Chapter 6

Faith and Belief

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Be courageous! Have faith! Go forward!

Thomas Edison

Faith doesn’t mean the absence of fear. It means having the energy to go ahead, right alongside the fear.

Sharon Salzberg

Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.

Hebrews 11:1

The Hall of Fame is only good as long as time shall be,

but keep in mind, God’s Hall of Fame is for eternity!

To have your name inscribed up there is greater more by far,

than all the fame and all the praise of every man-made star!

Author Unknown

The section on Faith and Belief is always one of our team’s favorites. When the players give their senior speeches, they often talk about this fundamental as having been a key to their growth and development.

As we’ve seen in studying the Block O, success is a journey. It is defined not by those outside of us—who give us awards or bestow honor—or even by our winning of championships. The true measure of success is whether we feel good about our ability to contribute to whatever team we’re on. Ultimately then, to have a successful journey, we must have the faith and belief that we can and will be successful. It is vital that we be equipped and prepared for the journey and that we constantly remind ourselves of our ultimate purpose.

Faith and belief are not merely tools we use to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and forge ahead blindly. There’s a substance to our faith. There’s an object for our belief. The result is an assurance that we can do the job as we interact with others, have our personal quiet times of study, and cultivate the confidence we need to pursue our goals. If we don’t have a deep-seated faith and belief in the plan, the preparation, and each other, we won’t achieve our objectives.

There are two components to the fundamental of faith and belief: (1) the faith people have in something bigger than themselves and (2) the belief they have in themselves and what they’re doing.

Faith is part of the Purpose segment of your life on the Block O. Belief is part of your Goals, as you live your life according to your faith.

Champions believe in themselves even if no one else does.

Author Unknown

Faith is who you are. Belief is what you do with your faith.

Many of our players will say that their faith is what gives them confidence. Faith is the rock they lean on as they strive to achieve in all areas of their lives. Ultimately, they’re reflecting on their faith and counting on their faith. And it’s the practice of their faith, their spiritual plan, that gives them the edge of confidence.

Our players invest a lot of time in their personal faith plans and their spiritual plans. Fortunately, on campus there are a lot of opportunities for them to grow in those areas. Ohio State has programs or groups for every faith tradition to help students grow in their particular faith mission. Many of our guys are leaders on campus, outside of football and their academic pursuits, and they’re leaders in helping others grow in their faith. Some are very active in Bible studies or fellowship groups, such as Athletes in Action, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, or Campus Crusade for Christ. Many of our guys complement their own faith journeys by taking leadership roles in faith-related groups and inviting other students to join them.

The Main Event

On the day that Joel Penton first came to Ohio State, he set a plan that he was going to be the best football player he could be. He played defensive tackle and really knew how to run hard and put people on the ground. He wanted to excel as a student while he was here as well, but ultimately his number one focus was his faith and his desire to share that with others and lead others. Some guys dream about the NFL. Joel’s dream was to be a minister.

In 2006, he was playing as a fifth-year senior, and he had one class left in order to graduate. The previous spring, he had come to me and said, “Coach, I’ve had the opportunity to go out and share with a lot of youth groups and churches, and it’s been great. But I’d like to do something big. I’d like to do something beyond all of that.”

I think when you move past your fear and you go after your dreams wholeheartedly, you become free. Know what I’m saying? Move past the fear.

L L Cool J

“Well, Joel,” I said, “what do you have in mind?”

“I want to have a big event. I want to invite people to come and hear what really makes me tick—and what makes a lot of the other guys tick too. I want to plan it, market it, and be responsible for all the details. And I want you to speak.” His purpose was to reach Buckeye fans and people in Central Ohio who knew the players in their uniforms but didn’t necessarily know anything about them personally. He wanted people to know what was really important to the players outside of football and how faith had made a difference in their lives.

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.

Eleanor Roosevelt

I told him to go for it. But I also warned him of the realities. “It’s going to be a lot of work. Plus, there are some things you have to do. Students have every right to talk about their faith on campus, as long as they do it according to the letter of the law.”

Joel agreed and set his plan in motion. He wondered if they should have the meeting in a baseball stadium, like some of the Billy Graham crusades. But because they were scheduling the event for October and considering the potential for weather problems during that time of year, they decided to hold it in the St. John Arena on campus.

The arena holds more than thirteen thousand people, and I remember thinking when I first heard about the event that it was going to be tough to get a lot of people out on a Monday night in late October. I wanted to make sure Joel knew that his journey through this experience was the most important part, so I kept telling him, “Joel, you know it doesn’t matter how many people actually show up at this. Even if it’s just a few hundred, it’ll be a success, because you’re going to learn a lot through the process.”

