As coaches, we spend long hours watching film--film of our practices or film of our opponent. We spend countless hours on the telephone talking to recruits or high school coaches. Our day starts before the sun comes up, and sometimes we don't get home until our children are sound asleep.

The Lord has appointed us to become coaches, and how honored we are! And now with the season nearing its end, the "silly season" begins. Yes, the silly season. When, for the next month or so, there will be many firings and hirings. Numerous coaches will be removed from their jobs or snatched up to take others, and thousands of coaches will be left wondering if they even have a job or where the next paycheck might come from.

A while ago, our baseball team played an opponent we should have probably defeated, but we made some costly errors. The following day I was doing my devotion from “The Daily Light Journal” by Anne Graham Lotz. The title was “The Fruit of the Spirit Is…Joy.” That prompted me to think about the joys that had come through even in our team’s struggles: the salvation of a teammate, the development of many young players, the ability to lose and continue to practice hard. The list goes on and on.