Eden: Hi Coach Swider. I’m so excited to talk to you today. I’m really thankful that you are willing to interview with us and share a little bit about your life with Jesus and your walk with him and what you’ve learned over the years, so thank you so much for being here.
Coach Swider: You bet, Eden! It’s really great to be here, and I just consider it a privilege and hopefully God can use our little discussion tonight to impact some lives.
Eden: Yes. Amen. Well, I’d love to get to know you a little bit. So tell us a couple of things that bring you joy.
Coach Swider: Well, I guess there’s a number of things, but I think the first thing that I would have to say that brings me joy is that my salvation is secure.
I used to go on the football field all the time, for 43 years, and we’d be ready to start a practice and it’d be a hot day, or sometimes it’d be a cold day, or we’d got off of a loss, it would be tough. I said, “Listen, guys, we all deserve hell and we get heaven.” You know, obviously at Wheaton College, they’re believers. And I looked out and I said, “We deserve hell and we get heaven.” I said, “If we’re not walking around with a smile on our face, who’s going to be? Who really is?” We, by a gift that was offered and by a decision we made to accept that free gift secure heaven when we deserve hell. Man, what’s better than that? So ultimately, that’s the thing that brings me the greatest joy, the greatest security, the greatest peace, is that my eternity has already been determined.
And the God of this universe—when I gave my heart to Jesus—the God of this universe has got a plan for my life and in the end, we win. You know, as believers, we win, because we get heaven and no matter what happens to us. You know, I’ve said many times that everything happens for a purpose. It’s for our good and God’s glory.
And one way I always looked at it is—to sort of take a little sidetrack here to answer your question, Eden, is—you know, when you watch a football game and you’re watching it live, there’s highs and there’s lows and you ride up and down with the home team. You know what I mean? You sort of ride that crest of emotions. You’re winning and then you’re losing and you’re nervous. But have you ever watched a game and it’s a replay of a game? And you’re watching the replay, and your team wins in the last second and going through it you just you just ride that wave so peacefully and confidently because in the end you win. I know it’s easier said than done—but ultimately as believers, we do win. We get heaven, and that is secure. And our life is not random. And so that brings me great joy. It brings me great peace. And that would have to be the first thing—it’s that my eternity is secure. My life is in the hands of Almighty God and that gives me just tremendous peace.
The other thing that brings me great joy are my wife and my three children and my two in-laws. And I’m going to have a third—my daughter’s getting married in June. So all three of them are going to get married. And I have a wife who loves God, who’s humble, cause-driven, works at Wheaton Bible Church with children’s ministries, doesn’t have a selfish bone in her body, loves me unconditionally, has been an unbelievable mother and example to my three children, has raised them to walk with Jesus. Brings me great joy. I’ve never walked into the home and knew that I was going to be loved. My home was always a soft place to fall after a rough day. And then I have three children that love God. I mean, I’m going to see my kids in heaven. I’m going to see my kids in heaven. I mean, unbelievable joy. And my two sons married Christian girls. I’m going to see them in heaven. And my daughter is going to get married to a Christian young man. I’m going to see him in heaven. Wow, you’re talking about joy! I mean, what more could a man ask for than to have a wife and three children and then three in-laws that are all pursuing Christ? It doesn’t mean our lives have been easy. It doesn’t mean we haven’t gone through struggles. But the peace and the joy that can come from a secure eternity someday with all those that you love the most, it really, really is a great joy.
And then I think the third thing that would bring me joy is I was able to spend my life—I retired at 65, I’m 67 now—for 43 years I coached football. I was able to coach the thing I loved. I was able to use football, which was my greatest joy when you look at it as far as a sort of a secular joy, I got to do this thing I love the most. It was a passion of mine. It brought me the greatest joy here on earth when it comes to something here that’s temporary. And I was able to do it 43 years and do it with success and impact lives.
I retired and they had a retirement celebration for me last October. And I mean, there were hundreds and hundreds, I mean, five/six hundred guys showed up from all over the country. And nobody talked about the wins (and we won a ton of games). But you know what they did? They talked about the impact that the program had on their life. And I told my wife when I went home that night—the retirement celebration started at 6:30pm and we got home at three in the morning—and I said, “you know what? The Lord can take me home and I can go to heaven, because I realize now I didn’t live my life in vain as I heard those guys” and that brought me great joy to realize that they understood what I was trying to accomplish through the game of football for my entire life.
