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Restore The Roar

What’s happening!! My view of reality is being rocked. The boys in Honolulu blue are 3-1-0 and leading the NFC division?

This can’t be the same team that is known for being, “The best preseason team in the NFL”. Others have teased that the Lions are All-Pros at, “Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.” The disparaging comments are well deserved. Going back to 1935, the Lions have won 7 playoff games…total!! I know it’s early in the season, but we have to ask ourselves, what has changed? These guys are playing with a whole new attitude. There is something that you can sense in their body language. You can see it in how they respond to adversity. The Lions look like a team that has finally discovered what it takes to be winners.

Leadership.

There is a great scene in the movie, Remember The Titans. Two teammates confront each other about their bad attitudes. The team is struggling to come together. It’s a classic. Attitude reflects leadership.

Remember The Titans (2min clip)

In the case of the Lions, the key to their newfound success is their coach. Dan Campbell was hired in 2021. He played in the NFL for 14 years and has been coaching for over 20 years. He has won the respect of his players. Not because they are leading their division today. It is because he led them from a first-season record of 3-13-1 who are, two years later, leading their division.

Now, I can hear some of you saying, “Pastor, I hate sports analogies. You’re really not very good at encouraging me.”

Let’s shift gears. Those of you who are reading this are leaders. You figure out where, but it could be as simple as leading yourself, family, friends, small groups, classroom….fill in the blank.

As a leader, those you lead will be affected by your leadership. They won’t care much about what you have to say if they don’t believe that you care about them. Here is another way of putting it, “Dad, I can’t hear a word you’re saying because I’m too busy watching how you live your life.”

Dan Campbell has become an effective coach because he has developed a consistent life story of being a selfless man who has learned how to lead by example. That is my encouragement to you today and to myself. It’s hard work and it takes a lifetime commitment. But, if you desire to “Restore The Roar” to your life, that is what it will require.

Here is a passage that will help you with the first play of your game plan.

Philippians 2:3-4

3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

Yours In Christ

Pastor Terry B

PS: below is an overview of the movie. It’s the same era I was in high school and played football under Loyd Carr’s leadership. I know firsthand what an impact a great leader can have.

FYI: if you're not a football fan you may be a fan of Denzel Washington. He plays the main character.

Overview:

A high school football coach finds himself fighting for stakes much higher than the State Championship in this drama based on actual events. In 1971, a court order forced three high schools in Alexandria, Virginia (two white, one African-American), to integrate their student bodies and faculties for the first time. As a result, Coach Bill Yoast (Will Patton), longtime head coach of the T.C. Williams High School football team, is asked to step down, and Herman Boone (Denzel Washington) is appointed to replace him as the school's first black faculty member. The new coach is hardly welcomed with open arms, either by the school's staff or the students, and the newly integrated team is full of players (both black and white) who have little trust or respect for one another. But Boone is determined to put a winning team on the field -- it's how he approaches the game, and his future depends on it. Against long odds, Boone helps his team overcome distrust and misunderstanding of their coach (and each other) as they become a gridiron force to be reckoned with.