“Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative
best you can with your own life.
– Galatians 6:5 (The Message)

As coaches, we are always talking to our players about responsibility.  We demand that they be responsible for getting to practice on time.  We expect them to be responsible for keeping up with their own equipment. We warn them to be responsible for their actions off the playing field or court.  Unfortunately, the world we live in doesn’t help set a very good example and this makes our job as coaches more difficult.  Recent court decisions leave us scratching our heads.  One jury awarded a cigarette smoker one billion dollars in damages because he developed lung cancer.  A class-action suit was filed against McDonald’s accusing the fast-food business of making people overweight and unhealthy.  We have become a society that loves to play the “blame game.”

One of the things Paul is teaching us in Galatians is that all of us are accountable for certain things in life.  Like the Roman soldiers of that time, we are expected to carry our own bags.  No one can do our work for us and no one can make decisions for us.  We must be responsible for paying our bills, raising our children, feeding our dog and mowing our grass.  Participation in sports requires taking responsibility and coaches must keep demanding it.  Nobody gets a free ride!  We all have to answer to someone.  Eating too many cheeseburgers and smoking too many cigarettes may have negative consequences.  Poor spiritual choices may have negative consequences too.  Each of us will have to answer to God for those.

Heavenly Father, thank You for Your living Word.  You have provided us with a plan to live our lives to the fullest, yet You have also given us free will.  Teach me to take responsibility for my actions and to make the right choices today.  In Jesus name I pray.  Amen.