Eden: Wow. And, you know, I find in my own life that it’s so easy to look for that joy in the things that the world offers us. And we’re constantly having all of these messages thrown at us like “if your job were different, if you looked different—” the world is just sending us messages that we need to find our happiness here. And yet, like you said, when we find our joy in the next life, in life with Jesus and all that he’s promised us, it actually adds value to the passing things of this world, like football.
Coach Swider: And the other thing that the joy comes from is—I’ve always said, you know, when I was at the retirement celebration and they had me speak to this group of men, I was telling them, you know, life’s about influence. You leave someone money and all they’re going to do is spend it. You leave them wins and losses and all they’re going to do is forget it. But what you leave inside somebody transcends your life. And life has to be about influence. No matter what God calls you to do, to be in the business world or medicine, or an airplane pilot or at home, whatever it is, we’re supposed to be men and women of influence who are inspiring and encouraging and challenging and helping others and making a difference in their life.” And when I saw that at the retirement party, I said, “if 1% of all you guys is Mike Swider, if just 1% is from the influence I had on you, it was worth it.” And it brought me great joy to hear that that influence occurred.
You know, we won a ton of games and we got a lot of laughs. We watched some old videos. We got a ton of laughs. We did! I mean, 80% of the games we won, which is an unreal record. And that brings you great joy. But it’s so temporary! It’s so fleeting. And you know, in football, if you win, that lasts you seven days, then you got to win again! You know it wasn’t anything that was long lasting. So yeah I’ve been blessed.
Eden: Yes. Is there a part of God’s word that is especially precious to you?
Coach Swider: Yeah, there’s a couple verses that alway come to mind. Matthew 6:33 is one. I’ll share two with you. Matthew 6:33, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and then all these things will be added unto you” (KJV). But here’s what we pursue first: all these other things. And you know what happens? We never find the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And it doesn’t mean that by seeking the kingdom of God and his righteousness, that we’re going to become wealthy and all these things. But you know what we’re going to get? We’re going to get what you talked about, genuine peace and joy and happiness. And that’s what he means by “all these things will be added to you.” We seek joy. We seek peace. We seek happiness. We think it’s going to come from fame, money, wins, and all these things. And we never find the kingdom of God.
And it says in Matthew, “seek ye first.” First the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Live like he said to live. Follow his example. Look at the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). You know, challenge yourself to make those your own. And if we really do pursue that—you know, we just talked about how your joy, your genuine joy, is going to happen. And I’m going to tell you another thing that God is going to bless your life, too. He’s going to bless your life. I’m not going to say you’d be wealthy, but he’s going to bless the things that you do. And so I think we got that backwards. I think what happens, we chase all those things, chase fame, money, power, and we seek them first. It doesn’t mean that we can’t seek those things. I always speak to football coaches. It doesn’t mean you can’t want to win. Nobody wants to win more than I do. Nobody was a fierce competitor. But that wasn’t first. “But seek ye first the kingdom of God.” But we don’t. We seek these other things first. It doesn’t mean we can’t seek those things. But we got to seek first the kingdom of God and then those things. That verse has helped me keep my priorities aligned properly and given me joy.
The other one is one that we read in Proverbs 3:5-6. It’s a popular one, but it’s, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding” (NIV). Boy, is that hard.
You know, I’m going through a time right now. I’m struggling because I just had a shoulder replacement. I’ve had two shoulder surgeries in the last 12 months. And the first one failed. And this one now, the replacement, it’s a steel joint. There’s not much more they can do. It’s not doing well. I’m just going to be right up honest with you right now. So I’m going through at time. My right arm here, I can’t lift my arm without pain. It’s been 12 months since I’ve been able to use it, really. And I’ve asked that question a thousand times. “Why?” One of the things I pray at night is a greater capacity to trust God. I don’t pray for answers. I pray for greater capacity to trust God. And so it says, trust in the Lord with all your heart. And don’t lean on your own understanding because you’re not going to figure it out. You’re just not. “In all your ways acknowledge him as Lord, and he will make your path straight” (Proverbs 3:6).
