Winning on the Road: If You Ain't Got No Haters, You Ain't Livin' (For God)
🤝I know that all my high-level athletes and coaches will back me up on this!
‼️Playing on the road is different, and since that’s the case, your mentality must be different.
😁The difference is when you are at home, everyone in attendance wants to see you win and will do whatever they can to encourage and support you to win.
🙌🏾One of my dopest athletic experiences was being able to achieve my dream of coaching high-major basketball at Iowa State! God is so good; He not only blessed me to coach at that level, but He also allowed me to do so at Iowa State and its Hilton Magic!
🎟For those of you who are not familiar, Hilton Magic is in reference to their home-court advantage! Hilton Coliseum is the home arena of Iowa State. Hilton seats 14,267, and we sold out every game; it didn't matter who we played. We could be playing a high school’s junior varsity team, and it would still be packed!
☃️There would be games when we would arrive for shootaround and pre-game meal more than 4 hours before tip-off, and there would be a line of fanatic students wrapped all around the arena in freezing cold snow! The support was unmatched; there were many games that we would have had no chance to win if not for their unwavering support.
⛔️While that was the case, when we went on the road, as mentioned earlier, it was totally different, big fella! For example, when we played at Kansas, the tables of support turned as we were now in enemy territory, and there were 16,300 Kansas supporters praying and preying on our downfall.
🔐Because that was our circumstance, as coaches leading up to that game, we made sure our players were prepared to overcome the hate, harassment, and every other disadvantage that comes with playing in enemy territory.
🤬In practice, we would not call fouls because we knew they would not get any calls; we would turn on loud and annoying music to practice over. Whatever we could do to prepare our guys to prevail in such a hostile environment, we did.
⚠️Much the same, wherever you are in your walk with God, God told me that He needed you to know that like my squad at Iowa State going to Kansas, while you are on this side, this ain’t a home game!
💯So you must prepare accordingly and go out into the world - your road game in enemy territory, knowing that hate awaits, which is why it will not be a fair fight.
🏆God also wanted me to tell you that despite that, still be of good cheer and hold on tightly to what DJ Khaled said, “they didn’t want to see you win, but God did!”
🥇And since God wants you to win, you will win anyhow so long as you allow Him to prepare you.
👉🏾As you consider how you can overcome the hate of the world to win anyhow, consider these 3 passages:
📖The crowd when playing on the road is not for you! Ephesians 4:17-18 tells us that if we are going to live for God and win for God in enemy territory, we cannot go along with the empty-headed and mindless crowd because their minds are full of darkness. (MSG and NLT translations combined)
📖The crowd - the world around you hates you because of the jersey you wear. John 17:14-15 tells us that much like the Kansas crowd hating us because of the team we represent, the world does the same. Jesus claims, the world hates us because we are on His team and not the world's. He then says He does not want God to take us out of the world but to protect us as we pursue victory in the world!
📖We have to read and apply our game plan if we want to win in enemy territory. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 is doing what any good coach does, telling us that the Bible is our playbook used by God to equip and prepare us to do every good work!
💭Parting Power Thought: Hip-hop culture tells us that if we ain’t got no haters, we ain’t poppin’! I feel that for sure, as they are conveying that the more successful you are, the more haters you attract. Much the same, God’s word says if you ain’t got no haters, you aren’t living in His purpose. Jesus is very clear that when we declare that we will live for Jesus, the world we live in will begin to hate us!