{"id":491,"date":"2018-01-12T06:30:44","date_gmt":"2018-01-12T11:30:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.westlakebaptist.org\/blog\/?p=491"},"modified":"2018-01-11T08:36:49","modified_gmt":"2018-01-11T13:36:49","slug":"lessons-from-alabama-quarterbacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.westlakebaptist.org\/blog\/lessons-from-alabama-quarterbacks\/","title":{"rendered":"Lessons From Alabama Quarterbacks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We are going to close this week on the blog the way we have run for the past couple of days. We are going to allow the intersection of sports and our Christian walk teach us a little more about how we should live our lives as Christians. \u00a0In this installment we will look at two young men who taught some powerful lessons.<\/p>\n<p>While it is true that no one before the start of the third quarter in the national championship game knew of Tua Tagovailoa, they have heard of him now.\u00a0 But I think there are some great lessons that we can learn from both quarterbacks from Alabama.<\/p>\n<p><strong>From Jalen Hurts<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>It\u2019s about \u201cwe\u201d not \u201cme.\u201d<\/strong> Hurts since starting as a freshman last year for the Crimson Tide was 15-2 coming into the title game.\u00a0 His only losses were last year in the national championship game, and this year in the rivalry game against Auburn.\u00a0 Last year and this year, Hurts had done enough and avoided the big mistakes to help his team win.\u00a0 Hurts leadership and play were a big reason that Alabama was back in the national championship game for the third straight year.\u00a0 But this year was different.\u00a0 Doing just enough wasn\u2019t going to be good enough for the Crimson Tide to beat Georgia this year.\u00a0 And so at halftime, Coach Saban told both quarterbacks together that there was going to be a change to start the second half.\u00a0 I don\u2019t care who you are, if you have been the starter this long, and you have helped your team to get to this point, you never want to heart the coach say, \u201cwe\u2019re going in another direction.\u201d\u00a0 Although I never played on the same level as Jalen Hurts, I do understand what it is like to be on top only to come tumbling down, be taken out of the starting lineup, and have to watch your team go out and play without you.\u00a0 For Jalen Hurts, it was probably one of the lowest moments of his young career.\u00a0 However, for his team it turned out to the one of the best moments for them as they went on to win the national title.\u00a0 Again, I understand Hurts\u2019 position.\u00a0 I was taken out, and bummed about it, but it turned out wonderful for our team as we went on to win the championship in baseball that year.\u00a0 The apostle Paul in describing the mind of Christ and how we as Christians should live in Philippians 2 says, \u201cDo nothing out of rivalry or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves\u201d (Phil. 2:3).\u00a0 20 years later, I wish I would have handled it as well as Jalen Hurts did.\u00a0 By God\u2019s grace I did have some great people in my ear reminding me that I was still part of the team, and ultimately it is about \u201cwe\u201d not \u201cme.\u201d\u00a0 Hurts demonstrated that by smiling, encouraging his replacement, and helping him any way he could in the second half.\u00a0 The result was the Alabama Crimson Tide won a 5<sup>th<\/sup> national title in nine years.\u00a0 Our sinful tendency is to be selfish.\u00a0 We want what we want, when we want, and how we want.\u00a0 Only by the grace of God can we live others-centered.\u00a0 Yet, if we want to see the world changed, and the kingdom of God built up, this is what Christians must do.\u00a0 We must live for the glory of God and love others enough to share the Gospel with them and serve them regardless of how we feel about them and whether we feel like it or not.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>From Tua Tagovailo<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Have the right priorities<\/strong>. Let me go ahead and say this, I don\u2019t know this young man.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know if he has a true relationship with God.\u00a0 What I do know is what I saw and what I heard from him.\u00a0 He was humble, he was gracious, and he gave God the glory on national television.\u00a0 Again, I don\u2019t know if it is genuine or not.\u00a0 I know many athletes, entertainers, and politicians who say it because they think it will earn them favor with others.\u00a0 But in a day and age in which so many athletes, entertainers, and politicians are only out for themselves, who take to social media to tell everyone how great they are and all the things they have done; it was nice to see someone do something different.\u00a0 How easy would it have been for him to brag about what he did?\u00a0 He is a freshman in college, who led his team to outscore a good Georgia team 26-3 in the second half and in overtime, and he had just led his team to a national championship in his first meaningful playing time of the year.\u00a0 How many people would we brag to about that?\u00a0 Yet, here was a poised, articulate young man giving glory to God and credit for the win to other people.\u00a0 Tagovailo reminds me of Psalms 127:1, \u201cUnless the Lord builds a house, its builders labor over it in vain; unless the Lord watches over a city, the watchman stays alert in vain.\u201d\u00a0 If our priorities aren\u2019t right, nothing in our life will be right.\u00a0 Sometimes people find that out in time in life, and they can make the necessary changes.\u00a0 However, others don\u2019t realize that they built a house of cards rather than a house of concrete until it is too late.\u00a0 It\u2019s not that God didn\u2019t try to warn them, it\u2019s that they just never bothered to pay attention.\u00a0 I will admit that it is a lot easier to be humble and gracious when you win and things are going well.\u00a0 It is true that a true revelation of Tua Tagovailo\u2019s character won\u2019t be seen until adversity strikes.\u00a0 But from what I saw and heard last night, I think he has his priorities straight and will give God the glory in good times and in bad.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Regardless of where these two quarterbacks go from this point forward, I believe they are setting a good example for their teammates and other people.\u00a0 Their lives certainly taught some important truths to anyone who was watching and listening.\u00a0 What about your life?\u00a0 Is your life pointing others to Jesus Christ and the need to be saved by His grace?\u00a0 When people watch you or listen to you, do they see the love and grace of Jesus Christ?\u00a0 Or are you building a house of cards that is one gust of the wind of adversity from being blown down?<\/p>\n<p>Pastor Justin<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We are going to close this week on the blog the way we have run for the past couple of days. We are going to allow the intersection of sports and our Christian walk teach us a little more about &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westlakebaptist.org\/blog\/lessons-from-alabama-quarterbacks\/\">Read More <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[323],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westlakebaptist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westlakebaptist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westlakebaptist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westlakebaptist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westlakebaptist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=491"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.westlakebaptist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":492,"href":"https:\/\/www.westlakebaptist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491\/revisions\/492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westlakebaptist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westlakebaptist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westlakebaptist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}