He’d nod and then come back and tell me they might need to rent two arenas. I’d try to calm him down a little, but he was really fired up about it.

Joel sought out a professor who would allow him to do an independent study and make the production of the event his final class. He would set up the whole thing, do all the marketing, planning, and organizing, all the partnering with other groups, and he would also coordinate the security and support staff. He got a group of students interested in helping, and they started having meetings to work out the details. A lot of Joel’s Buckeye teammates expressed interest, and they also partnered with Cedarville University, a private Christian school about fifty miles from Ohio State. Joel’s committee got nearly one hundred churches involved, as well as Campus Crusade for Christ, Athletes in Action, and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

Joel invited me to a couple of the meetings, and each month those meetings got bigger. Before long, they filled a lecture hall. Joel told me that they were calling their evening “The Main Event,” and he was so excited as the day approached. Again, I reminded him of how much he had learned in the process of developing his idea and that just reaching a few people would make the event a success. But Joel wasn’t through with his plan.

To disbelieve is easy; to scoff is simple; to have faith is harder.

Louis L’Amour

He went to the OSU marching band and asked if any of them would be interested in participating. As it turned out, most of them took part. He went to the cheerleaders and said, “If any of you want to be part of this, you’re welcome.” Virtually all of the cheerleaders were there. Everything was snowballing, and there was no doubt it would be a success from a programming standpoint. The only question was whether anyone would show up.

During the football season, Monday night is a busy night for coaches, and I had told Joel that my priority and main responsibility were to the team and the staff but that I’d be glad to come over and speak for a few minutes. Shortly before the big day, he said to me, “Coach, I know you can’t be there for the whole thing because it’s an in-season game-plan night, so I’ll have a campus police car pick you up.”

Our football offices and facility are only about a mile from the arena, so I said, “I’ll just drive over myself.”

“No, I’ll get you there real quick,” he said, “and it won’t be a mob scene or anything.”

I reminded him again that it didn’t matter how many people showed up. I probably was afraid he would be disappointed by the turnout. He’d had people handing out invitations at the home game the previous Saturday, and I could tell he was really hoping a lot of people would attend.

As it turned out, attendance was not going to be a problem. The afternoon of the event, we started getting word that people were lining up hours before the doors opened. And Joel was right—I needed that police car to get through the crowd. When I arrived, the program had already started, and when I walked into the arena, I was stunned. The place was full. A lot of our student athletes were on stage, they had video inserts and humor, and everything about the evening was done well. In every way, The Main Event achieved the goal that Joel had set: to allow himself, several of his teammates, and his coach to share the role that faith had played in their lives.

As part of the program, volunteers passed out cards for people to fill out if they wanted further information or wanted to be contacted about growing in their faith. As I understand it, thousands of those cards were completed and returned.

It was a real tribute to Joel and his teammates that they were proud of their faith and wanted to share it. And it was great to see young people take the lead like that and have an impact on people’s lives. That’s true leadership, and it shows what a difference faith can make.

Belief

Faith is believing what we do not see. The reward of faith is to see what we believe.

Augustine

Belief is centered more in the individual, and it represents a strong, internal feeling that suggests, “I can do this.” At its core is an ability to move forward because of the evidence the person can see. He or she says, “I believe in the people I’m with; I believe in the preparation I’ve had; I believe in the plan that’s in place.”

We are only beaten when we cease to believe what we can be.

Author Unknown

That kind of thinking deep in the soul is the final piece of the puzzle in our search for a successful journey. Take Joel Penton’s Main Event, for example. He had done the dreaming about that night. He really wanted people to take away something special from the event. So he put his plan of action to work, making the details come together, handling the adversity that came his way with different scheduling problems and the weather question. But through all the ups and downs, he had to believe he could do it, that people would come, that he wouldn’t get so excited he’d forget his speech, that God would honor the mission, and that Joel would feel good about the journey.

Another good story about belief comes from our 1991 team at Youngstown State. When you’re in Division I-AA football, the pinnacle of achievement is to progress to the play-offs and win the national championship. We had been talking about that goal since the first day I got there in 1986. We’d worked hard to build the team. We’d had some losing seasons and some winning seasons in which we went to the play-offs but didn’t advance. In 1989, we had advanced two rounds, and we were starting to feel as if we understood what it was going to take to reach the top.

