C.L. "Biggie" Munn
— Prayer
Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. Give us day by day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, For we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from evil. Luke 11:2-4
As a youngster I was a restless kid with a lot of surplus energy. If there was a scrap somewhere, it was a fair bet that I was involved in some way. Once I was kicked out of school for a breach of conduct.
I lost my father when I was eight. My mother worked, and the whole family had to pull hard to keep going. I guess a lot of my aggressiveness sprang from the rough, uphill struggle to make a living that we all knew first-hand.
One day, a fellow named Clarence Angel appeared at our Junior High School. The name intrigued me and I like the man's looks. In later months and years we became very fond of him. When he called his first meeting for boys at our school, I went along out of curiosity. A club was formed and everybody tried to think of a good name for it. Clarence told us about a missionary named Dr. Wilfred Grenfell, who spent most
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of his life in Labrador. A vote was taken and we became the Grenfell Club. When most of us moved into high school the following year, the club continued. Under the Christian leadership of Clarence Angel, it became clear to me that there was a God in heaven supervising the universe, a God who was the real source of all power.
One summer it was decided that the club would spend a couple of weeks camping together. Eager for the excitement of living for a time in the wilds, I went along too. After the day's fun on the trail, there was a roaring campfire and each boy bowed his head and prayed. As the silence of the wilderness was broken only by the crackling fire and distant hooting of an owl, I sensed that I was communicating with that great God who kept the stars in their places. I began to believe that He could help me keep my life in place as well.
As the years rolled by, prayer came to mean more and more to me. When I entered coaching, I found my new tasks and duties were often a lonely business. There were burdens and concerns about the teams that couldn't be shared with the players or with anyone else. But in prayer I could face these problems with God.
I urged all my teams to consider prayer as a practice as important as the actual playing of the game. When I was head coach at Michigan State University, my football teams developed the habit of praying before every game. Not a prayer to win, but the simple recognition that the strength to play the game originates with God. It is always an experience to be with these young men as they kneel all around the locker room to recognize God in the moments preceding a game.
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In 1951 we played Ohio State at Columbus and won the game in the last few seconds. It was a thrilling victory and surely a time when my boys could be excused for exuberant celebration. But moments after the final whistle, a young linebacker on our team, his face smeared with dirt and still breathing hard, came up to me and said, "Coach, if it was good to say a prayer before the game, why don't we say one afterward?" From that time on, our teams have met for prayer after every game as well as before — whether we won or lost.
I'd be the last to say that prayer can be used as a "technique" for securing victories. It goes a lot deeper than that. Prayer helps to develop men — men who recognize a supreme power in life far beyond themselves. But it seems a fact that when real men are being created, hard-fought games and victories always seem to follow as inevitable by-products.
Prayer produces unity everywhere. It is not only the "glue" that can hold a football team together; it is the "glue" that holds the Christian "team" together in its world-wide fellowship. The boy or girl who has no time for prayer is a loner. And there's no such thing as a loner in football or in Christianity. You either belong to the team or you don't.
So many people wait until they want something or until tragedy strikes them down before turning to prayer. But why shouldn't prayer be just as vital an experience in times of success? Jesus prayed when He was happy. He prayed when He felt sad.
If we will follow His example and make prayer an integral part of all our lives — before the game, after the game, and in the midst of the game — we will come to know the full meaning of fellowship with God.
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Prayer
Dear Lord, forgive us in our failures and keep us humble in our successes. And teach us to pray in every circumstance of life. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.
C.L. "Biggie" Munn was an All-American football player at the University of Minnesota; "1951 Coach of the Year" Michigan State University; athletic director Michigan State University. Board of Directors, Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
