Game Day Ready

Welcome to the game. We’re on the field, and it’s game day. Are you ready to play? A skilled athlete has an attribute I believe we can all relate to and be inspired by. It’s called readiness. This “readiness” is what Paul the Apostle imparts into us when giving wisdom and instruction to “be instant” in and out of season. This could be where the phrase, “Stay ready so you don’t have to get ready,” is inspired from. As a lyricist I resonate with being a “ready writer” as our mouths are the pens that leave an impressionable mark as believers, giving an instant witness of how the love of Jesus Christ has transformed our hearts, minds, souls, and very lives! Can I get a witness? Amen somebody! 

I mean, ask me about something I am passionate about, and I can answer readily with a wealth of knowledge about the subject matter with beneficial insight with pleasure. Children enjoy engaging and speaking about the things they are developing passion in. This is what I correlate to my youngest son’s academic experience so it connects for him. Then we translate it over to general context, but knowing the formula gets him ready for the preliminary season before his first official game, on the books. Sometimes life gives us periods of rehearsals and then just like that, it’s game time.

I love Jesus, and I am infatuated with the Son of Man who laid down His life for me and is married to me no matter how much I mess up. Try going into a locker room full of football players after a football game, or doing the laundry of these athletes’ uniforms that may have been left in the duffle bag until a day before the next game. Well, for another athlete, they are used to the smell, and even after freshening up, the sweaty mess (also called sweat equity) of giving our all can be a testament to our dedication. But an experienced Coach has also gone through this conditioning and embraces and celebrates the process of what it took to get to that level of funk. Well, the good news is, in this context, Jesus loves our funk! Go ahead and say it, “Jesus loves my funk!” This four word phrase is definitely the most romantic phrase I have ever heard, and I have never forgotten it. It makes me smile when I feel like a hot mess because I remember that Jesus honors my “sweat equity” as I glorify Him with my life, because He paid our entire bill for the cost of our sins already. I’m covered. You are covered with the blood of Jesus. Jesus shed His blood to pay for all of our sins and be reunified to Our Heavenly Father. Hallelujah to the Lover of our souls!

Knowing this special coverage was designed for me automatically puts me in a safe mental and emotional place without the anxiety from being judged or isolated because of “my funk.” This is how I have relearned how to feel about other’s funk that is a part of their journey who strive to become better by giving it their all. Conditioning for the game can produce all types of nasty gooky ugly bodily functions, but as a mother feeding, burping, and changing the diaper of a newborn baby, it’s a beautiful experience. It’s expected and appreciated because it’s indicative of a healthy baby. A baby that doesn’t produce these functions would prayerfully be taken to their pediatrician for help in regulating their systems. Growing in the Lord brings out our funk at times but Jesus is the aroma acceptable unto God. Only He Himself could satisfy the requirement of His holy standard. His Holy Spirit living in us, upon our acceptance of His only begotten Son Jesus secures our salvation as God will not deny Himself. This truth motivates me to study and pray His Word back to Him so I understand His love language when speaking to my Daddy. He is the Lover of my soul, and I the lover of His Spirit. Our evolving love expressed through praise and worship in Christ Jesus creates a fresh mist that wipes away our mess and our aroma becomes sweet again to God and to those with the grace of God abiding strong, and to the repentant, and to the ones who haven’t come to the showers in a while, especially to them as well, and we get a good lathering up and washing. This is the heart of the Good Shepherd who loves and lays his life down for the sheep. Ok, so back to conditioning. 

Ever since I was a little girl, I would take my time in getting prepared and ready. I moved fast (at times, taking my sweet time) but also in sequences of steps. I do love dancing though so that might explain it, lol. I take that trait after my dad, and he informed me as a young adult that later in life, I wouldn’t have all that time, all the time, to spend on getting my hair ready. Well, my dad was spot on, but the beautiful grace period of years creating different hairstyles was a conditioning for the season where I am giving that time to my princess. She benefits from my training and now we both enjoy the hair preparation process. I spent years of keeping my arms raised braiding, sewing, glueing, pressing, crimping, curling, gelling, pulling, tying, dying, combing, drying, etc. and so doing it now, even though it’s been a while (like a couple decades) is like being right at home. It’s fulfilling to invest into others what you’re passionate about. I actually experience this as a privilege.