In 1990, we were 11-0 during the regular season and had a great year. We were up at the top of the rankings and then lost to Central Florida in the first round of the play-offs on a last-second field goal. But even in that loss, you could tell that our guys were learning a lot about what it takes to succeed.

We went into 1991 with a good group and every reason for optimism, but after seven games, our record was 4-3. Our prospects for making the play-offs didn’t look good. That wasn’t the path we’d hoped to take. We thought we were a lot better than that. And to make matters worse, we were getting ready to play Georgia Southern, which had won a bunch of national championships in the mid to late 1980s and in 1990. They were the standard of excellence at that point. They had begun a football program in the early 1980s and had an extraordinary run to the top. They were virtually unbeatable on their home field at Paulson Stadium.

The night before the game, we were not at the height of our confidence. If we lost the next day, we’d be 4-4, and it would pretty much be over as far as the play-offs were concerned. The team we were playing was tough, and there were a lot of reasons to waver in our belief.

However, at our team meeting, our captain, Kevin Brown, stepped up and gave the best speech I’ve ever heard on belief. He chronicled all the preparation we had done. He pointed out, position by position, why our team was up to the task ahead. He exuded confidence and challenged every person in the room to believe we could win. And he said, “If you don’t believe, there’s no way we can be successful against a team like the one we’re getting ready to play.”

Sometimes something happens in a locker room or at a team meeting or when you’re on the road for an away game, and you feel as if there is something going on that is bigger than that particular meeting. There’s something happening in the room that you didn’t expect, a chemistry that’s coming together.

I don’t know how long Kevin’s speech lasted. Maybe just a few minutes. But I don’t think anyone took a breath throughout his entire talk. The message was loud and clear: We would not see any of our dreams come true if we didn’t believe. What I learned that night is that our captain believed more than I did. He probably believed more than anyone else in the room did. But he wasn’t going to let that room not believe.

The next day, we went out and played an amazing football game. Not only did we have Georgia Southern to contend with and a Paulson Stadium crowd that was quite intimidating, but there was also a 30–40 mph wind blowing throughout the game. Still, with 5:40 left to go in the fourth quarter, we were ahead 19-17.

As the clock continued to wind down, we were faced with a fourth-and-one situation at our own 29 yard line. With all that wind, we knew if we punted the ball, it would go about twelve yards, and Georgia Southern would kick a field goal and win. But if we went for it and didn’t make the first down, they’d get the ball right there at the 29, with an even better chance of kicking a game-winning field goal. After talking it over on the sideline, we decided to go for the first down—and we made it.

A few plays later, we again faced a fourth-and-one situation—this time at our own 39. The other team’s defense was digging in, trying to stop us. But our guys were ready. We went for it again, and again we made it.

Nobody will believe in you unless you believe in yourself.

Liberace

On the next set of downs, things became even more desperate. Instead of having another short-yardage situation, we had something like eight yards to go on third down. But again, our guys rose to the occasion, our quarterback completed a pass for another first down, and we were able to run out the clock without Georgia Southern ever touching the ball during that last 5:40.

That game ignited a spark in our team. We not only won the rest of our games that season, but we were also able to advance in the play-offs. And it just so happened that the national-championship game that year was going to be played in Paulson Stadium at Georgia Southern.

There was a little creek running through the Georgia Southern campus in Statesboro. It was called Eagle Creek, and the talk was always that there was great magic in that water. So on our way out of town to the airport that day after beating Georgia Southern, we stopped the bus, got a jar, and dipped out some of that water. We told the guys we were going to take it back to Youngstown and mix it with Mahoning River water, which was full of steel by-products and industrial waste. We said that it was going to be our magic potion when we came back to Paulson Stadium seven weeks later. We were going to take our potion, sprinkle it on the field, and have our own magic to win the championship.

When we made it to the championship game, against Marshall University, we took that odiferous concoction of creek and river water, which was even worse after seven weeks of aging, and poured it on the field. Then we went out and won the game, kicking off a four-year run in which we made it to the championship game every year and won it three times.

Anyone associated with that 1991 team would tell you that Kevin Brown’s exhortation about belief was the key to the whole season. Of course, those fourth-down conversions, a good defense, and disciplined play were big parts of it as well, but I don’t know that any of that would have been enough without Kevin’s reminder about belief. Ultimately, you have to believe in what you are doing in order to be successful and to have a chance to achieve your goals.

There can be no progress if people have no faith in tomorrow.

John F. Kennedy

The Foundation of Faith

Faith and belief are really two sides of the same coin. Having faith means placing your trust in something much bigger than yourself. Faith is the bedrock of a winner. It’s what anchors you. It’s the foundation for everything you do, and thus it’s part of who you are.

