A BAD COACH By J. Dean Coach Frank Smith strode confidently into the lockeroom of the Saints and smiled at the awaiting team. Tonight was "winner take all," the culmination of a glowing season for the pro basketball team that everyone said would not even make the finals! Yet, this team had put their heart and soul into what became their BEST season ever, and had proved all the nay sayers wrong. Tonight they faced their arch rivals, the Demons, for the tournament game. The Demons were the favorites, and had wrecked havoc against the Saints every time they faced off. The team all sat, awaiting the final "pep talk" for which Coach Smith was famous. They sat on their benches, looking apprehensive. Beating the Demons in a tournament game on their own turf would not be an easy task, and the team was understandably in need of encouragement. The Coach stepped up before them looking undaunted and unafraid, and smiled at his team warmly. "I just wanted to say a few words before you go out there," he started out, as if this were the first time he'd ever spoken to them before they hit the court. "I know the Demons are a tough team." He glanced around, examining the nods of agreement on the faces of his players. "I realize they have beaten us every time we've played them, and rightly so, because let's face it, they're just the better team! We just simply are NEVER going to be good enough to beat them, we're only human after all!" He looked around at the forlorn and downcast expressions of his team, beaten now in their own minds before the match even began. "But look guys," he continued, still smiling, "I want you to know that the owner realizes you can never win this tournament. He knew from the very beginning that you would fail, and here's the GOOD NEWS, he already PURCHASED the TROPHY for you before the tournament even began! According to the league you've already won! So, just get out there and play the best game you can, and don't worry about SCORING, heck, you can even just sit around on the edge of the court, or go out and drink some beer in the stands, you are already declared the winners, the game is just a formality!" When you read the above story, how many of you think that the Saints will go out and try to actually score and WIN? Do you believe the Saints will be EXCITED about being winners? How many of you are wondering if Coach Smith might be working secretly for the Demons? How many of you want to FIRE him on the spot? More importantly, how many of you would be INTERESTED in a basketball tournament where you KNEW the trophy could be PURCHASED for the players, and that it didn't matter how the players actually played? How interesting would the sport be? Yet, consider this if you will: religious people are being given this same exact pep talk from pulpits in churches all over the world. They are being told that they ALREADY HAVE WON the battle against sin, and that they NO LONGER have to fight to BEAT their personal Demons. In short, they are taught that their lives and all their struggles are meaningless, and that God has so little faith in them (and in his own abilities to teach them to win) that he has simply PURCHASED the PRIZE for them and now EXPECTS NOTHING FROM THEM! Speaking as a parent, how mature would my children be and what kind of people would they become if, instead of teaching them how to be productive adults, I merely told them to remain children and then took care of them and performed all of their responsibilities for them? Yet, this is the very IMAGE of the heavenly Father and His relationship that these "bad coaches" paint for you from almost every pulpit in the world! This web site is designed to CORRECT the damage done to the "team" by thousands of years of "bad coaches." J. Dean