A Time For Everything

"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

a time to be born, and a time to die;

a time to plant, and  a time to pluck up what is planted;

a time to kill, and a time to heal;

a time to break down, and a time to build up;

a time to weep, and a time to laugh;

a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;

a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

a time to seek, and a time to lose;

a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

a time to tear, and a time to sew;

a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

a time to love, and a time to hate;

a time for war, and a time for peace."

-Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8

I was thinking about this the other day as it relates to coaching. Coaching is an art- it requires you to know both your subject matter, as well as your athletes. Just as the author of Ecclesiastes says, there is a time for everything, and coaching is no exception.

Knowing when to challenge and correct an athlete, and when to simply encourage is crucial to your athlete's success, and therefore your success as a coach. This requires you to know not only your athletes skill level (beginner, intermediate, advanced, elite), but also their personality. What I have come to discover is that the more advanced an athlete is, the more they need you to be very blunt and honest with them in regards to technique and intensity. If they are not giving their all out effort, or if their form is off at all, they need you to call them on it. They can never get to the next step in their progress if you don't. You can be a little more lenient with beginners though. In fact, their long term success may depend on it. I say this because when an athlete is starting out, building their confidence is often what is most important. Do they need to be pushed? Absolutely. Do they need to be told when their technique is wrong? Without a doubt! But if all I ever do is tell a newb all the stuff they are doing wrong, they can become quickly frustrated. If, however, I encourage them and exhort them that they are doing well, even if a few things are off, they will continue to progress under my guidance.

Knowing how to handle certain athletes is also dependent upon their personality types. Some folks, like myself, respond well to being challenged and called out. If someone were to tell me I was slacking, or yelled at me to keep going even when I was tired, it would push me to places I would never take myself on my own. A good coach knows that athletes like this need to be constantly challenged to push themselves. Some people cannot handle this type of coaching though, and clam up when yelled at or pushed past their comfort zones. A good coach knows that this athlete needs to be challenged, but in a different and more gentle way.

There is a time to push, and a time to be easy;
a time to instruct, and a time to encourage.

An example of elite athletes being pushed, probably further than they thought was humanly possible.

Push, encourage, instruct, yell, laugh, exhort, and most of all, go under the bar

Seasons

I have discovered recently that life is a never ending stream of ebbs and flows. This idea manifests itself in several ways.

I first noticed it when pulling back and observing my lifting. There was a time when I couldn't clean and jerk 225 to save my life. Now it is a warm up set. About a month ago, I was ending a cycle where I literally felt like if I could get under a weight, I would be able to squat it up no problem. Three weeks later, my strength crashed and I couldn't clean a weight to save my life again. Now things are rebounding, and as my confidence is re-peaking, so are the weights I am able to lift. This idea of ebbs and flows runs deeper than just weightlifting though.

I remember in college reading Acts chapter 2 for the first time, in particular the part about the fellowship of believers.

"They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke breadin their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved." 
 -Acts 2:42-47

At this time in my life, I was living in a house with 8 other followers of Christ, so as you can imagine this verse resonated with me deeply. I saw how a gospel centered community lived in light of what Christ had done. They loved freely, communed deeply, and lived life together. My community embraced this, and began to seek this philosophy. In time though, something began to happen.

Over the next few years, I read this passage so frequently that it almost became diluted. Sure, I knew what it said, but I couldn't read it without almost skimming it. I had lost my fervor for the depth and complexity of the passage in view, and couldn't help but feel as if I had exhausted all I could from it.

Moving to Houston and living alone brought another season of life, and with it another rendering of this passage. As I struggled to find community, doubts began to creep in as to whether or not this type of community was even possible post-college. "It only worked like that because we had lots of free time." "We were just too naive to realize that the real world doesn't work that simply." Blah, blah, blah. Lies that I bought in to. The devil had me believing that true, rich, deep community was something that you only found in pastoral circles and bible stories. In the Lord's infinite mercy, he rescued me from this futile way of thinking by providing me another season of life.

I moved to Dallas a few days ago, and already I feel my heart refreshed and my eyes seeing this passage in a fresh way. Deep, Christ centered community is not just a thing of college- it is a reality that can and should be experienced into the later seasons of life. As I sat at the breakfast table and listened to my best friend Mark read from the 139th Psalm, I was reminded of this, among other things. I was reminded of the Lord's deep and unfading love for me, that He would bless me with brothers to share in this life with. I was reminded of my complete inability to go through this life alone, much like a single log cannot be kept on fire, but rather requires other logs around it to stay ablaze. I was reminded that life is not a linear journey, but more often than not is a voyage that consists of many ebbs and flows.

Fix your eyes on the Lord, and all works out as it should.

In other news, hit a jerk PR the other day. Enjoy