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By Jim Baxter
I was watching “Friday Night Lights” this week, as I occassionally do during football season, and as always enjoyed Coach Gary Gainey’s “perfection” halftime speech. Gainey talks about having clear eyes for the vision of what they wanted to accomplish as a team in that game and also spoke of filling their hearts up with the love they had for each other as teammates so that when it was over, they could look each other in the eye and know that they did everything they could in that battle.
That speech is where the term “Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose,” came from. It was the battle call for the mythical Dillon Panthers on the television series of the same name, “Friday Night Lights.”
As I began to think about those words I was moved in my spirit to how true those words are in both football and in your spiritual walk with God.
As athletes, it is of vital importance that we maintain clear eyes. It is having a mind and vision unconflicted with doubts or fears. What that basically means is having an awareness; being alert to not only your goal or the prize that is your goal, but to the distractions that surround you each day. It means dealing with each second as it passes and each inch as you move forward. It is not succumbing to what the crowd says or does. It is keeping that goal in the forefront of your vision and not ignoring the obstacles or hurdles but looking beyond them to your prize.
In Matthew 14:22, Peter took his eyes off of his prize, Jesus, and was distracted by the wind and the waves and because of that began to sink. In a literal sense, his vision of Jesus became obstructed. When he allowed that to happen, fear overtook his faith. He simply lost sight of his goal and allowed his focus on his goal to become blurred with doubt and fear.
If I want to be the best quarterback in the state, there are things I must do to obtain that goal. I will set that prize and the means of obtaining it in front of me. There will be distractions. “You don’t really have to work out today, do you? Lets go hang out today,” says one friend. “Lets ditch class today and go have some fun,” says another. “You guys are good, but that’s the top defense you’re facing this week, you’ll never put up big numbers on them,” says another. Nay sayers will throw negative on it at every opportunity. They will tell you that you’re not big enough, not strong enough, not fast enough, not good enough.
Clear eyes doesn’t mean you are not aware of those distractions. It means that you look beyond them and stay focused on the prize.
Full hearts are engaged and full of passion. We are told in Matthew 5:8, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” Pure heart is a singular heart. It is a heart that is full of God’s love and passion.
Count Nicholas Zinzendorf was a German religeous and social philosopher in the 1700’s and was quoted as saying “I have but one passion and it is He and He alone,” referring to his relationship with God. His passion was focused on God. That means his heart was full of God controlled by that relationship. He had one – singular and pure – passion. I don’t have to tell you that if your heart is full with God’s love, there is no room for anything else. When I was a coach, I used to explain to my offensive and defensive linemen that as a principle of physics, two objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time. That is true with your heart, as well. If you fill it with Good, with light, there is no room for darkness. And if your heart is full with love, then all you do is out of that love and done with passion.
What you need to do, what I need to do, is empty that heart of everything so that God can fill it with His love and the gifts he has fo rus. Our hearts were designed to contain God and he wants to live there. It is only at that point that everything you do, or I do, is for God and His Glory.
It is such a simple concept but one so easily to lose sight of. No matter what the score is on the scoreboard at the end of the game, as long as you can say with a clear conscious that you gave everything you had for the effort – everything in your heart – then you can never lose.
And the life application? Our goal as men should be able to look ourselves in the mirror each night and tell ourselves we gave it our all. We gave it our all as players; we gave it our all as husbands; we gave it our all as fathers; we gave it our all as employees; we gave it our all as coaches; we gave it our all as a man. Even if things didn’t turn out the way we wanted or expected, there’s a peace in knowing that you did all you could do to succeed and you did it with integrity. You did it with Clear Eyes….you did it with a Full Heart….and you did not, will not, and Can Not Lose. CLEAR EYES, FULL HEARTS, CAN’T LOSE!