And the way I’ve learned to understand that better is as a father. I’ll give you this example. My son would run into the street at five years old—little Mikey. Mikey would run into the street chasing a ball, and I’d grab him, and I said, “You can’t do that, okay? You can’t do that, son. You’re going to get…” And he looked at me and he cried, and he didn’t understand why I made his life difficult.
So my first question was to him, I always say, “Mikey, does daddy love you? Has your five years of life proven to you that I love you?” And he would get his sniffles. He goes, “Yes, daddy loves me.” And then you know what I would say? “Trust me. I know what I’m doing. What I’m doing is for your good. I’m not receiving joy from inflicting this hardship. I’m trying to prepare you for a greater day. You have to trust me.”
The greatest act of arrogance is for a five-year-old to think he can understand a 40-year-old’s mindset.
So I go through a hard time. You were there when I went through one of my hard times. The whole hazing incident? I’m going through this where so many things were being said and the accusations were coming out of left field and so unfounded. I came home and I looked at my wife and I said, “you’ve got to be kidding me.” And she says, “you have got to trust God.” And I was in pain like my son was. She goes, “Mike, does God love you?” And I said, “yeah.” She says, “how do you know?” I said, at that time, “64 years tells me he loves me.” Just like I asked Mikey for five years. My experience said the last 64 years of my life proves God’s love for me. And she looked at me and she said, “trust him.”
And when Mikey turned ten, he told me, “thank you, dad. You saved my life.” He understood. He understood why I did it. I haven’t gotten to the point where I can say I understand everything that God’s done. Even now. I mean, we might not understand everything until we get to glory. But I understand a lot of things that have happened in my life two, three, four, or five years down the road.
And that’s why that verse says, trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your understanding. At that moment, acknowledge him and he’s going to make your path straight.
My players would always say, “you know, the older I get, the smarter you get, Coach.” And my players would come back at the retirement party saying, “I’m 40 now, you’re so much smarter! I understand everything!” And you know what? The older I get the smarter God gets. And I understand more and more as I get older.
So those verses have been verses that have really helped me keep my rudder straight.
Eden: Thank you for sharing that. And you know, I love that you picked those verses specifically because I think those are some of the most Googled verses in the Bible, some of the most well-known. And yet it’s just proof that God’s Word never gets old, and it never fades in its brilliance, and it never diminishes in power just because it’s familiar.
Coach Swider: No, not at all.
Eden: And those lessons that you just expressed, like learning to trust God when we don’t understand what’s going on, that’s something that you just learn over and over and over and that you just keep coming back to.
Coach Swider: It’s like I was saying…That trust, Eden—you’re not trusting this inanimate object. You’re trusting a God who loves you so much that he sent his Son to die for you (1 John 4:9-10). I use the example all the time when I was coaching too. I would get my son on there when I was coaching him and said, “if I took my son, and had my son die so that you could live,” I looked at my 80/90 players, “would you trust any other action I took toward you?” Oh my gosh! You just gave us your son! And that’s what God has done (John 3:16). The love. So we’re trusting a God who loves us.
Eden: Yeah. Amen. And I think that it’s good to remember that all of Scripture is really centered on Jesus; he’s the point of the Bible. He’s the fulfillment to all these promises. All these verses that we cling to are ultimately helping us find our hope in him.
Coach Swider: He’s our conduit to heaven. Without Jesus, we can’t pray to God. We were sinners, and in the Old Testament there was no conduit to God. You know, you had to go through a high priest who would have shed the blood of a lamb. And Jesus came as that eternal sacrifice (Hebrews 10:11-13). And now we have this—we can talk to our God. And we have a conduit to him. And you’re right. Jesus is the key to everything. He’s the key to heaven (John 14:6; Acts 4:12).
Eden: Yes. So tell us a little about football. I typically ask, “what ministry are you involved in?” You’re retired now, but tell us a little bit about how Jesus led you to football and your ministry at Wheaton College.
