CTC-25 Nate Sallee - "How to connect your faith and sport"

Nate Sallee switches it up a little bit and provides a short teaching on the relationship between God and sport. Nate is the area director for the the NKY Fellowship of Christian Athletes. 
While his personal coaching career just started with his son's youth b-ball team this past winter, he's always been deeply connected to coaching through his father growing up. Now he supports his wife as the head volleyball coach at Highlands High School as well as serving and building into coaches through his full-time role with FCA.

Transcript

Nate:   0:00
This is the coach to coach Podcast episode number 25. Game time. Hey, what's going on, guys? This is the coach to coach podcast, where we believe every kid deserves a coach that cares, and every coach deserves someone in their corner. I'm your host. Nate silly in This podcast is sponsored by the Northern Kentucky Fellowship of Christian Athletes were incredibly grateful to our donors. To our board. Members are volunteers, everyone who makes this movement of God called F C a possible as well as things just like this podcast. Well, hey, if you're new to the podcast, we try to come out with some content on the first and 15th of each month. Ah, lot of times we will have an interview with a local coach or the author of some of the tools that we use in our coaches ministry with F. C. A. We've had a blast and have learned a ton from the collective wisdom in our region and beyond. One other time, I've kind of taken a little bit of, ah, step out of the normal routine of having interviews and then a short teaching, and that's what this episode's gonna look just like because there's something on my heart that I've shared a couple of different times and one of the first times back in the fall, in the beginning of the school year to some students, and is this idea of how does faith and sport how does God interact with our sport? And so instead of interview today, I'm just gonna kind of share with you a little bit of that learning. And I hope it's helpful to you and some people that you know. So to begin, it really comes down to three simple, short words. Bye four and with by four and with it all has to do with the relationship between God and sport. The very 1st 1 is by So what? We're recognizing that our sport is created by God. We go all the way back into Genesis, and we see that God created the heavens and the earth and people and all living creatures. Everything has been created by him for his glory, and that would include our sport. He created the people that have invented the sports that we know and love and enjoy. And so just that recognition of God has as created this beautiful thing that we could enjoy called our sport and just to have that baseline. I've just gratitude to him that this is something that we can enjoy. It's a it's a gift. It's a it's a thing to do with others and there's a transcendent purpose behind it. There's a way in which we can do it, that is, that is honoring to him. But just knowing that at the very beginning that God, uh, our sport has been created by God, it is a great kind of heart posture to start with. The second word is four. Now, this is gonna take it just a little bit longer because this is a topic that gets covered a lot. When we think about coaches and athletes and we've heard the language of I'm gonna play for him. I was able to spend a summer with athletes and action, a ministry very similar to FC, eh? That's kind of a subsection of campus crusade for Christ or Crew. I played for the Xenia Scouts. It was a summer baseball team was a wood bat league during my kind of final times as a baseball player at Morehead State and they had some incredible content and built into me, and I'm super grateful for my time with them. And one of the tools that they have that they tried to teach us on how to play the game in such a way that was honoring to God is to is to find a find a focal point, find something that you could you could look at in the midst of practice and conditioning and games that would remind you that would take you back to the purpose of sport that would remind you that not only did he create it, but you're playing for him, and one of the terms that they kind of coin, or at least I think that has originated with them is a 01 that you're playing four, an audience of one. Now this is a summer college team, and we play. It was made up of mostly mostly Division one athletes from all over the country that would kind of all collide and the Great Lakes lead in Ohio. We had teams and from players from schools all over, and some of the stadiums were nice and were empty. Some of the stadiums were not so nice, but they had quite a few people. But their thought was, regardless of who is in the stands and who is watching. Ultimately, even if there's no one in the stands knowing that we are always playing for an audience of one we're playing in a way that's just an offering that's almost worship full to God and how we go about it. What are our words are in our actions and how we're treating our teammates and opponents of the empires that were playing in a way, that's four God. And you hear a lot of times that teams will play for a greater cause. Often times it takes a tragedy sometimes that hey, we're gonna we're gonna win this one for so and so insert somebody who is sick or somebody who they may be. They lost. Or maybe he got into a car wreck. But, hey, I'm gonna win 14 blank. There's an old term hey 11 for the Gipper. There's this idea that we can play for another person in just the sense of It's an awesome thing to think through that we can play our sport for God. My wife, Caitlin. Her one of her favorite life versus that's been really