Belief has more to do with what you’re trying to accomplish. It’s more personal. It’s what you do rather than who you are. Belief is the outward expression of an inner faith. As we said before, faith is tied to your purpose, whereas belief is more a part of your goals.

At Joel Penton’s Main Event, I think people were eager to hear from him and the other players because they admired the way our guys carried themselves, the way they played on the field, and the way they worked hard for their success. If Joel and his teammates had not reflected their faith in their goals, in the way they played their hearts out on the field, or how they acted off the field, I’m not sure as many people would have shown up to hear what they had to say. If they had talked one way about their faith but acted another way, people would have seen the contradiction and wouldn’t have been as interested in listening.

As it was, the testimony of the lives of those players both on and off the field piqued people’s interest. “What is it with those guys? What’s important to them? I want to know more.” That’s what people were saying that night when they came.

I’ve used “The Guy in the Glass” every year since I began compiling the Winners Manual. But one year, for some reason, it was left out of the final printing. Bobby Carpenter, who now plays for the Dallas Cowboys, came to me during the preseason and said, “Coach, my favorite poem, the one I look forward to reading every year, isn’t in the book.”

All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

I went to my assistant, Deb, and asked, “What did I do?”

Every year, I try to add a little and edit some things, but I had every intention of keeping that poem in there. And it just shows that there are certain things that can’t be anticipated. I have no idea how certain quotes, stories, or poems will speak to these guys, and sometimes even an unintentional omission or change will get their attention.

That preseason, we copied “The Guy in the Glass,” handed it to the players, and said, “Fold this up and put it in your book, because we left it out.”

The Game of Life

The game of life is not played with pads and helmets. It’s a day-to-day high-wire act without a net. And the thing that drives us, that pushes us forward step by step and ultimately directs our course, is our faith. Boiled down, faith is who we are on the inside. That’s what the guys who spoke at the Main Event wanted to portray—who they really were as men, without the trappings of the uniform and the statistics.

Faith is embodied in our purpose. At the bottom of the Block O, we focus on our ability to journey toward our goals and successfully reach them. The main component of that journey is a belief that we can achieve, that we will achieve, and that we aren’t plagued by questions about our ability.

I find with our guys and with groups I talk to that there’s often some hesitation in people. Can I really do this? I know I want to, but can I really do it? It’s a constant mental quiz they’re taking every day. Having a deep-seated belief helps so much on the journey, and that belief is bolstered by preparation and practice and constant work on the fundamentals. But even with all the preparation and handling what comes our way, at the end of the day we have to believe we can reach our goals, or it’s not going to happen.

Faith in the Public Arena

Behind every great achievement is a dreamer of great dreams.

Robert K. Greenleaf

I’m asked a lot about living out my faith in the setting of a public university, but I don’t think it’s any different being a Christian where I am than if I were selling cars or making computers in a factory. My job is a little higher profile than those, but that’s the only difference. We all encounter people of different faiths, and we all have a responsibility to be aware of other people’s thoughts, feelings, and beliefs. As a Christian, I never want to set myself above another person or infer that I know and you don’t. I get it and you don’t. I always want to have an inclusive demeanor, yet when it comes down to it, I want other people to ask, “Why does he conduct himself this way? Why does he invest so much in his spiritual plan for his life?” I’m not afraid to answer those questions when someone is curious.

Obviously, when it comes to sharing my faith and my life, some venues are easier than others. I make sure when I give a talk about my faith that I’m not speaking on behalf of Ohio State but that I’m there on my own behalf. I present it as what I happen to believe. Seldom do I speak about my faith unless I’ve been invited. I don’t say, “We’re going to have an event, and I’m going to tell you what I believe.” Typically a group will ask me to speak—but even then I think it’s important to have compassion for what others think and an awareness that there are other schools of thought.

Those outside our belief systems will evaluate whether or not they should consider our beliefs as they observe the way we live. My hope is that when people observe me—whether it’s on the job, in the neighborhood, at church, or at the store—they’ll see something they’d like to know more about. It’s just like Joel Penton and the players who spoke at the Main Event. People had observed those young men countless times on the football field, but Joel wanted people to come and hear what made them tick. And I can tell you that his message that night was no different from what it would have been if he’d had only six people in the room.

After the Super Bowl in 2006, Lovie Smith, head coach of the Chicago Bears, spoke at a prayer breakfast in Columbus. I took my seniors to the event because I couldn’t fit in everybody from the team. I had one senior who was of another faith, and I didn’t want to exclude him. So I asked, “Would you be comfortable going to something like this?” I mean, it was Lovie Smith of the Bears. This guy could end up playing for him someday.

