"’ I'M SCARED,' Lombardi said on the first day of training camp in July 1961. Coaches are notorious worrywarts, constantly underrating their squad and inflating the opposition, but in this case, his apprehension was more informed. During his first two seasons in Green Bay, Lombardi had been concerned about the team’s talent and whether it knew how to win. Now his fear was different—a fear not to lose. The will to win became not just a positive goal but a neurosis, an obsessive hatred of losing. The Packers had not won it all, they had not established the winning tradition of the New York Yankees, his sporting model, yet they were being portrayed as sure winners. On the schedule of every other team in the league, he said, there would be a circle around the date of their game against Green Bay.
Lombardi carried this dread with him to St. Norbert that summer. In an effort to overcome it, he took nothing for granted. He began a tradition of starting from scratch, assuming that the players were blank slates who carried over no knowledge from the year before. He reviewed the fundamentals of blocking and tackling, the basic plays, how to study the playbook.
He began with the most elemental statement of all. 'Gentlemen,' he said, holding a pigskin in his right hand, 'this is a football.' " - from the book When Pride Still Mattered: A Life Of Vince Lombardi
A friend told me of a book he started reading a couple of months ago from John Piper called 'What Jesus Demands from the World' and I thought it sounded worth diving into. In it, Piper outlines 50 demands Jesus makes of us. Not suggestions or encouragements, but demands. 50 of them.
Now, any honest person claiming Jesus as his Savior knows that on any given day they can accomplish a handful-to-two of tasks well from work and family to school and study. Thinking about 50 demands of Jesus along with the tasks of your regular day might lead you to pray for an extra 12 hours to use as necessary. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but we only get the 24 hours we've been given.
So what do we do? With all life throws at us, what can we do daily to be better, obedient followers of Jesus while taking care of the tasks of life? How do we be better disciples?
To be better, we have to be basic. Now hear me, basic doesn't imply simple but necessary to face a world that wants to deny Jesus and those who believe in Him. Like the story above about Vince Lombardi, we have to understand the basic things we are to do each day as followers of Jesus and do these things well.
I have taken out of the 50 demands several that I believe are critical for us to know, commit to prayer, and focus on daily. These aren’t the only things we should be doing but give us a basis to live out from. These are foundational in our continued growth and committing these 3 things to mind, while being guided by the Holy Spirit, will make us transformed (Romans 12:2).
LOVE GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, SOUL, MIND, AND STRENGTH
And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’” Mark 12:28-30
How do we love God with everything? First we have to know Him from His word! From it, we understand who He is, what He wants for us, and what He wants from us. We learn what breaks His heart, what fills it up, and what His heart is for us. He tells us what to do with our minds, how to build strength from His trust, and follow His will for our lives. This is the awesome God who we get to love and be discipled by!
TAKE UP YOUR CROSS AND FOLLOW ME
"If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." Matthew 16:24-25
We bring our struggles, missteps, and flaws to Jesus every day - whether we throw them at His feet and surrender them is a different story. To deny is to crucify our selfish desires. To deny is to outwardly show the spiritual fruit of self-control (Galatians 5:23). Following in Jesus’ steps is to become as He was and doing as He directed.
LOVE YOUR NEIGHBORS AND ENEMIES
"And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 22:36-40
"So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets." Matthew 7:12
"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:34–35
"But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." Matthew 5:44
"Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you." Luke 6:27-28
"But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful." Luke 6:35–36
You noticed there were a few more verses of scripture with this than the previous two. Why is that? Why does Jesus spend so much of His teaching focused on our interactions with the people around us? Because He has given us grace where grace wasn't deserved, and mercy where mercy wasn't deserved. As we have been given this great gift, so should we be givers of grace and mercy.
As I finish I want to say one last thing. Our lives have multiple priorities. We move them around based on any number of factors, but they are priorities nonetheless. If we are truly disciples of Jesus, then He is always priority one and we must work to work all things around Him. Dallas Willard has one of the best definitions of being a disciple of Jesus. He says, “A disciple is a person who has decided that the most important thing in their life is to learn how to do what Jesus said to do.”