city. We trained diligently, and even went out to Majalca a day early to learn the course (which, if you know anything about Mexican culture, was a mistake as the race officials themselves hadn’t even figured that out yet!). Come race day, Shawn and I told each other that we were just here to have fun and whatever happens would happen. We crammed in near the starting line and bang! We were off! In a matter of seconds, Shawn and I both were near the front of the pack. Before even 20 minutes, the pack had thinned out and I was pretty sure that I was actually in 2nd place! After 3 hours of riding hard through the trails, pulling stunts I’d never even dreamed of before, I saw the finish line coming. I stood up and pushed as hard as I could, flying through the finish! I had placed 2nd in my very first race! I was so excited! Not only that, but shortly thereafter, Shawn came barrelling through placing 3rd! We were hooked on racing, and soon started to sign up as much as we could. I raced a couple other races, placing 3rd and 4th in both of those. Then, one day, there was a race being held right in our city, on the same trails that Shawn and I had biked on for years.
I didn’t even spend 20 minutes training, not even one lap as I was so positive that I knew this course so well. We lined up, and bang! We were off again, but this time I wasn’t as fast as I thought I should be. I felt like there was a 200lb weight dragging behind me. I pushed as hard as I could, but the guys in front kept pulling away. Not only that, but a couple guys passed me, including Shawn! I panted and wheezed as I climbed the hills, bounced like a pop-can behind a newlywed’s car down the hills. I finished my first lap sure I was in 20th place, and I had two laps to go! How did I get this out of shape? Soon, I coughed and wheezed my way up a hill and around a corner when I saw my buddy Shawn up the trail ahead, standing beside his bike. His chain had broken. I pulled up beside him, hardly alive, to see what had happened. He was still doing well physically, but his bike would not allow him to finish the race. Doing what I tried to convince myself was the noble thing, I gave Shawn my bike and let him finish the race on it, as I walked his bike back to the start. Was I sacrificing for a friend? Not really! I was so exhausted; I didn’t believe I could actually finish the race, so I simply withdrew.
I quit the race, I didn’t even place!
What happened to being cocky? I was so sure of myself, so proud that I could place in the top 5 without even trying, without even taking a practice lap the day before! And boy did I fall. I fell hard. It was embarrassing to walk across the finish line and admit defeat in front of all the spectators. It was embarrassing to let everyone know that I had been beaten by the course. It was embarrassing to know that had I tried, had I trained, I could’ve still placed in my top 5.
Do you think the rest of those top 5 finishers sat around before race day? No, they were there because they had trained. They didn’t take the race for granted, they wanted to win. If you’ll notice, I was sliding before the race I quit. I took 3rd, then 4th, then nothing.
Was I getting worse? No, the rest were getting better because they worked for it.
They were training, they weren’t happy with 5th place, or 3rd place, they wanted first! Me on the other hand, I was satisfied with 2nd, and figured I could easily place 2nd whenever I wanted too but I was greatly mistaken.
Oh how the mighty have fallen!
Empty pride and and mis-placed cockiness can only lead to one thing: A fall.
King Solomon said in Proverbs 16:18 that “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.” He also states a few chapters back in chapter 11 verse 2 that “When Pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.”
When it comes down to confidence, we have to be very careful where we place it. I am referring to the confidence that we can have in Christ, not in ourselves. Confidence in yourself can only go so far, as you can only be as confident as you are skilful or you are headed for a nasty fall. However, confidence in God’s power through you is limitless.
We are sinful creatures. By nature, we are sinners. Jeremiah said “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jer 17:9) In chapter 7 of Romans, Paul says “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.” (vs. 18a)
We can do nothing in and of ourselves to please God. We deserve death. Try as hard as we might, we will never make ourselves worthy of God.
What a wretched people we are.
In and of ourselves, we cannot be cocky because we have nothing of which to be cocky! But, with the Holy Spirit within us, we have unlimited amounts of confidence that we can draw from in our daily battles. Sure, by myself, I can never defeat Satan. I couldn’t even defeat one of Satan’s measly little minions! But with Christ, Satan and his whole army has already been defeated.
As a child, I’m sure most of us experienced the “my dad is bigger than your dad” phase, or something similar.
My Dad could swing that big sledge hammer when I couldn’t even lift it off the ground. He drove a big Mack® Truck, and I could hardly see over the dash of our Citation sedan. One of his arms was bigger than both my legs put together, and there wasn’t anything that he could not do. He was my Dad.
I, on the other hand, was lucky if I was able to drive my wagon successfully to the bottom of the hill without killing myself.
In and of myself, I didn’t have much ability to do anything. I could play, I could hang out with my friends, I could ride my bike. But life things? I was pretty helpless. I couldn’t bring food to the table, pay the bills, or defend our home against an intruder.
Did I worry about these things? Not in a million years.
I didn’t worry about those things because my Dad could take care of it. I was confident in his abilities to take care of us, his family, so I could live my life as a child should. I was confident, not in what I could do, but in what my Dad could do.
Confidence in our own abilities can only lead to failure in our spiritual journeys. However, confidence in God, our Father, will lead us to victory.
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