In the 90s, Gatorade had a TV ad that we many still talk about, sing the song and discuss over thirty years later. It was the first Gatorade commercial that featured Michael Jordan with younger kids trying to emulate his moves and his game with the song “Be like Mike. . . . I Wanna Be like Mike.” The whole concept was genius from the standpoint that there can never be another “Michael Jordan,” but we can be “like him” from how we practice, how we workout, and yes, even what we drink.
As followers of Christ, we can’t be Christ, but we are supposed to be “like Christ” by how we live, how we love and how we coach. We are not coaches or coaching families who follow Christ, but we are followers of Christ who happen to coach. That is the RENEW part. In our former life we would be identified as a coach, dad, mom, teacher—all by what we did, but our identity changes and is renewed to children of God, followers of Jesus Christ.
We see this in Peter’s life. Greg Steeley, vice president at the John Maxwell Leadership Academy, says it this way, “Peter’s urge was always to go back to fishing; it’s what he knew and from where he drew his identity. It wasn’t until Jesus approached him and asked, ‘Who do you say that I am?’ that his whole perspective changed. At this moment he went from a fisherman who followed Christ to a Christ follower who just happened to be a fisherman.”
This interaction between Jesus and Peter is so powerful because Peter answered the question with “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16). And when Peter declared who Jesus was, Jesus in turn defined who Peter was.
Jesus changed Simon’s name to Peter, which means Rock. Jesus gave Peter a new name and new identity not based on who Peter was currently but on what Jesus wanted him to be intentionally. For when we declare who Jesus is, He defines who He wants us to be. We are RENEWED!
As a coaching couple, we need to be able to answer these same questions when it comes to Christ.
Who do you say that Jesus is?
Who is Jesus to you?
How would we declare who Jesus is to us as an individual, as a couple and as a family?
Do we find our identity from the coaching world or Jesus’s Kingdom?
Pray together and ask, “How do we need to be RENEWED in order to ‘be like Christ’?”