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By late December of 2018 over five million people had watched an emotional sideline television interview with Newton, Texas High School football coach W.T. Johnston.  Now the story of this remarkable man and his heroic example of faith and courage is told in my brand-new book “Between the White Lines”.

I am especially pleased to announce that twenty percent of profits from every sale will go to the W.T. Johnston Scholarship Fund in Newton, Texas.

You can order the book now at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other online vendors.

Getting to know W.T. Johnston changed my life. I think there is a good chance his story will change yours as well.

An anthem from my youth came on the radio today. The Youngbloods recorded “Get Together” in 1967 and it became one of the quintessential peace songs of the era.

(more…)

(Excerpted from Between the White Lines)

It is almost impossible to comprehend what it is like for a sixteen-year-old boy to run onto the Dallas Cowboys home field to play for a state championship. Kids who have played in front of a few dozen or a few hundred look at a vast sea of faces. They struggle to balance fear and exhilaration. Some teams thrive on this big stage and others wilt. The Newton Eagles always looked to one source of strength in these moments: their coach W.T. Johnston.

“There is nothing like being in the battle with these young men,” W.T. says. “One of the things I love the most about coaching is the team huddle. It is a sacred place that only I get to share with my players. No one else gets to invade that sacred space between the white lines. I always ask them to take a knee and I get down to their level. I look in their eyes and I see what is going on in their hearts and minds. Sometimes I see fear. Sometimes I see anger. Sometimes I see confidence. Sometimes I see overconfidence. When I look in their eyes I know what I need to say in that moment. I will miss that more than anything when I am done coaching.”
On this Thursday, December 21, 2017, Coach saw a team that was ready. A team that wanted to win for their coach and their community. His job today would be to keep them from getting too emotionally charged up and to focus only on the task at hand. Coach knew they had a good plan. But when you deal with high school boys you never know exactly what will happen.

The Newton community had shown up in all their purple splendor. There was no school on Thursday and Friday. Newton looked like a ghost town on Friday afternoon as everyone who could take time off hit Highway 190 to Arlington. Those who had to remain behind were glued to the broadcast of the game. Many gathered to watch on a big screen at a somewhat unlikely location—the Son Asian Bistro in Jasper. Championship day in Newton rivaled Christmas Day in anticipation and excitement.

The Newton cheerleaders were wide-eyed as they walked onto the field. The Eagle mascot ran along the sideline where Dallas Cowboy mascot Rowdy would be pumping up a hundred thousand hometown fans in just two days.
It was a surreal and magical atmosphere. The tension in the stands was palpable for the Newton fans and particularly Debbie Johnston. “You always want to win but the stakes for this game were so much higher. I knew that short of a miracle this would be W.T.’s last chance. I was a nervous wreck.” Like every other time in their relationship she knew her husband was calm. “His strength in these moments is my rock and he is the rock for the team as well.”

The teams finished their warmups and went to the locker room for the final moments before kickoff. W.T. called his team around him. The team knelt together as W.T. Johnston prayed before the Eagles took the field. They were ready to leave it all on the field for their God, town, school, coach, and one another.

With an earsplitting roar the team ran into that magnificent venue with their coach trailing behind. W.T. tried to savor the moment. This was what coaching was all about—hard work, teamwork, grinding, and mental toughness. Months of early-morning workouts in a spartan facility that would be laughed at by the big school programs. Boys becoming men in the pressure of lofty expectations. Living life in a locker room with young men and teaching them about football and life. This was what God put W.T. Johnston on this planet to do, and he was more than grateful for this moment. And if the outcome was a championship, well, that was a bonus.
W.T. walked to the sideline, the place that gave him such joy. “Between the white lines is the purest and most real place you can be. There is no black or white. No rich or poor. No conservative or liberal. It is just competition.”

He had taught his players there was another dimension inside those white lines where it was only one another.

“I taught them to find Christ inside those white lines. Jesus epitomizes the equal playing field. Paul wrote there is no Jew or Gentile. No free man or slave. We are all the same inside those theological white lines. Don’t ever let anyone tell you that you don’t matter. You do.”

Johnston stopped to breathe a prayer. The moment was here. He looked up as Gunter placekicker Evan Gonzalez launched the opening kickoff. God had answered his prayer. He was here with his team. He had been given a great gift.

Click here to get your copy of Between the White Lines: Coach W.T. Johnston’s Determined Pursuit of Ultimate Victory.

(This is an excerpt from my new book Between the White Lines. I hope you read this remarkable story.)

