GRACE & TRUTH

Everyone needs a coach

Pastor Webb Hoggard

Therapist, life coach, counselor, pastor and friend are all words that different segments of our society seek in times of decision and difficulty.

I have a life coach with whom I discuss my personal, family, church and career goals weekly. He has been a great encouragement to me and my ministry. Sometimes it’s nice to have someone to bounce ideas, hurts and plans off.

Some friends from California told me everyone they know has a therapist. It makes me chuckle because, growing up in eastern North Carolina, I had the idea that anyone with a counselor must be in some sort of trouble. As I got older, I realized this presumption was wrong, and I’m even grateful to have been blessed by such professionals.

Why do we need such help to endure life? What makes coaches so essential? We were not designed to walk alone, and we are better when we have someone who has gone ahead and can look at who we are from another perspective to help us see what we can’t.

I can only view my life from the first-person view. I understand, physically, I can now video myself and gain another perspective, but internally, in my soul, I can only understand my stride from one angle of view.

Here lies the genius of submitting myself to someone else and asking if there is something I can do to live this one life better. And a coach can do that.

I submit myself to the Holy Spirit daily. Jesus said He would teach, comfort, empower and direct me toward what would make me who God wants me to be. My walk is better in step with the Holy Spirit.

Isaiah prophesied seven hundred years before Jesus that He would be a counselor. Jesus, the miracle worker, prophesied that it would be better for us that He send us a comforter that would be our friend. The Great Counselor says we need this Comforter.

And why? Because in this life, you will have troubles, but the Spirit will help us to endure. He listens to you. He empowers, cautions, critiques and celebrates you! God gives us a divine coach who never leaves our side and knows infinitely more than we do.

When I hear the word “coach,” Joe Mizelle will always be the first name that flashes to my mind. Joe was passionate. Coach loved basketball and the boys he coached.

One of my favorite stories of him was when we were playing a team out of Elizabeth City. We lost the game, and he was so angry. He told us to go into the corner of the gym so he could let us have it before going home.

“Boys, that was a pathetic display of basketball. Embarrassing! I don’t know what to say about this game except that it came down to one thing. There is one reason we lost tonight. One word sums the whole night up - lack of desire!”

One of the younger players counted on his fingers and then sheepishly said, “That’s three words, coach.” I don’t know if coach heard him or not, but the whole team was sufficiently scared.

We never wanted to disappoint him like that again. We worked hard because we trusted him. We wanted to win because he loved to win. We remember his love for us because he cared about us.

Coach is just another word for friend. A friend is someone who has another view of you and can call more incredible things out in you than you can see yourself. A coach is able to see something greater and helps us get there.

If you don’t have a friend like that, get one. We are better with someone who can see more. Paul had Barnabas, David had Jonathan and Michael Jordan had Dean Smith and Phil Jackson.

God bless the coaches in our lives.

Emanuel Webb Hoggard is Pastor at Askewville Assembly of God and a resident of Edenton. He can be reached via email at pastorwebb@hotmail.com.

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We were not designed to walk alone, and “ we are better when we have someone who has gone ahead and can look at who we are from another “ perspective to help us see what we can’t.