Coaches, Always Keep Your Ears Open a.k.a. What I Learned in Church.

On Sunday,  January 24, I attended 9:00am mass at St Francis Xavier Church in Brockville, ON.

Before I get started here, I need to say the church building itself was absolutely amazing, inside and outside.

My ears are always open, no matter where I am.  Maybe I'm nosey, maybe, but I am always listening. A coach's eyes and ears should always be open.  There is always something to learn and if you are not receptive, you might miss something big.

During that mass in Brockville, the lay reader had my attention from the first line of the second reading, a Letter From St Paul to the Corinthians (Corinthians 12:12-12:31).

If you attend mass at a church, the Letter from St Paul to the Corinthians is familiar to you. If you do not attend mass, you should still read the excerpt below.  (You will not be asked for a donation at the end)

The reading talks about how every part of the body is different, but necessary.

A coach's ears should always be open.

We have so many players on a soccer team, it's difficult , yet important, to give everybody on the team a sense of belonging and self worth.  We all work to do that knowing that some players have a bigger external/visible impact than others, but there is still a place for everybody in your team community.

I will stop writing and let you take what you might get from the reading below.

Corinthians 12:12 - 12:31

12  Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many. 

15 Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body. 

21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. 

27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. 28 And God has placed in the church first of all apostles,second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues.29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30 Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? 31 Now eagerly desire the greater gifts.