Coach Swider: Yeah, well, my dad was a high school football coach, and that’s all he ever knew, and he coached. And I saw the impact and the influence he had. My dad died early. He retired, and he died within months after he retired. He got cancer, and he died fast. At his funeral, I saw, and I heard, and letters were sent, and I realized that whoa, this guy impacted a lot of people, man. And he never made a wooden nickel. Never made anything. But his influence and his impact were enormous. Enormous! He was a high school football coach in the city of Chicago and in the Chicago public school system, which was a difficult environment to be in. It has its set of challenges. Yet I saw the impact he had. Even to this day guys that he coached will see my name and say, “hey, did you have a dad named John Swider Senior? I said, “Yep!” He said, “whoa, he changed my life.” Then you just go, “whoa!”
Well, anyhow, I was hearing and seeing that when I was growing up. And I said, you know, this is what I want to do. Besides the fact that I just loved football, I’ve said this: to me, it’s the greatest sport in the world. And one of your questions, Eden, when we prepped for this was “how can you use football? How does it relate to your faith? How can you connect it?” The reason why I say it’s the greatest sport in the world is not because inherently it’s better than other sports. But no other sport requires so many to die to themselves and live for something bigger. The individual sports require none of that. But other team sports—they don’t have 120 guys on a roster. Those 120 guys have got to die to themselves, and what’s got to drive them is the team winning. What drives you can’t be me playing or me being great. What drives you has to be the team winning. You’ve got to die to yourself and live for something bigger if that sport’s going to succeed.
And that’s a difficult thing because we’re all egocentric. You know, I want to play. I want to win. I’ll never forget, our freshman would come into my office with their parents and I’d be recruiting them. I said, “what do you want to do when you come?” He says, “I want to play. I want to start.” And I said, “well, I want to win. Until you want to win first, we’re not going to look at anything the same way. You know, everything’s going to be yours—I want to play. I want to play. Well I’m going to look at the big picture. I want to win. And for to do that, you gotta die to yourself.”
And I would look at the parents and I’d say, “would you rather your son start on an 8-2 team or sit the bench on a 10-0 team?” And every parent would say, I’d rather them start on an 8-2 team because they want to see him play. And I understood it. I said, “but you know, here’s the problem. I want to be 10-0. So you’re not looking through the same lens and you’re going to have to change that lens. If your son’s going to be part of something big, he’s got to die to himself.”
And so I would use that with these young men first and foremost for marriage. You have got to die to yourself and live for that team of two. Eden, I was single for 35 years. Every single decision I made was what’s best for me. And I don’t mean immoral decisions. I mean, what would I want for dinner? What church I wanted to go to, what service I wanted to go to, what movie I wanted to watch. I mean, just general life decisions, they were all what’s best for me. The moment I got married, I had to die to myself. And, you know, I said it’s what’s best for us. If I make decisions on what’s best for me, “us” dies on the vine. You have a child? It’s what’s best for three of us. Two children? What’s best for four of us? And so I tell these young men, I say, “you have got to die to yourself if you want that team to win. You have got to die to yourself and live for the bigger cost. Isn’t that what Jesus asked us to do, ultimately? To die to ourselves and live for the cause of Christ? To die to ourselves and realize that we are put on earth, not to—we talked about it earlier—not for self-gratification. That’s not why we were put on earth. We are put on earth to give glory to God, to praise his name, and further the kingdom. That’s our purpose for being on this earth. And until we die to that purpose, we’re never going to find true meaning.”
Football, like no other sport, forces a young man to understand that it’s not about him, it’s about a bigger picture. And in our culture, that’s hard to swallow. This younger generation—we were talking earlier about the self-gratification and instant gratification we can talk about here in a minute, Eden—but in this generation it’s all about me, me, me and now, now, now.
You’re never going to be married successfully, you’re never going to be part of any organization successfully, you’re never going to be able to function as a believer if that’s the way you look at it.
Eden: Yeah, wow, football might become my favorite sport after hearing that. Yeah. And, you know, I think we were talking earlier about how we think we’re going to find joy in this world, but we really find it when we find it in Christ. And I think we come to the place of being faced with whether we’ll die to ourselves and that seems like a loss. But Jesus also tells us that unless a grain of wheat falls and dies, it will never bear fruit, right? Unless a seed is buried in the dirt and goes through that death, it’s never going to come to life (John 12:24-25). And as a believer, as someone who has faith in Jesus, I have found that when we do submit our lives to his plan and to the team goals that Jesus has set, we have so much more joy when we experience a win, right? When a prayer is answered, it’s a joy that’s so much bigger.
