Kevin H: Are You Really Who You Think You Are?
Chip Kelly came to the Philadelphia Eagles three years ago with the reputation of being an innovator and a master of sports science and a borderline genius.
The Eagles made a bold move in hiring him as head coach and were taking some risks knowing they were going to break from convention in the National Football League and were going to do some things differently going forward.
After some initial success, things went south, most especially this past season.
The Eagles ended up firing Kelly a couple weeks ago. All the hope and promise that was held onto at his hiring had disintegrated into a morass of Kelly’s power trips, stubbornness, head-scratching personnel moves, and his inability to relate to many in the organization, players and non-players alike. (Sorry, you U of Oregon fans. Just speaking the truth of what happened in Philadelphia.)
The Eagles owner, Jeffrey Lurie, prides himself in seeing the Eagles organization as one that is bold and willing to take risks.
He says that one has to take an approach like this to win in the NFL. At Kelly’s firing and during the search for a new head coach, he would repeat this mantra and say that the Eagles would continue in these ways.
The problem is that when they hired their new coach, they appeared to have settled on doing the exact opposite.
Their new coach, Doug Pederson, is the safe choice. The familiar choice. The nice guy who won’t cause any waves in the organization. The understudy of the owner’s security blanket, former long-time coach Andy Reid.
Now, Doug Pederson may turn out to be a great head coach. As an Eagles fan, I certainly hope that is the case. But the Eagles most certainly didn’t do what they said they would do. They got burned the last time they tried it with Kelly, and so they acted differently this time. Whether they can see that or not.
I’m not big on taking risks most of the time as I am generally risk-averse. We can discuss and debate the merits of taking risks as there are pluses and minuses to both sides and each and every circumstance is unique. The trickiest thing for me is when I think God may be wanting me to take a risk and trying to be at peace that this is what God really wants and then actually doing it. I believe there are certainly times in our lives when God wants us to step out and take risks.
But ultimately, my thought on this article does not revolve around risk taking, though that can be an important topic. More so, I think about how Jeffrey Lurie has deluded himself into thinking that the Eagles are big bold risk takers when it comes to hiring coaches. They did it with Chip Kelly. Sort of. Because when Kelly was hired he was the big hot name that everybody wanted. It wasn’t like they were going out on a limb and doing something that nobody else would have done. The Eagles weren’t daring with their most recent hire in Pederson. They weren’t gallant for the several years before Kelly as Lurie held onto Andy Reid for too long. He held onto Reid for those extra years, because at least partially, he felt safe and comfortable with Reid. So even though Lurie thinks the Eagles are bold and daring, they often act the opposite.
Are there things in our lives that we like to pride ourselves in that aren’t always true?
We take a liking to a certain quality and then affirm ourselves as the shining beacon for that particular attribute. I like to think of myself as someone who is honest and straightforward and not a game player who manipulates people and situations to get what I want or win an argument. In general, I think this is true. However, if I really examine my life, are there times where I fail to uphold this quality that I pride myself in? Most certainly. And maybe more so than I am willing to admit or even able to recognize.
I think it is good to be cognizant of our own strengths and weaknesses. At the same time, we need to be careful that we don’t become puffed up with pride in relation to our good traits. We need to recognize that we aren’t the be-all, end-all and that even in our strengths we sometimes fail. Maybe even more times than we know. There is only One who is the be-all, end-all when it comes to perfectly fulfilling and executing every good thing. Let us always keep our reliance on Him rather than ourselves.
And what’s that saying we often hear around here……Oh yeah…….Make your own application. 🙂
reading here this morning brought Jeremiah 17 to mind – particularly verses 9 & 10… i have spent my whole life cursed with double-mindness “unstable as water” – faith isn’t natural, but the grace and immutability of God has somehow always been there… someone yesterday quoted from a sermon they’d heard to the affect: preach Christ and the Faith will follow – amen to that!
good musing, Kevin (for all of us) and good luck to Pederson and the Eagles… well, at least a little bit 🙂
I’ve been wrestling with this a lot lately,knowing how far my thoughts and actions often are from the ideals that I want to exemplify.
I believe in grace…but apply it unevenly as I grow more jaded and cynical by the day.
I am however, generous in dispensing grace to myself.
Thanks for the awful reminder, Kevin. 🙂
Good thoughts.
Ditto Michael
I just finished reading Brennan Manning’s memoir, All is Grace. I think there could be a lot of application here.
My focus here isn’t to get down on people’s strengths. We should be able to celebrate our real strengths and the things God has gifted us with. But to serve as a reminder that even in our strengths, we sometimes fail. And sometimes we have false impressions about ourselves or think more highly of ourselves than we should. Ultimately, our reliance needs to be on God and not ourselves and our abilities.
You’re exactly right. It’s ironic when we who need and “preach” (I’m not a preacher) grace become ungraceful in the midst of anxiety and resentment. Thank you for this reminder. Time to dust off “All Is Grace”.
This reminds me of a short video I just recently saw again of Chuck Smith. Whatever criticisms one might want to level (or have leveled) against him, the man – despite having lots of people sing his praises – knew where to put his hope and where not to. This short video is one of best examples or messages I’ve seen from a pulpit and it really is a reminder to me and encourages me and I hope it does the same for you.
i just watched Chris’ link – i came away touched by Smith’s words of faith and also wondering if we don’t ask too much of some of these folk; elevating them higher and placing on them more responsibility than we should?
Em, absolutely – I think that’s exactly what we do. Human nature is to elevate those we like and then put unrealistic expectations on them. I think why people do that is because of our own pride – we’re always looking to someone – even within the Church – to be our “savior” in a sense – to be the one that we can fully identify with and completely agree with because (and this might be getting a tad “deep”) we really on a core level are still in some sense looking for men and women to be our answer, rather than Jesus.
When I saw that video of Chuck, I thought: “Here’s a guy, that regardless of what some think of him, was used by God as a major part of a powerful renewal movement that ultimately several thousand churches came out of (CC and Vineyard) and who I’m sure CONSTANTLY had people all around him telling him how wonderful he was and how much he has meant to them and blessed them, and yet this video shows that he knew that was not what it was all about and that he still had to 100% bank solely on Jesus and His righteousness.” And that is huge as far as I’m concerned. This short 2 minute video spoke more volumes to me than any sermon I’ve ever heard him give.
The man obviously wasn’t perfect, but this video shows that he himself knew that, and that’s a big deal and a whole lot more than the way a lot of pastors tend to present themselves.
As far as responsibility being put upon them, I always got the feeling that Chuck never really wanted a lot of that responsibility. I think that’s probably why as CC grew, more problems became evident since there was (by design) a lack of structure or any real oversight.