Ya'll need to read this, it is excellent

[robjim]

The following is an address given to the CPA Varsity Football Team by Captain Marcus

Gill. Marcus played on the 2000 CPA Football State Championship Team and is a

graduate of CPA and West Point Academy. These remarks were given in a team devotion

on Thursday, Sept 30 2010- a week before Captain Gill was going to be deployed in

Afghanistan for a 2nd tour of duty.

 

 

Coach Mathews, thank you for having me here today.

 

The sport of football means a great deal to me. Ten years ago, I was in this field house

wearing shoulder pads and a gold helmet as a player on CPA’s first state championship

football team. It’s a privilege to be back, it’s a privilege to be with another CPA football

team.

 

As coach said, my name is Marcus Gill. I am a member of the 2nd Ranger battalion and

will deploy next month to Afghanistan. The US Army Rangers are the most elite light

infantry fighting force in the world. Afghanistan is twelve time zones away and 7000

miles over the horizon. It’s dark in Afghanistan right now. Right now, Rangers from my

unit are airborne in the darkness. Right now, their assault forces ride on helicopters

through the night into harm’s way. They will land in enemy territory and use deadly force

to impose their will upon enemies of our country.

 

I get told a lot “thanks for serving our countryâ€- which is a nice, patriotic gesture by our

citizens- but much of the time people say it because the only other thing that comes in

their mind is “you are crazyâ€. That just doesn’t have the same ring to it. They think I’m

crazy because the conflict of combat doesn’t fit into their surroundings.

In some ways, being a soldier and a football player are similar, for the conflict of football

doesn’t fit into some of your surroundings either. You are raised in the richest county in

the State of Tennessee. The level of affluence and comfort is staggering, yet there is

nothing comfortable about two-a-days in August.

 

Many of your peers struggle to get out of bed, but you struggle against an opponent lined

up across from you. Much of the surrounding culture is feminine and self-gratifying, but

you daily choose to be masculine and self-denying to win at football. Football prepares

you for life because it makes you understand that physical and spiritual conflict is

inseparable. In the Gospel of Matthew Jesus says the spirit is willing but the flesh is

weak. In the fourth quarter, you’ll feel your flesh weakening even when your spirit knows

victory is near. Peter says a man is enslaved by what he cannot overcome. In sprints, your

flesh says ‘one more is over-training’, your spirit says ‘one more is over-coming’.

I watched you play against DCA and I believe your team is prepared to win at football.

You know when I was in your place as a player on that undefeated team, there was

nothing in the world of football we could not do. We were known state wide as a team

that could legitimately beat anybody in any classification. Our pictures filled the papers

and our fans packed the stands as we won every game. My teammates and I left CPA

football as strong boys so full of promise and life that it seemed that we could overcome

anything. Looking back ten years later, you know what we weren’t prepared to

overcome? The conflicts of life’s next phase. We didn’t know that the conflicts of life’s

next phase would surpass any linebacker blitz or lineman combo block. The truth is the

game you’re playing isn’t football, the game is life and what is at stake at each snap is not

moving a ball down the field for a first down, what is at stake is equipping yourself to

grow from boys into young men capable of surviving the conflicts coming for you in the

next phase of life.

 

Conflict is coming for you and will continue to come for you for the rest of your life. You

cannot avoid the conflict; you can prepare for it. Seniors, less than a year from now most

of you will be at some American college campus. You will be on your own; drugs will be

available; sex with loose women will be plentiful; alcohol will be endless; agnostic

professors with agendas will be unavoidable and no one will push the Book of Proverbs

down your throat… let me guess, you already knew that about college.

Let me tell you something you don’t know about college. I’ve had more friends from

CPA ruin their lives at college than I’ve had West Point friends ruin their lives in combat.

I spent the year of 2009 as a paratrooper fighting in Afghanistan. My younger brother

spent the year of 2009 as a freshman in the Aggie Corps at Texas A&M. My younger

brother’s battalion of college kids suffered more fatalities from the debauchery of student

life than my infantry battalion suffered from combat operations. I’m trying to articulate

that the world you enter less than a year from now is so destructive that your chance of

survival is better in worn-torn Afghanistan with my Rangers than on an SEC college

campus with a fraternity. Don’t pray for my Soldier’s safety, pray for your own…equally

important, prepare for your own. In many ways Knoxville is more lethal than Kandahar.