Coach Swider: Yeah. And the other thing, when you die to yourself—see dying to yourself it’s what you described. When you die to yourself, you serve. That’s what we’re called to as Christians, to serve. We’re called to be servants, to serve. And that’s another thing in football. You know, the linemen got a block. I mean you’re called to these little tasks for someone else to be successful. And you have to serve.
And guess what? Dying to yourself not only means dying to your own ambition, but the way you die to yourself is you look at someone and say, “what can I do to help you? How can I help you? What can I do for you?” As Jesus did, “how can I wash your feet?” You know, the greatest leaders are servants (Matthew 20:25-28). You follow people who serve you. You know you don’t follow people who rule you. You follow people who serve you. And that’s how dying to yourself is, you become someone who people want to be around. When you’re selfless, when you’re cause driven, you become someone that people gravitate toward rather than an egocentric person. You don’t gravitate towards an egocentric person. And so when you die to yourself and serve and live for a bigger cause, you not only further the kingdom, but people flock to you.
Eden: That gives you so much purpose. I think everyone’s looking for a sense of, you know, “what do I do? Like, there’s so many things vying for my attention and my time. How do I live a meaningful life?” You serve others. You love. Love God. You love others (Matthew 22:37-39). And that will fill your life. It will take your time, it will give you joy. And ultimately, I think that’s a blessing of being in Christ, the call is pretty simple: love other people and love the Lord.
Coach Swider: Well I do these leadership talks and I might speak to men in business and speak to a business group, and we’re talking about leadership. I talk about being a servant leader. And I said, you know, the great leader, he walks into the office every day, or wherever it is, and as he walks in, he goes by the desk where he asks someone, “what can I do to help you? How can I help you today?” Every day you should be saying that to someone. “How can I help you? What can I do for you? You need anything today?” If the guy is your boss, your leader is submitting himself to your desire. How can I serve you today? Oh, that’s an attractive quality, man. And I’ll tell you, that’s somebody you’re going to follow. That’s the one who’s dying to his own ego. You don’t often see it. You see people rule people rather than serve people.
Eden: So true, so true. I have another question for you. I’ve heard you speak in chapel about being a person of conviction. And so we live in a world where, you know, there’s opinions out the wazoo being thrown around. How would you counsel someone if they said, “I want to become a person of conviction?” How would you answer that?
Coach Swider: Oh, it’s a great question. Well, I would first ask, “who do you fear?” Scripture says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10). But we live in a culture that fears man. We worry about what people think. You know, when our kids are in junior high, we say, don’t worry about peer pressure. Are you going to do that because that’s the expectation, which is like fear? Well, a 50-year-old experiences peer pressure. Everyone does.
Do you fear God, or do you fear man? If you fear man, your life will morph and change to whatever environment you find yourself in. Whatever social group you’re in, if you fear man, you’re going to fear the opinions and the ideas of that little social group. I see in politicians all the time. They speak to the Veterans of Foreign Wars, they say this. They speak to Hollywood, they say this. They speak the Teamsters Union, they say this. No way! The one who’s really attractive? He says the same thing, regardless of who he’s talking to, lives the same way, regardless of where he’s living, because his fear is not of man, meaning of the person he’s living with or speaking to, he fears God. And I say this all the time. I’ve spoken to five-, six-, seven hundred people, a thousand people, a few times and I’ll start when I talk, I’ll say, “To be honest with you guys, I don’t really care what you people think of me.”
I said, you know what? Because on the back side of this meeting is tomorrow. You know what? I worry about what God thinks because the backside of that meeting is eternity. And I look at the group and I say, “someday, everyone in this room is going to see God. We cannot deny it. Someday we’re all going to see God. If we lived our life in light of that meeting, we would be men and women of conviction. But we don’t, we don’t live life in light of that meeting.”
I use this example all the time. We have two days in our life that are guaranteed—two days, Eden. This day and that day. Those are the only two days we got. This day, the day we’re living. This is guaranteed because we got it. You know, another guaranteed day we got is that day we see Jesus. It’s the only other guarantee you got. If we live today in light of that day, you would live differently.
