Otto Graham — A Disciplined
Faith
Do you remember how, on a racing-track, every competitor runs, but only one wins the prize? Well, you ought to run with your minds fixed on winning the prize! Every competitor in athletic events goes into serious training. Athletes will take tremendous pains — for a fading crown of leaves. But our contest is for an eternal crown that will never fade.
I run the race then with determination. I am no shadow-boxer, I really fight! I am my body's sternest master, for fear that when I have preached to others I should myself be disqualified. 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 (Phillips)
A dozen or more recent tests have come to the same conclusion: America is physically unfit. More and more boys and girls are turning up in our schools with poor posture, flabby muscles and a lack of endurance. By contrast, the youth of Russia seem to be trained, hardened by athletics and disciplined, army style.
Part of our trouble in this country can be traced to the popular philosophy of "let's take it easy." With this attitude going the rounds, we shouldn't be surprised at the low level of national fitness. Because the boy or girl who wants a strong, healthy body must be willing to pay the price.
I applied this easy-going philosophy just once during
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my ten years of professional football. It was 1955. I'd retired from active playing but agreed to rejoin the Cleveland Browns late in the exhibition schedule when they had lost the services of one of their two quarterbacks. I only had two weeks' practice before our first league game with the Washington Redskins.
Normally I start early in the week building up psychologically and physically for a football contest. Not just the night before the game, but two nights before are early-to-bed nights for me. While some players are packing away steaks on the day of the game, I limit myself to a chocolate bar. I always feel butterfies in my stomach.
But this time I decided to skip all that. For once I would enjoy a game. In the nights before the contest I went to bed when I felt like it. On the day of the game I had a wonderful steak. My stomach felt fine.
That day the Redskins clobbered us and I never played a sorrier game. The sports writers were kind in their write-ups saying, "Graham isn't in shape yet," but I knew the bitter truth: I'd tried to win while "taking it easy."
I believe America is also spiritually unfit for the challenges immediately ahead. And the reason is exactly the same. We're "taking it easy." Many people today tend to see Christianity as an "armchair" religion and God as an indulgent old gentleman with a fat purse. Actually, the God of the Bible is a God of justice with a keen sense of right and wrong.
Many schools are condemning basketball players for accepting outside money, while their so-called "scholarship systems" are the very essence of bribery. Huge corporations penalize their workers for misuse of company
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time, while on a high level, prices are "fixed" to cheat the government.
We are dead wrong if we think God is going to overlook this kind of injustice and hypocrisy. America must return to God. Only disciplined faith will be able to survive the kind of tests that face us in the future.
I experienced a faint shadow of the power of faith like this when I began to play professional football. It was a thrilling thing, realizing that my teammates trusted me. They were not always in a position to understand how I would direct the play as quarterback and I must admit that there were many times I was only guessing. But they disciplined themselves on the playing field into unquestioning obedience. They were convinced that I would always act in their best interests.
That's the secret of a strong faith. And I learned it more completely in 1952. In that year a baby was born in our family. My son lived just six weeks. And when it was over, there were moments of despair. If there were a God, why did He permit this? I have never received an answer to that question. But I have received a faith that can go on without the answer. That faith is the steady confidence that God will always have a reason for whatever happens.
Many people today have no conception of faith. They are completely absorbed in making money and "getting ahead." Their business is their life. But I believe your life is your business. And with real spiritual discipline, you should be bringing your interests, attitudes and desires into conformity with God's will each day.
I believe America is physically and spiritually unfit. But you can start today to change the picture by the measure of one life — your own. Leave to the crowd the
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philosophy of "let's take it easy." Line up with Jesus Christ who said, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me" (Matthew 16:24).
Prayer
Heavenly Father, help me to discipline my body so that I may be physically fit. But more important, give me a trained and disciplined spiritual life. Strengthen my faith. I ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.
Otto Graham was an All-American football player at Northwestern University; All-Pro "Mr. Quarterback" Cleveland Browns; Athletic Director U.S. Coast Guard Academy. Advisory Council, Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
