One of my guilty-pleasure movies is The Program – a 1993 film that chronicles the ESU Wolves, a fictional Division I college football program. As an inside look at big time college football the movie definitely has its flaws. (How does a D-I program only have two – TWO! – assistant coaches?) And as a guy who once upon a time did radio play-by-play for a D-I sport, albeit basketball, the announcing is nails-on-a-chalkboard atrocious. Hard Knocks it is not. More like a collage of cliches of what someone in Hollywood imagined must go on behind closed doors in major college football programs. Still, it’s worth a watch if you like football.
One of the storylines follows Steve Lattimer, a backup linebacker played by Andrew Bryniarski. Determined to crack the starting defense after three seasons on the punt team, Lattimer returns to campus for his final season packing a chemically-enhanced physique and the chemically-overcharged attitude to match. It’s obvious to everyone except James Caan’s Coach Winters that Lattimer has been juicing – using anabolic steroids – to fuel his transformation from a punt team scrub to a starting defense beast. And when even his teammates voice their suspicions, Steve doesn’t deny it. As he puts it “you do what you have to do to play.”
While the players in the story are more caricatures that characters, there’s something honest in Lattimer’s story. Anyone who’s loved a sport but was a marginal athlete has longed for their “place at the table” and would probably trade just about anything to get their shot. It’s easy to imagine many in a similar position considering the shortcut that Steve takes in the movie. There’s only room for 11 players on the field, and everyone on the team should want one of those spots. The end goal is understandable, even though there’s no justifying the means. And for Lattimer, kind of an “anti-Rudy” if you will – another good 1993 football film – without chemical help, we see his own athletic gifts ultimately betray him in a critical moment. Sans-steroids, he wasn’t worthy of his place at the table.
For us as God’s children, there’s no shortcut we can, or need, take to earn our place at the table. Jesus already did everything He had to do so that we can one day play on the fields of the Lord’s kingdom. Beyond accepting the Lord’s grace through Jesus, there’s nothing else we can do that will get us there. It’s all through Him. Just like Lattimer’s inherent football skills weren’t enough, neither are our own human efforts to be spiritual, to do good, to try to live a life of faith on our own. And self-help books, going to church more, seminars, etc. – noble enhancements to our routing unlike Steve’s harmful ones – won’t ultimately get us our place at His table. Just like the Iowa running back does to Lattimer in one of the film’s pivotal moments, life in this imperfect world will ultimately bowl us over at the goal line if we don’t put all our trust in Christ.
Putting our trust in Christ is not easy by any means, nor is it a merely passive pursuit. While steroids fueled Steve’s physical transformation, he still had to spend the time in the weight room. We need to spend our time in the spiritual weight room: reading God’s Word, praying, meditating. It’s just that as we do those things, we need to lean on God and His wisdom to fuel our spiritual growth. Not just mere memorization or repetition. Not our intellect or the intellects of others (yours truly included.) The catalyst for true spiritual growth must always be the Holy Spirit working in and through us.
As we walk with Jesus, seeing our faith growing and maturing, we need to recognize that we’re going to fail sometimes. Life is still going to score on us. Much like Jesus’ disciples, our day-to-day walk with the Lord will be filled with challenges, uncertainty, and even resistance from some who we thought were on our team. There will be plays that don’t go our way, but we need to rest assured as long as we keep looking to Jesus, we’re always in the game, and our place at the table is secure.