meaningful to her over the years as Colossians 3 23 And it says that whatever you d'oh work at it with all of your heart. As for the Lord and not for man, I'm not gonna apply to your sport that can apply to your family that can apply to homework that can apply to mowing the grass, that whatever you do, whatever we do bring our whole Selves work out with all of our heart as if we're doing it for God and not for man. And if that is our mode of operation, I got to tell you, that's got to be the fiercest competitors is gonna look just like that. The person with the strongest work ethic is gonna look like that. The person that's gonna be the best teammate is gonna have that posture because if you're loving, if you're playing four God, you're gonna love those that are with you along the way because the ultimate commitment to love God and to love others. So that's a direct connection of that. So from playing four God, that's a really big deal. And Then there's times where you have athletes and coaches that have hit a certain platform, and we talk about using our platform foregone, to share him, to share his name. And then we see you know, people people thinking, thinking Jesus or thanking God or referencing their faith when they're interviewed. And and all of that is great and I encourage that. And I think it's I think it's awesome if it's authentic to them, and that's part of their motivation as part of their journey. I think absolutely you should be. You should be really open and honest about that. It could also seem like, Hey, I'm doing this for God and it's something that we're kind of producing And hey, look at me. I'm I'm doing I'm doing really well and I'm doing it doing it for God. And while that's while I believe that's received, and then it's a very good thing to think about. It could also feel like for me anything that I've done in my athletic career, uh, to say that Oh, hey, man, like I, I got this little award here, this all tournament team here. I had a guy like I made a Division one roster for you, it can seem in the grand scheme of like, global matters. Uh uh, honestly, not not really that big of a deal if we're talking about God of the universe. So while it is very important that we're working with all of our heart doing it As for the Lord and not for men, I think there's one final layer that I've just recently come across. And I'm so grateful to Marty mayor or other staff person that we kind of unpack this together. I think we can miss one of the most beautiful pieces of this. If we stop at realizing that our sport is made was created by God, if we play our sport for God and then just neglect the fact that the entire time, whether we're coaching are athletes or whether we're at home or whatever we're doing, that we can realize that God is with us, that we can coach with God, not just coach for him or realize that our sport and our team was created by him. But we can coach with God that he is with us while we're on the field or on the court or on the track. And he is with us in the weight room that he is with us in the locker room when we're talking, talking to everybody, that his presence, if we have put our trust in him, he's given us a spirit, his presence, he is with us the whole time. This was really meaningful for me, and I'm so glad that I was able to be exposed to it. And part of why I'm sharing it with you now is just last week, this this recording just a about eight days ago I took off. I set off for one of the biggest journeys athletically, honestly of my life beyond my my college career. And that was to cross the starting line of the Flying Pig marathon in over five hours later, crossed the finish line of the Flying Pig full marathon, 26.2 miles. Now I realize that God had made our bodies that he had made this idea of running. I knew that I waas running for a higher purpose than to just finish for a cool time and look cool and all these different things I was really I was running for for my family to be healthier and to be around longer, honestly, to have ah, longer, ah, longer life and to make sure that I'm being proactive about my health. And I was for my wife and my kids, and I was really at one point I even came to a point where it was about 15 miles in where I was. My mindset was, Hey, this is God. This isn't This isn't offering to you. I want to run in a way that's worshipful. My wife even sent a video text that was reading Romans 12 the very real first chapter of Romans. 12 first verses of Romans 12 and just talking about how our bodies can be a living sacrifice, pleasing me God, and that she was asking that I would run in such a way that would be worshipful and offering and pleasing to him. And that was really, really a good just encouragement. And I was in a great spot, even dollars. Plugging along with me on 15 miles in guys, I guess, is this is a long, long journey and this thing about that you're 15 miles in and you got 11 more to go And at that point, with that encouragement, I threw on some worship music, and I really tried to just enter into a time of worship when I was running for God and I was I was praising him as worships, worshiping him as I was going. And then I hit about Mile 22 and at Mile 22 I am well past well beyond where I had ever ran in my life. I had a couple of different pit stops with with family briefly as they were encouraged me Thio finish, and I was really kind of at the end of me. I was I was jogging, breathing lies. I was feeling pretty good, but my lower body, it was like somebody had unplugged me and I felt cramped starting to come on. I never had terrible, painful, huge, gripping cramps, but I could tell I was bumping up against them over and over, and I would shut it down, walk a little bit, pick a spot half