Eden: Yes.
Coach Swider: You would live and be a man and a woman of conviction because you knew that’s the only other day you got. If you knew that you were going to die tomorrow, would you worry about what people thought of you? Would you worry? And would you binge and drop your morals and your conscience and say things? And if you knew you were going to see God tomorrow? Nobody would. Nobody would. So that’s how we gotta live. We gotta live that way. And you know, my dad died. He was 63. And before I turned 63, I used to use this example all the time, I say if I die the same time my dad died, I’m living six months. And I go, you think I’m worried about what you people think of me? I’m living six months. You guys don’t even matter. I’m seeing God in six months.
If I die same time he did, well, here’s the reality, Eden. We could die tomorrow. Every one of us could. If we live today in light of that day, we would be men and women of conviction because, you know what we do? We’re going to fear.
The backside of our meeting with anybody we see is tomorrow. It’s irrelevant. And so I think that if we’re going to be men and women of conviction and of principle, we live our lives based on the absolutes and the truth that comes only from Scripture. The God of this universe, who put the stars in the sky, is the Maker and the teller of truth. Live your life fearing him and abiding by his words, you’ll be men and women of conviction. Worried about what people think? You’ll mortgage everything and you’ll morph and become a chameleon that adapts to his environment and has no backbone and no spine.
Eden: Yes. And you know as you were saying that I was thinking of how people say, “oh, you only live once,” you know, “you’re only young once so live your life.” They act like, “oh, I’ve only got today.” But what we have lost is the fact that we will face God. If that fear of God were restored, we would be really different people, I think.
Coach Swider: The reality of death! And I don’t mean that living in the reality of death makes you this person who’s afraid. It allows you to live totally free because you don’t worry about what everybody’s thinking. You know what you do? You just live and you make a stand and you make your statements and it frees you up to be a man of principle and abide by those things. Those people and the opinions of the world become irrelevant.
Eden: Yes. So let’s say I just heard you and I’m thinking, “well, but how do I keep that in my memory? Like how, day to day, do I remember that I’m living before God?” Is there a way to grow in the fear of the Lord?
Coach Swider: Oh, I got a great one for you. I don’t know if it’s Scripture, but it’s a biblical concept that you can remember.
Here’s when we fail: when we forget the cost of our salvation. You’re a believer. And you forget what Jesus did for you. You forget the cost that was paid so you get heaven. You forget that. I gave that example to you and I would use it for football all the time.
I’d take my son, I’d put him next to me on the football field (a devotional at the end of practice) and I would say, “okay, you 120 guys, you’re all condemned death row because of what you’ve done. You’ve sinned. The penalty for sin is death. But I got a plan. And my son, Justin, he’s in on this plan. And here’s our plan. Justin is going to die. And he’s going to die and his shed blood will release all you guys and you now are free to walk. Then I, his father, watch my son get beaten beyond human recognition, suffer the most brutal death you could ever imagine.” So, Eden, you can live. My son Justin died so you could live. Think of it that way. He dies. (You know Justin, you know Mikey.) They die, you live. Here’s my thing. Would you ever forget that I did that for you?
And you walk around for the next 50 years. Would you ever forget that Coach Swider sacrificed his son for you? Would you ever forget that? Would you ever be ashamed to talk to me? Would you ever be ashamed to claim me? Would you ever not think I loved you? Would you ever not trust something I did toward you, a motive?
Eden: No. You’d give anything. You’d give your life for that.
Coach Swider: You would pray to me. You would read my Word. You’d trust me. You’d stand up for me. You’d claim me publicly. And so here’s what happens. Never forget the cost of your salvation. And you know what’ll happen? You’ll live differently too. You’ll live differently. You will. Because that’s the reality of it. And you will not forget our Maker.
Eden: Yeah. I think of when Jesus says those that have been forgiven much will love much (Luke 7:47). And, you know, when we think on how we have been forgiven so much, love will just flow out of us.
Coach Swider: Absolutely, because you realize what you deserved, and that you don’t get it [that’s mercy!]. And, man, if God can love me like that, wouldn’t you want to, again, push other people to have that same joy that we have based on the security of our eternity? We would love them to heaven.
