But there is one coach you might not have heard about. In recent years some teams have hired what is called a “strength” coach. His job is to work with the players between games in the locker room and practice fields, helping to make sure they are in top condition and as strong as possible.
Since he doesn’t have a specific assignment during the game, the strength coach on some teams is assigned a different kind of job. He then fills the role of what has become known as the “get back coach.”
If you watch any football at all, you’ve probably seen him at work. Some head football coaches get a little worked up, as we might say, during the course of a game, and might even step out onto the field as they vigorously protest a call made by the referees, or perhaps in the act of admonishing a player for a missed tackle or some other miscue. Or maybe just because he’s excited.
Stepping too far out onto the field can result in a penalty. A referee might run into him, or he might accidentally interfere with a play. So the “get back coach” has the responsibility of standing behind the head coach, watching to make sure he doesn’t stray too far into a place he shouldn’t be. Sometime he will even reach out and grab the head coach’s pants or with arms around his waist, pulling him back to a safe spot.
Hence the term, “get back coach.” He is there to make sure the head coach “gets back” where he should be. In the high emotion of the moment, the head coach might not always appreciate that effort, even though that is specifically what he has told that guy to do.
Like the head football coach, we believers sometimes stray from where we should be. If we pay attention to the Lord, He can pull us back from where we should not be in our thoughts, actions, attitudes and even footsteps. The world might call it “conscience” or even “ guilt,” but the Bible refers to it as “conviction. In John 16:8, Jesus told us that one of the roles of the Holy Spirit is to convict us of sin. He does much, much more than that, of course, but in that role He serves as our “get back coach.”
When He speaks to us, telling us that something is not right or that we should do a particular thing, the best thing we can do is listen. And be grateful that He has not given up on us.
--Rocky Henriques, www.uticabc.com