W.T. Johnston sat alone in a service tunnel inside the cavernous home of the Dallas Cowboys. From his folding chair he could hear the cacophony of sounds as two high schools—Brock and Rockdale—battled for a state title. Soon he would lead his Newton Eagles football team against undefeated Gunter for the UIL 3A Division II Championship of Texas. Johnston’s mind raced as he considered the miracle of this moment. Most Texas high school coaches only dreamed of being on this stage.

He chuckled to himself. The entire population of Newton would fit forty times into AT&T Stadium with just a few seats left over. He knew that most of the town had made the 265-mile trek from Newton County to Texas football’s crown-jewel facility.

Three years earlier, Johnston had his first chance as a head coach to win a title on this very field. The dream ended in a disappointing loss to Waskom High School. On this Friday in December he would try again to win an elusive state title against the defending state champ that sported a daunting thirty-one-game winning streak. Most experts picked the Gunter Tigers to repeat as champs. That didn’t bother Johnston too much since most experts expected him to be dead. He had been praying for God to allow him to live long enough to see this moment and now it was here. It was almost certain this would be his last chance for a head coach championship ring in only his eighth season at the helm.

Not many people outside of Newton knew his story. Most of the crowd cheering their high school teams here in Arlington had no idea what Coach Johnston had endured to make it to this moment. Almost no one knew that he had collapsed earlier in the day, not even his son Drew. The coaches who had witnessed that scary incident worried that it could happen again and maybe the results would be worse.

Johnston pondered what this game meant. He knew he would be okay personally if the results weren’t good. Sure, it would be a disappointment because it is never fun to lose that final game. But the folks in Newton? This would mean so much to a town that had endured more than its share of adversity.

He thought about his family. Son Drew was his defensive coordinator who had previously won a 2005 state title as a Newton Eagle player when W.T. was Coach Curtis Barbay’s assistant. The family didn’t discuss the real chance that this could be W.T.’s final shot. He wanted this more for Debbie, Drew, daughter-in-law Kelsey, and Shaw more than he did for himself.

He thought about those sixty kids who would soon take the field—the same field that Ezekiel Elliott, Tony Romo, and Jason Witten had excelled on. Standing for the coin flip on that famous Cowboy star that measures ten yards from point to point. Trying to avoid staring at the ridiculously huge video screen that verified outsiders’ notions that everything is bigger in Texas.

W.T. knew how much they wanted to win it for him, but he wanted it even more for them. Johnston knew that long after he was gone this moment would be something special for these young men. Most of the kids were poor and this was an experience that they would treasure forever. W.T. wanted them to finish their high school football career with a state championship ring.

Television announcer Ron Thulin approached W. T. and sat with the coach for a few minutes. Thulin would be doing the play-by-play on Fox Sports Southwest that day. Thulin remarked about how Coach Johnston’s response to adversity had inspired him.
W. T. looked at Thulin and smiled. “Ron, most people don’t have a chance to really see how their life has mattered. They don’t get the perspective to treasure each day. I have been given a great gift.”

As Ron Thulin headed to the broadcast booth Johnston took one more moment to remember the gift of life and the gift of this moment. No matter what happened in the next four hours, he believed this promise from the Bible.

But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength.
They will soar high on wings like eagles.
They will run and not grow weary.
They will walk and not faint.
Isaiah 40:31, NLT

Order Between the Lines now.

Thomas Jefferson is an enigma for many. Political enemies in his day accused him of being an atheist yet he started the statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom with the phrase, “Almighty God hath created the mind free.” He certainly would not have been invited to speak at an evangelical conference to share his view that most clergymen are “soothsayers and necromancers.” You likely have a bigger brain than I do but I will confess that I had to look up necromancers. It literally means one who interrogates the dead. Okay. Not sure what church Jefferson was frequenting.

Jefferson believed that authentic Christianity had been hijacked by church leaders. Jefferson decided to fix the problem. He took out his scissors and cut out the parts of the Bible that he didn’t believe. He excised the virgin birth, all of the miracles and the Resurrection. He cobbled together a book he titled “The Philosophy of Jesus of Nazareth”. Jefferson described his work as separating the “diamonds from the dunghill.” His clippers removed every miracle while leaving teachings about helping the needy and treating people as we would have them treat us. Jefferson’s called the moral code of Jesus, “the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man.”

I agree with that statement but Jesus stripped of His Divinity and resurrection becomes just a really challenging life coach.