Faith is the bird that feels the light and sings when the dawn is still dark.

Rabindranath Tagore

“Oh, Coach, I’d love to come,” he said. So he was at the prayer breakfast.

In whatever I do, I go out of my way to include others. The Jewish community in Columbus knows where I’m coming from with my Christian beliefs, but I make a special effort to be a part of their causes and needs because I know the platform I have at Ohio State is helpful to many. I don’t say, “No, that’s a different faith, and I don’t want to help them.” I’m happy to do it.

When you think about it, Jesus did the same thing. He often spent time with people who were different, had a different faith, or had no faith. I believe we’re called to do what is Christlike rather than say, “I’m a Christian. Look at me.” I don’t really care about labels.

When I think about what it means to be a Christian, I think it is more about how I live than how I label myself. Jesus once said to his disciples, “If you love me, you will obey what I command” (John 14:15, NIV). Obeying Jesus means doing what he says—but just as important, it means doing what he did. Rather than plaster a big sign around my neck to make sure everyone knows I’m a Christian, I think that Jesus wants me to simply follow his way.

It’s the same with coaching: Is my ultimate goal to have my players all call me Coach, or is it to have them hear my teaching and grow through it? I believe Christ is much more interested in our living and growing through his message than he is in our calling ourselves Christians. In our lives, God wants us to love and serve all people, just as it is my responsibility to coach all of my players and not discriminate—for any conceivable reason.

Jim Schmidtke is our Athletes in Action representative. He runs a Bible study for the coaching staff, and I’ve known him for more than twenty-five years. We had a discussion once when he was deciding whether to send his children to a Christian school or to the public school. Really, both answers are fine, depending on how a family sees its values and its goals, but part of our discussion that day was that if we’re all at the Christian school, we’re secluding ourselves, which is the opposite of what Christ would like us to do. He wants us to engage the culture and make a difference.

I don’t find it uncomfortable at all to live out my faith in a public setting. But I do think it’s important to go the extra mile with people who don’t necessarily believe what I do. I want them to think, Hmm, he treats me better than some people who believe what I do. I think that’s a little of what Jesus did with his life.

Our doubts are traitors

And make us lose the good we oft might win

By fearing to attempt.

William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure

Belief, to my way of thinking, is taking the faith you have and activating it. You believe in the team, so you play hard. You believe in each other. You trust the guy in front of you to block the linebacker who’s coming to get you. You trust that the guys on your right and left are going to push through the line with all their might to tackle the guy with the ball. But first, you have to believe.

Regardless of what aspect of life you want to name, whether it’s about your faith or your family or a work assignment, nothing worthwhile is going to happen unless you believe. That’s why when we present success as a journey, we talk about having a plan and dreams. And then we have to go to work on those plans and dreams, all the while handling adversity and success. The key to all that is belief. Belief that we can do the task. Belief that we will do the task. Active believing reinforces the other fundamentals and helps make us winners.

Questions for Reflection

1. Faith is an inside job that works its way out in our lives, but many people look only at the “doing” of faith (such as going to church, praying, etc.). How has this chapter challenged your thinking about faith and belief?

2. It’s one thing to talk about faith; it’s another to live out what you believe. Why do you think it’s difficult for people to live what they say they believe?

3. Think of a time in your life when a difficult task overwhelmed you. How did a belief in yourself help? Or, how did a lack of belief in yourself hurt you?

4. In the poem “The Guy in the Glass,” the writer makes it clear that you are the person you have to please in order to feel successful. Is it difficult for you to look in the mirror for any reason? If so, what can you do to change that?

Your Personal Game Plan

1. Personal/Family: Is there someone in your family who has believed in you no matter what? Why not thank that person today for his or her support?

2. Spiritual/Moral: Is there some dream or desire you have regarding your faith, like Joel Penton’s Main Event? What steps could you take to make your dream a reality?

3. Caring/Giving: Sharing your faith in a gentle way is one of the most caring, giving things you can do. Who is one person with whom you could do that this week?

4. Health/Fitness: Is there some goal regarding your health that you have a hard time believing you can achieve? Think about what preparation and action you can put into place this week to reach that goal.

5. Your Team: What struggle is your team going through right now? How could your example of belief in the team help change things?

6. Academics/Career: Are there academic or career goals about which you feel less than confident? What can you do to remedy that lack of confidence?