Loving the Unlovely

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Romans 5:8

How do you as a coaching family demonstrate your love for the people you coach? How do you show your love for the men and women with whom you coach? What does it cost you to love in such ways? Take a moment to contemplate these expressions of love and the effect they have in the lives of all concerned. This is the very work of God in your life.

In writing to his friends in Rome, the Apostle Paul penned these words in chapter five and verse eight, “But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.” When we sacrificially love the people in and around our coaching family, we are joining God in His eternal mission of restoring people to a relationship with Himself.

We must note that it was, “while we were still sinners,” that Jesus came to die for us. God’s way is to seek out the rebellious and wayward for relationship, rather than waiting for them to get their stuff together and then loving them. We will surely have to love the rebellious and wayward in a sacrificial manner to be similarly redemptive.

Our minds may find it easier to think of those we coach as we think about sacrificial love and redemptive relationships, but this surely occurs at home as well. Imagine the depth of impact that will be made when a husband lays down his life for his bride. Contemplate the power of a wife’s sacrificial love toward her husband. Further, think about the generational effect of a Christian coaching family on a community.

This impact, power, and generational effect only occurs in an atmosphere of sacrificial love that pursues those we may consider to be unworthy and undeserving. Can you be that kind of coaching family? Will you commit to being that sort of husband? Are you a wife who can show God’s great love to the rebellious and foolish? By the grace of God, you can be. By the power of God you will.

Questions for Contemplation and Discussion:

1.  What are your most common demonstrations of love for the people you coach?

2.  How does your coaching family show your love for your coaching colleagues?

3.  What are the situations in your family that require sacrificial love? How will you pursue those who need such love?