How to Tackle a Problem (in two parts)
This is not me tackling. I did not wear gold socks.
Part One
A football coach once remarked, “You may be small, but you are slow.”
In my playing days, I played tailback. When I got close to the field, the coach yelled, “Gillham! Get your tail back.”
Yes, well. There were these factors, but I had desire, so I played until I didn’t want to any longer.
For the years I spent playing, I was on the defensive side of the scrimmage line. This meant practicing techniques for tackling the man carrying the ball.
Tackling is simple enough in concept, but proper tackling is worth considering. My coaches stressed that once I made contact with the ball carrier, I had to churn with my legs, and drive myself through the ball carrier. Otherwise, I would just get run over. Pushing the other team back created a change in momentum.
There’s a lot of talk these days about stopping—stopping the decline of western culture, stopping the moral slide of society, stopping the assault on Christianity, stopping the woke’s embrace of critical race theory. And there is talk within Christian circles about stopping sin, stopping a fleshly enticement, stopping temptation, stopping poor theology, stopping a heresy.
Speaking from experience and what my coaches taught me, it’s not good enough to aspire to stop your opponent. To be effective, to win, you must drive through a problem. If your aspiration is to stop a problem, you are likely to either get run over by the issue or see it flare up dramatically.
James taught that faith without works is worthless. He also noted that belief is not good enough to win the day. It’s great that you believe in God, he said, but “the demons also believe, and shudder.”
By design there is supposed to be tension within our souls, not to determine our worth to God or establish our identity as His child, but because we—who are new people—live in a fallen, difficult, and dark world. Jesus said, “In this world, you will have tribulation.” On several occasions, Paul referenced the hardships he suffered as a minister of the Gospel. Of course, Jesus suffered mightily.
It is unreasonable, shortsighted, and perhaps even heretical theology to believe the Christian life is nothing more than belief, praising God, or resting in the truth. If that’s all you’ve embraced as a Christian, you should expect to get run over.
In the spiritual realm, there is really no debate about whether or not God is supreme. There is no debate about the truth of God’s Word, Christ’s finished work, or the Spirit’s indwelling. What’s in question is what you do with these pillars of belief.
To only believe is the equivalent of standing flat-footed before a rushing opponent. To have faith without corresponding action is the equivalent of hoping to stop the enemy, or stop temptation, or stop your fleshly dalliances.
Declaring, “No!” is the first step, the equivalent of getting yourself in position to tackle your foe or address your problem. It is essential to your spiritual effectiveness that you follow closely your declared “No!” with a driving determination to seize momentum, to drive through your tempter, or your fleshly habit, or your mounting problem.
In football, the coaches said that the best offense is a good defense. By this, they meant several things, but among them, they meant to convey that an aggressive, driving, run-through-you-churning tackle seizes the momentum of the game.
So, name the issue or problem on your mind. Yes, Christ is your source. Yes, you rest in your place within Him. Yes, your strength is the Spirit within. Yes, you are totally accepted. The motivation to tackle a problem is not to prove or establish yourself. How can you establish further what is already established?
What’s your motive? To tackle a problem as I’m describing is what a person like you does.
Internally, as Christians, we call our concerns temptation and sin. As you’ve no doubt discovered, it’s not good enough to know this dynamic occurs, nor is it good enough to define your unique vulnerabilities to sin. Like all problems, the first step is to declare, “No! I don’t have to go along with this. Romans 6:11-14 tells me that I’m not only free from sin but that I’m free—and responsible, as a redeemed child of God—to choose obedience to God.”
Notice the action in Romans 6:11-14: consider, let, obey, present, alive, shall not.
One of my besetting sins is self-condemnation. When I fail, when I buy into the temptation offered up by my adversary to condemn myself based upon my performance, the outcome is brutal: cursing, ridicule, slandering, name-calling. When I commit this sin, I join Satan in condemning me for what I’ve done.
When this temptation is active, when my opponent is running through a gap in the line and headed for me, to win the day, I first get into position by declaring, “No! I don’t have to adopt this temptation as true.”
Now for seizing momentum: After I say, “No,” and put myself in a defensive position, I actively set my mind on what is true. The action of tackling a temptation is akin to what the coaches called, “firing out of my stance.” If all I do is get into position, I’ll be run over. But when I get into position, and then make contact by firing out of my positional stance, I seize momentum.
In football, the idea is to drive through an opponent with sufficient momentum to create a shadow of doubt about running my way again. Hesitation loses contests.
Initiative, energy, determination, a resolute willfulness, perseverance, no stopping—these are words describing the action of faith and belief.
Yes, we rest in the finished work of Christ, but the living of the Christian life is aggressive.