Eden: Wow. Well thank you. I mean, that’s given me things to think about! That’s going to change my way of thinking about this.
What is a book or a resource that has really helped you grow in your walk with Christ over the years? Something that you would say, hey, this resource has transformed me, and I think everybody should read this book.
Coach Swider: Yeah, well, I’ll tell you one that my wife and I just read here when I retired, we read it together. I’ve had more time obviously now that I’m retired. We’re starting to read these books by Jerry Bridges.
Eden: He’s great.
Coach Swider: He’s really great. He’s got The Pursuit of Holiness. But the first one we read together was Trusting God. And it really changed me. It really did. It affected me deeply. You know, I’m type A guy. I’m just highly driven, highly motivated. You know, I used to give these football talks at football clinics. I would say to a group of coaches, I would go, “there’s 22 players out there. Give me the first pick. You take the next 11 and I’ll take the last 10 and I’ll beat you 80% of the time.” And they’ll go, “why?” I said, “because my players will play harder for me than your players will play for you. I promise you, my players will play harder for me than yours will play for you.” And I just said I could will and inspire more than anybody else could. I mean, I’m just driven. If you and I have to lay in a hot tile roof and the first one who gets off loses, you will lose, because I’ll lay there longer than you will.
Eden: I believe it.
Coach Swider: You know, there’s no way. You will get off before I get off. I can endure more than you. And that’s just the way I’m wired. And so that kind of person thinks he can—no matter how tough and hard and confusing—I will will myself through this. Well, you know what? You can’t do everything that way. And I’m finding out with the shoulder thing right now. There are certain things you can’t do like that. Things happen in your life and if the only solution you have is your own human flesh, you can’t get through it. You cannot will yourself through it because you don’t understand why it’s happening. And then frustration overcomes you and all these things. And that was really hard for me.
The other thing that it really balanced in me is, I had things out of order. When a hard time came, I always said I will outwork anybody. The first thing that happened I’d say, I’m getting to work. Okay. Something happened. I’m getting to work right now. And then after a couple of days, I said, man, I better pray about this to and incorporate God. Well you read that book (Trusting God) and first thing you do is you get on your knees and you pray. You pray first and then you work.
There’s a lot of people that’ll just pray, you know? And then they say, “well, I’m just going to pray and leave it up to God, and I’m just going to sit back and whatever he says happens.” That’s just as bad as the guy who was like me, who says, “I’m going to work first and then incorporate God last.” Well, this book really inspired me to say the first thing that’s got to happen is you got to get on your knees and you got to get in touch with the Maker and say, “Lord, I need your help.” And you got to trust him that the circumstance that is there was put there by him for a purpose. “Lord, help me to understand that purpose and make it through this and then get to work.”
That book is really good. The premise is everything occurs for our good and his glory. Once you become a believer, in every single thing that happens to you, is happening for his glory and for our good. And if you really internalize that, you know what? It’ll affect the way you live. And it’s not been easy. Sixty-six years old is when I read it. It really, really helped me because I get so angry and I get so frustrated and I say “no, there’s purpose in this. I’m a child of God, and this is not a random act. This is not a random occurrence. It’s purpose. Trust God through this purpose and get to work and find out what it is.”
Yeah, it’s a great book. Trusting God by Jerry Bridges. There’s a whole series of books that he has that are really good.
Eden: Yeah. He’s a great author. Well, I so appreciate your time. Thank you so much for being willing to share about your walk with the Lord and share with us so much encouragement. I know that has God has even used that just in our talk to really challenge me and so I’m so thankful for your time.
Coach Swider: Well, Eden, I appreciate it, and I’m blessed and I’m honored that you called me so we can sit down and have this little discussion. These are things that I do much more now that I’m retired. I’ve been able to do a lot more of these because I have the time now, and it’s like a new little ministry for me.
Eden: Thank you so much for listening to our podcast today. If you enjoyed our conversation, I would encourage you to like or subscribe to our podcast so that you can hear the next conversation. And if something that you heard today spoke to your heart or got you thinking, I would encourage you to not let the day go by without talking to God about what’s on your mind. We believe that he loves you and that he’s pursuing you today out of that love.