When you are graced with a gift, you become synonymous with it. You do so well it is impossible to deny the anointing. When we separate and consecrate ourselves for God’s work, we are fulfilled by knowing we already have this game in the bag because we move from victory to victory. 

Getting ready is not only showing up on game day. Readiness is the result, the proof, the receipts of the performance put in when no one, and when very few eyes are watching. It’s getting it wrong before you nail the dismount. It’s the lifelong process of becoming and being at the same time. It’s the quiet moments of rehearsing in your mind what needs to happen and has already happened. Sometimes game ready looks like a period of watching and praying, listening and learning, developing a deeper intimacy with God and discernment in hearing His voice through His Word and in confirmation to His Word. It’s sacrificing wants for His will. It is loving His will. It is carrying out His will and running His plays. It is trust in God. Listening to the Coach when you want to make your own play to “save” the game. It’s understanding game ready means a commitment to the process of a disciplined life following after Jesus. 

The hours and hours of time I spent in one season of life styling my hair now empowers a phenomenal girl baller who understands what it means to be game ready. It’s a readiness you carry with you at all times because the training has etched it into your soul. 

Last year I worked on a vision board with my sisters in Christ, where I hosted a workshop, and for some reason, I felt led to include a picture of a woman coach in the act of motivating a girls basketball team on the court at game time. I look at this vision board on my refrigerator everyday. It serves as a reminder of my anointing as a helper, an edifying encourager, who is passionate about extending grace and mercy to anyone who thirsts for it that God graces me to reach. When you are game ready, it bypasses the burden of anxiety from not experiencing fulfillment and a sense of purpose only The Lord can provide. The process of game ready looks different for me now as it did a decade ago and will look different for me next week than it will in the next 5 years by God’s grace. Some games are regular season and the intensity kicks up during the playoffs and tournaments. 

It takes practiced discipline to get contact on every other play and get no foul call and still keep your sportsmanship. When the ref doesn’t call the foul we thought we deserved on defense, and when we get an offensive foul call on the next play, we don’t and ought not forfeit the game! We may get a time out from the Coach who will put in a substitute player to carry the team until we are composed enough to get back in with focus and capability to compete strong, using the game ready techniques and strategies we trained with. During this process we get emotional, we need a break, we get quiet, we decompress, we go to the locker room (we get funky), we review film, we may even have the nerve to get an attitude and say things we regret immediately. But as a game ready skillful athlete, we are prepared for the conditions that will shape us into the champions we are because of our Sponsor, who already set us up for the trophy win. 

In this season of my life, I’ve been intentional to protect my game time as I listen to my Coach. Sometimes he sends messages to the team through His assistant coaches and trainers to take care of me if I lose focus of what He said and need it reiterated. I intentionally make decisions to rekindle my fire and passion for my bond with God. He is my Father. He is my Life Coach who is always with me. The Great Counselor is The Great I AM. All you and I could even need is in Him. Whether I play dynamic defense or execute exceptional communication all throughout the game, I can be confident, you can be confident, we can be confident, that at whatever place we are in Our Father’s presence, we win! Welcome to the Game!

Humbly Submitted by Rose Daniels

A few scripts for game day readiness…

“If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” – Romans 10:9 (NIV)
“My tongue is the pen of a ready writer.” – Psalm 45:1 (KJV)
“Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.” – 2 Timothy 4:2 (KJV)
“The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.” –Ecclesiastes 9:11 (KJV)
“But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.” – Matthew 24:13 (KJV)
“Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” – Philippians 3:13-14 (KJV)
“Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” – Matthew 22:37-40 (NIV)
“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” – Ephesians 2:10 (NIV)
“Then the Lord replied: ‘Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it. For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay.'” – Habakkuk 2:2-3 (NIV)
“But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” – Isaiah 40:31 (NIV)
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding. To him belongs eternal praise.” – Psalm 111:10 (NIV)
“Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” -1 Peter 5:8 
“I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.” – Philippians 4:13
 “Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.” – 1 Corinthians 13:8 (NIV)