It is so easy to criticize Jefferson. What audacity! The incredible chutzpah to modify sacred texts to fit your own views! But then I took a breath and stepped back. Do I do the same thing without the in your face honesty of Jefferson? When I choose to ignore the hard teachings of Jesus I have, in practice, done the same thing. When I say that some command in God’s Word is too hard I have essentially taken my scissors of doubt and cut that teaching out. When I point out that I cannot forgive or love or give because you don’t understand my circumstances I have clipped out the challenge of supernatural living. In my book When Bad Christians Happen to Good People I wrote a chapter called “This is a Hard Teaching” about the challenging and difficult things that Jesus taught that I tend to mentally and practically excise from my walk. For example, Jesus had this fun little proclamation.

“You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.  (Matthew 5:43-48, NLT)

Are you kidding me? Love your enemies? Pray for them? Scalpel please…that must be removed. I often feel like the disciples of Jesus who struggled with His teaching about the bread of life.

Many of his disciples said, “This is very hard to understand. How can anyone accept it?” Jesus was aware that his disciples were complaining, so he said to them, “Does this offend you? (John 6:60, NLT)

That is the bottom line isn’t it? Sometimes the hard teachings of Jesus offend me. Or at least annoy me. I don’t want to forgive the unforgivable or love the unlovable. I don’t want to serve the least of these because it is inconvenient, messy, and hard. But I have a choice to make. I have to accept the entire Word of God and be open to allowing the Holy Spirit to move in every area of my life. Or I have to take the scissors of my lack of faith to His Word. As for cutting out the miracles and just making Jesus a profound and amazing teacher? I don’t think He gave us that option. Jesus clearly let it be known that He was the Son of Man sent by His Father. If that is not the truth then Jesus was not a great man and teacher. The famous words of C.S.Lewis from Mere Christianity dismiss that philosophy.

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon and you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

So I am praying for the grace to embrace the hard teachings and leave the scissors in the drawer.

The title “Evangelical Christian” seems to have become a pejorative to many in the media and culture. I understand the frustration (I have written about it a lot) when very vocal or celebrity Christian leaders fail spectacularly. I share your anger when a religious person espouses hateful or judgmental comments. I grieve when an institution or leader fails to protect the innocent.

Critics say that Christians have an agenda and dangerous desire to control other people’s lives. I confess that has been true for some religious types. But the followers of Jesus that I have gotten to know over many decades don’t resemble that stereotype at all. Perhaps that is why Jesus warned so plainly about the dangers of power. The selfless, giving, and caring believers get little notice in this world but I believe they are quietly and faithfully making a difference.

I thought about what my answer would be if I was asked to outline my agenda. I certainly don’t speak for all Evangelical Christians but I think I just might represent a number of them as I share my “agenda”.

Let me start by telling you what this particular Evangelical Christian does not believe…

I do not believe you have to be Republican to be a Christian. During the rapture Jesus will not appear first on Fox News. Like it or not, heaven will be bipartisan and I am totally fine that there will not be “sides” of the Golden Aisle.

I do not believe that God is “judging” America for any particular sin. But if He is judging this country I would suspect it is for the massive squandering of wealth and resources that we have been blessed with while giving back an average of less than 2 percent.

I do not believe in ranking sins for their offensiveness to a Holy God. Some things are individually more offensive to some of us but all sin is equally intolerable to a Holy God. We are either perfect or in need of a Savior. I am the latter.

I do not believe that censorship, boycotts, or politics will redeem this culture…only a spiritual renewal of caring love and grace can accomplish such redemption.

I do not believe that it is my place to relish or desire eternal punishment for others. I am willing to leave that to a righteous and just God who sees the real heart and motives for each one of us and Who will judge justly.

Here is my agenda.