the job to the next point, shut it down, walk a little bit, and I really had to realize and remember that I wasn't just running for God, but I needed him in that moment that God with me was a big deal and I was prayerful and was asking him to meet me where I was at and to give me the strength and the endurance to get to that dog on finish line. And it was It was one of the clearest examples I've ever seen. I knew that that sport was created by God. I was setting out to run a race that was for him and honoring to him. And then I had a point where at the end of the day, I needed to depend and realize that he was with me every step of the way that he wasn't just a distant figure, that I was trying to lift up this gift to that he was with me in me. His presence was very really in my in my world as I was trying to finish, and I just feel like that would be, that's a great thing to to process there is like where we at and not necessarily is 11 is better than the other. But I think it's a great question. Have we missed this idea of realizing that God is with us. I've heard it said recently, that God's presence is a matter of awareness. But he's there whether we recognize it or not. And I just wonder, Are we missing out on some joy? Are we missing out on some peace? Are we missing out on being less frustrated? Are we missing out on having some wisdom or having some? Some boldness here are similar Strain in another situation because we're not. We're not aware or recognizing his presence in our lives, not just when we may go Thio worship service on the weekend or not, just when we might be listening to a worship song, but literally while we're on the sidelines coaching while we're drawing up practice place while we're thinking through with our other coaching staff what's going to be the best for our team while we're talking to parents while we're, you know, interact with referees like art, Dewey recognized God's presence in our lives. And what impact would that have on our lives on our coaching on our teams and be gone that if we realize that hey, God's created this sport, we're gonna coach and play for him. But we're also going to do it with him. And if you're like me, I feel like I'm gonna I'm gonna have a much better go that if I'm going out with God because with God, all things are possible and regardless of one final quick right, and then I'll wrap this that in Philippians 4 13 It says I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me and I love that verse. I've seen that verse on people's cleats and their their eye black, and it is a very, very popular verse with coaches and with athletes. And I love it absolutely love that verse. But I'll start off with. Here's what it doesn't mean. It doesn't mean that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Therefore, Nate Silly, who's barely six foot and has not exactly the most explosive athlete in our area, is gonna be able to dunk a basketball like LeBron, even though I have Christ in me. I'm not gonna be able to do that like I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. That's not exactly what that means. If you look just before and just after the author of that book of Philippians Paul is talking about. He's been through it all. He's had a lot. He's been and he's been broke. He's been in a very comfortable situations. He's been in jail, he's been shipwrecked. He's been all these things and he's He's found his secret, and the secret is to be content in all circumstances. Why is he able to be content in all circumstances? Because he believes that he can endure all of these things through Christ who strengthens me. He knows that God's presence is always with him, regardless of the circumstances. Therefore, he feels like it doesn't matter what the world or life throws at him because God is with him. Christ is in him. Then he can do anything that he can be. He can get through any obstacle that comes his way, and that's my encouragement to you today. Coaches that that you would know that God is with you in your journey and whether you're seeking him out for the first time. Maybe you've walked with him for a long time. Make sure that we take a second and just recognize that he is with us, right? Wilbur at while we're coaching while we're teaching while we're parenting while we're loving our spouses if we're married and so I I just bless you to, uh, toe know that deeply in your heart that that would be an encouragement to you. And ultimately, you would just find more meaning or purpose and more success at home and with your team.

Nate:   17:42
Hey, before let you go, We are coming up on the final push for our summer leadership camp. So if you have some current leaders on your team or kids that you feel like would be great potential leaders on your team, we will love to partner with you and build into those athletes. Ah, and by having them come to our f c a leadership camp in a state wide it's a WK you Western Kentucky University right there during dead periods. They're not messing with your schedule. June 30th through July 3rd in K. Y f c. A dot org's slash camp has all of the info. We do have some scholarship funds available if finances would be a hindrance to you or your players, and we will love to have you know that Kentucky well represented and to build in see your athletes. That way you can come back and your program will be stronger. Hey, thanks so much. We're in your corner. Let us know how we conserve. You can at any time always shoot me an email it in Sicily in S a l L E at fc a dot or GE with ideas, thoughts, topics, questions or guessed that you would like to see on this show at some point. Well, until next time keep growing, keep learning and keep changing lives on your team and in your home.