A Quarterback’s Cadence

Every time I watch football with my husband, I learn something. Hearing the quarterback yelling instructions made me curious!

Football is an intriguing sport! 

During one of our football game nights, I asked my husband what the quarterback was yelling out. He answered that those verbal signals are called a cadence and serve as instruction codes for the team. 

Peyton Manning, the quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts, would yell, “Omaha! Omaha!” Dak Prescott, the Dallas Cowboys’ quarterback, yells, “Here we gooooo!” I learned that each team’s quarterback uses a distinctive phrase. The players in his huddle know their quarterback’s voice above all other chatter on and off the field.

A growing awareness of an analogy

Jesus Christ said, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me” (John 10:27), and “I and My Father are one” (verse 30).

This got me thinking about whose team I practice with every day. Am I huddling with the right team? 

• “As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend” (Proverbs 27:17). 
• “And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching” (Hebrews 10:24-25). 
• “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20).

Whose cadence do I hear and follow when there’s a lot of chatter on and off the field? Do I truly know my Shepherd’s voice? 

Can I pick it out during the storms of life? “And the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock” (Matthew 7:25).

How do we hear His cadence?

Some of the ways we hear our Shepherd’s voice are through weekly sermons, attentive reading of Scripture, making contact with the Father in daily prayer, devoting time to intentional meditation, occasionally fasting and fellowshipping at weekly Sabbath services.

If you haven’t already read this excellent book, you’ll want to download your copy of: Five Tools for Spiritual Growth.

We are promised that when we “draw near to God . . . He will draw near to [us]” (James 4:8). “Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you” (Jeremiah 29:12).

What a promise from our God.

What does it take to win?

Best-selling author Jon Gordon, along with Minnesota Golden Gophers’ head football coach P.J. Fleck, describe a winning mindset in their book Row the Boat. Fleck’s leadership has inspired not only his team but also his community. He writes, “In tough times, row. In successful times, row. In times of uncertainty, row. In times of struggle, row. When the waves of life are stormy and dangerous and they rock your boat to the core, row. On days when the seas are calm and glisten with sunshine, row.” 

He continues, “In the end, why we row, how we row, and the way we row through all of it will dictate our path and determine how far we go.”

We’ve seen what this type of winning mindset looks like in the examples of Daniel in the lion’s den (Daniel 6) and Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego in the fiery furnace (Daniel 3). Rereading these scriptures for inspiration helps us to firmly determine the mindset that, no matter what comes our way, we’ll be focused on the same goal that Joshua prepared himself for—serving God (Joshua 24:15).

Years ago, Herbert W. Armstrong—patriarch of the modern Church of God era—said, “I’ve read the end of the book, and we win.” These words continue to inspire me to this day.

As team players in the huddle, how do we establish our hearts to win?

What does it take to win the race? “Run in such a way that you may obtain [the prize]” (1 Corinthians 9:24), and “I discipline my body and bring it into subjection” (verse 27).

Just like teammates who hear their quarterback calling out his coded cadence instructions, can we hear Christ’s cadence?

The huddle is formed.

And His sheep know His voice.