• To try and see everyone through the eyes of Jesus because my eyes are prejudiced and prideful.
• To try and love them like Jesus because my love is selfish.
• To try and see that no one misses out on the message of grace, identity, acceptance and one-way love that is offered as a free gift of grace by the finished work of Jesus on the Cross.
• To let them others know that my relationship with Jesus and His grace has changed my life, given my life purpose, given me strength to endure tragedy, and real hope for the future.
• To authentically relate how this personal relationship with the living God saved my marriage and made me a better father to my sons.
• To be gentle in relating the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ to people in every situation. My goal is to introduce people to Jesus. If they are living in a way that is not biblical I will let them work it out in God’s timing while walking with them in grace and love.
• To exhibit grace and forgiveness to those who attack me for not sharing their world views.
• To freely dispense the grace of the living Christ to everyone I come in contact so that I can be salt and light to my little circle of influence.
• To be a advocate for those wounded by the church and other Christians. Our lack of unity must grieve the Lord who prayed for unity of the body during His final agonizing hours before His betrayal, mock trial, and crucifixion.
• To try to never be surprised or repulsed by the actions of those who do not have a relationship with Jesus. The Lord Himself was always gentle with sinners and always tough on religious hypocrites. We have reversed his example far too often. We are too tough on sinners and too gentle with the hypocrites in our midst.
• To try and give generously of my time and treasure to those who have not been as materially blessed in my neighborhood, my country, and around the world.
• To let people know that I love Jesus and I am not at all ashamed of that fact.

It is easy to dismiss the hypocrite. No problem to ignore the angry and judgmental religious types. But before I came to faith I was troubled when I saw some Christians who displayed something different in their lives. I could not dismiss so readily the joy, peace, strength, courage, and love they modeled. They were “troublesome” Christians to me.  I could not ignore them because their lives were authentic and different (different good, not weird). I want to be that kind of Christian. I take these words of Jesus seriously.

“So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.”

That was not a helpful suggestion. Jesus made that command the cornerstone of following Him. So that is my agenda. To love others as I have been loved and be a “troublesome” Christian to some.

I think a lot about the church. When you write a book called “When Bad Christians Happen to Good People” you tend to hear from angry and wounded churchgoers. I have received hundreds of emails and blog posts from hurting believers. If a modest selling author and blogger like me gets that many responses then you can extrapolate that this is a big problem for the American church.

I began the book mentioned above with this paragraph.

“I am a hypocrite. I can be arrogant and selfish. I have been known to stretch, conceal, or slightly massage the truth. I am sometimes inconsiderate and insecure. I struggle with lust and impure thoughts. My ego often rages out of control, and I battle foolish pride. I can be lazy and foolhardy with my time. I get angry, petty, and ill-tempered. I am sarcastic and cynical. I am a Christian.”

I can make the claim in the final sentence only because of Christ. A song by one of my favorite artists, Andrew Peterson, reminds me of the mystery of grace. Peterson beautifully illustrates that I am like every sinner who ever lived or will live. Peterson’s lyrics hit home and remind me that I am saved by grace alone. I was a sinner in need of a Savior. Andrew Peterson’s lyrics describe it well.

I am the woman at the well, I am the harlot
I am the scattered seed that fell along the path
I am the son who ran away
I am the bitter son who stayed

I am the angry men who came to stone the lover
I am the woman there ashamed before the crowd
I am the leper who gave thanks
I am the nine who never came

Paul tells us that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. I used to feel superior to those who violated my denomination’s “Top 10 list of things not to do if you are a real Christian”. But I came to realize that having less repulsive sins on my resume than someone else only mattered to me and my miserable band of legalists. I still fell short.

As my journey continued I was wounded by the church and I got angry at God when fallible people (just like me) did not follow His Word or “act like Christians”. Yet I often did the same thing that offended me when others did it. And that is why Peterson’s question resonates in my heart.

My God, my God
Why hast thou accepted me?

Indeed. I had nothing to offer that God needed. I was falling far, far, far short of the glory of God. But what He did is pure grace and Andrew Peterson says it well.

You took my sin and wrapped me in
Your robe and your ring
My God, my God
Why hast thou accepted me?

It’s a mystery of mercy
And the song I sing.

I love that imagery. He took my sin and wrapped me in robes of undeserved righteousness.

I am still prone to react when I hear stories of harsh shepherds and mean-spirited churchgoers. But more and more I realize that I am more than capable of being that harsh shepherd or mean Christian apart from trust and dependence on Jesus.

Paul wrote these words in a letter to his spiritual son Titus.

Once we, too, were foolish and disobedient. We were misled and became slaves to many lusts and pleasures. Our lives were full of evil and envy, and we hated each other. But—”When God our Savior revealed his kindness and love, he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit. He generously poured out the Spirit upon us through Jesus Christ our Savior. Because of his grace he declared us righteous and gave us confidence that we will inherit eternal life.” This is a trustworthy saying, and I want you to insist on these teachings so that all who trust in God will devote themselves to doing good. (Titus 3 – NLT)

Why hast God accepted me? Because of Jesus and not for anything I have done or could do. Today I have a heart of worship as I meditate on this mystery of mercy and grace.