There we stood on the football field of the Seminole Indians. The Seminole, Texas, High School Indians. It was another mid August football scrimmage between two schools. The teams each ran a set number of plays on offence and the field was full of coaches, players and referees all tuning up for the regular season. I happened to be out of the referee rotation at the moment, but I was standing next to James A. another ref who was in the line judge position. 

Seminole was on defense and one of their players had committed a hold on the play. James made the call and reported the offence. The head coach from Seminole, a guy named Finess, or something like that, went ballistic. “Who did it!” he demanded. Now James had been watching this guy berate his players for at least an hour, so he conveniently forgot which player had committed the foul.  It was an easy enough mistake because the players didn’t have any numbers on their jerseys. Well the ole coach starts yelling, “That’s OK we are on the honor system here, my boys will own up to their mistakes! Which one of you guys held on the play?!” No one stepped up to claim the dubious honor, so he asked the question again, a little louder this time. Well there was still no commitment from his honorable players. 

His next ear-shattering yell upped the stakes for his honor system players. “Who did it? Ever who did it gets five tire pulls tomorrow in practice!” There ya go coach, just asking didn’t get you anything, so add a little punishment to the demand and they’ll step right up. Still nothing. Now James really did know who the offender was so he slowly stepped up to the player and said. “Son you know you did it.” 

“Yes sir, I know.” 

“Well don’t you think you ought to step up and confess?” 

“No sir, he’s pretty mad.” 

“But son you have to know he’ll watch this on film and find out who did it. It could be pretty bad tomorrow in practice.” 

“Oh yes sir, but I’ll worry about tomorrow, tomorrow.” 

James and I have no idea what happened “tomorrow.” Did the coach find out who did it and exact punishment on the kid? No guess. Did the kid get away with it? Same answer. Did the whole team suffer because one player failed to step up and take responsibility? Probably. The way that coach talked to his players, I might have done the same thing. I have often swept things under the rug hoping they would never be found. I’ve often waited for tomorrow hoping things would simmer down a bit. However, my life learned lessons have taught me that that is not the best course of action. 

The boy was hoping for one of two things to happen that would make thing easier for him. Number one, he was hoping the coach would never find out who did it. Number two, he was hoping that if the coach did find out, the twenty-hours between the offence and the punishment would give the coach the time to cool off. In this case, that was most likely a very long shot. In matters of dealing with living life, honesty is the best policy. The coach would most likely rather have a player who did do the honorable thing, and would consider that when administering punishment. 

I terms of dealing with our relationship with God, allow me to insert two things I know. First, I know that God already knows who is guilty. He is only asking us who did it for our own benefit. Second, I know that God wants me to come to grips with my shortcomings, and is ready to forgive me, no matter how long I’ve failed to own them. 

There is one more thing to consider friends. Satan’s greatest weapon is tomorrow. If he can convince you to wait until tomorrow, he will never lose you. 

Till next time,

Grump