As For Me and My House

Joshua 24:15 is one of the most recognized verses in Scripture: “But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” We put it on signs, hang it in our homes, and use it as a declaration of faith, but when Joshua spoke these words, he was doing much more than creating a memorable statement. He was drawing a line in the sand, making it clear that the Israelites had a decision to make about whom they would serve. Regardless of what everyone else chose to do, Joshua had already made his decision, and his commitment to God was not going to be determined by the decisions, opinions, or actions of the people around him.

There is something incredibly important for coaches and athletes to understand in that message because eventually, every one of us has to decide what we believe and whether our actions actually reflect it. We are responsible for how we lead, how we compete, how we treat people, and how we represent our faith when doing so is difficult or unpopular. We cannot base our commitment to Christ on what our teammates are doing, what our coaches believe, what is popular in the locker room, or what is accepted by worldly culture. Joshua understood that following God was a personal decision, and he was willing to firmly stand in that decision regardless of who chose to stand with him.

However, there is another side of this conversation that Christians sometimes struggle to accept. While we are responsible for choosing whom we will serve and living in a way that reflects that decision, we are not responsible for forcing everyone else to make the same choice. In Matthew 10:14, Jesus told His disciples, “And if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house or town.” Jesus sent His disciples into the world to share the truth. Still, He never instructed them to argue people into submission, chase endlessly after those who rejected the message, or exhaust themselves trying to control someone else’s response. Their responsibility was to faithfully share the truth and obey what God had called them to do, while the response belonged to the person receiving the message.

As coaches, we can teach, encourage, correct, challenge, and invest in the athletes God places in front of us, and as athletes, we can lead our teammates, share our faith, invite others into conversations about Christ, and live in a way that points people toward Him. However, eventually every person has to make their own decision, and one of the hardest lessons we learn in coaching is that we cannot want something more for an athlete than they want it for themselves. We can provide the training plan, explain what needs improvement, give them opportunities, hold them accountable, and invest countless hours in their development, but we cannot do the work for them. At some point, they have to decide whether they are willing to commit, sacrifice, and follow through, and our relationship with Christ requires that same personal decision.

We should absolutely care about people, pray for them, love them, share truth with them, and be willing to walk alongside them. Still, there is a difference between faithfully planting seeds and desperately trying to control the harvest. Sometimes we become so focused on changing someone else that we neglect the responsibility God has placed directly in front of us: making sure we are faithfully serving Him. We spend our time frustrated by someone else’s choices, disappointed that they will not listen, or exhausted from trying to convince them to change, when perhaps God is reminding us that we were never given control over another person’s response in the first place.

Together, Joshua 24:15 and Matthew 10:14 teach us an important lesson about conviction, obedience, leadership, and boundaries. We are called to stand firmly in what we believe, live our faith consistently, speak the truth when God gives us the opportunity, and invest in the people He places in our path, but obedience does not require us to control the outcome. We are responsible for our commitment, our character, our leadership, and the example we set for others, and while we should faithfully plant the seeds God allows us to plant, we must trust Him with what happens next.

Joshua reminds us that we must choose whom we will serve, while Jesus reminds us that there may come a time when we have faithfully done what God asked of us and must accept that someone else has made a different choice. As coaches, athletes, leaders, and Christians, we have to learn how to stand firmly in our convictions without believing that we have the power to control everyone around us. We can love people enough to tell them the truth, continue praying for them when they walk away, and trust that God can continue working in their lives without requiring us to chase after them. Sometimes faithfulness means standing firm, and sometimes faithfulness means trusting God enough to shake the dust from our feet and keep walking.