I had the opportunity to attend the opening round of the Phoenix Open last Thursday. There was a great deal of excitement on the course with Tiger’s return to the tournament after a 15-year absence. There were 118,000 fans at the tournament that day, and Tiger’s group had the biggest following by far.

As you know if you followed the tournament Tiger had a rough couple of days. He finished dead last. On the second day he had his worst score in his tournament career. So Tiger has gone from the best golfer in the world a number of years ago, to the worst this week.

I obviously don’t know Tiger personally so I don’t know how he deals with this level of adversity. I know the TV announcers throughout the weekend were speculating on what coach he was going to turn to in an effort to get things turned around. He has been on somewhat of a merry-go-round lately from a coaching standpoint.

For myself, I always view adversity, setbacks in life, and major challenges as God reminding me of my great need for him. None of us can survive on our own. We need help. Turning to earthly help is certainly good. I am an executive coach myself, so I am an advocate of reaching out to people to help you become the best you can be.

However, the ultimate coach is Jesus. When I am weak, then I am strong. When I come to the realization that I cannot do things on my own, and I reach out to God in prayer, asking him to live within me to help me get through the challenges of life, then I become strong. With God all things are possible.

Servant leadership, like professional sports, is not easy! It is not natural to think first and foremost about serving others. I would argue that without God’s help you would fall short.

I am currently in the process of writing a book. It became very evident to me early on that I am not a natural author. Writing does not come easy for me. However with God’s help and guidance I am plowing forward, as I believe he would like me to get this message on servant leadership out. I believe that God wants a movement of servant leadership where people are looking to him as their main coach!

I would like to share a video of interviews taken with Super Bowl participants (Faith, Family, & Football) that was very encouraging on this subject. It is great to see some of these professional athletes publically proclaiming their source for strength, comfort, and peace.

I challenge all of the faithful readers of this blog to continue in their quest to help drive this movement. Look to Jesus for your coach. As one of my very good friends likes to say, I think it will make Jesus smile!

Mark

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding.  Psalm 111:10