Conflict is coming for you. The Bible says that Satan is a devouring lion who roams the

earth looking for those to consume and you better believe he has this group of lions on

his menu. Satan aims to destroy your soul and to destroy the reason you were created to

live, nor just your physical ability to live. I have seen dead men and I’ve seen destroyed

men and a destroyed man is a much more gruesome sight. The conflict is real and

ceaseless and the enemy is strong and ruthless and capable. The abilities needed to rise

from its grip are not some psychedelic realization that will settle on you later in life. You

will not overcome it solely by singing feel good songs in a youth group party atmosphere.

That’s the truth that the Brentwood culture doesn’t like to hear; as a culture, Brentwood

will focus on comfort rather that acknowledge conflict.

 

I don’t know when confrontation became a sin, but the myth that one cannot be

confrontational and a Christian is nothing short of heresy. Christians believe that good is

always opposed by evil and the line of opposition is drawn within the human heart so that

the soul of a person is the very battle at stake. By grace alone are you saved, but by guts

predominately you will act upon that grace. It’s moments of conflict like tomorrow

night’s football game where you can build your guts. CPA football coaches know how to

prevail in conflict that requires guts and that’s why CPA coaches care more about your

well-being that your feelings. Their job is to help you overcome yourself. The experience

is not meant to be comfortable for you, it’s meant to be good for you.

Just as CPA football tradition is to prevail on the gridiron, our spiritual heritage is to be

more than conquerors in Christ. It is not your destiny nor God’s will for you to stumble

and fall and be devoured by Satan. CPA football was the best preparation my friends and

I received for life; for too many of us, it still wasn’t enough. If I could go back in time

and hold hands in the huddle again with my friends, I would tell them we have to ‘make

ready everyday because the game isn’t football, the game is life and the only way we can

survive is to fearlessly run the plays that Christ calls in our lives. And when we do, He

will be watching our game of life and He will have no problem recognizing His own-

For the purple and gold banner will be clear, held high, unfurled and flying strongly

in the contrary breeze as the men who wear the gold hats move forward into enemy

territory. And so may it always be for all who wear the gold helmet of the CPA Lions.

I can only tell you that moments of conflict are coming. I can’t go back in time and join

the huddle. It’s your time. Make the most of it.

[ClassAAguru]

Wow. That was REALLY good stuff.

 

 

The following is an address given to the CPA Varsity Football Team by Captain Marcus

Gill. Marcus played on the 2000 CPA Football State Championship Team and is a

graduate of CPA and West Point Academy. These remarks were given in a team devotion

on Thursday, Sept 30 2010- a week before Captain Gill was going to be deployed in

Afghanistan for a 2nd tour of duty.

 

 

Coach Mathews, thank you for having me here today.

 

The sport of football means a great deal to me. Ten years ago, I was in this field house

wearing shoulder pads and a gold helmet as a player on CPA’s first state championship

football team. It’s a privilege to be back, it’s a privilege to be with another CPA football

team.

 

As coach said, my name is Marcus Gill. I am a member of the 2nd Ranger battalion and

will deploy next month to Afghanistan. The US Army Rangers are the most elite light

infantry fighting force in the world. Afghanistan is twelve time zones away and 7000

miles over the horizon. It’s dark in Afghanistan right now. Right now, Rangers from my

unit are airborne in the darkness. Right now, their assault forces ride on helicopters

through the night into harm’s way. They will land in enemy territory and use deadly force

to impose their will upon enemies of our country.

 

I get told a lot “thanks for serving our countryâ€- which is a nice, patriotic gesture by our

citizens- but much of the time people say it because the only other thing that comes in

their mind is “you are crazyâ€. That just doesn’t have the same ring to it. They think I’m

crazy because the conflict of combat doesn’t fit into their surroundings.

In some ways, being a soldier and a football player are similar, for the conflict of football

doesn’t fit into some of your surroundings either. You are raised in the richest county in

the State of Tennessee. The level of affluence and comfort is staggering, yet there is

nothing comfortable about two-a-days in August.

 

Many of your peers struggle to get out of bed, but you struggle against an opponent lined

up across from you. Much of the surrounding culture is feminine and self-gratifying, but

you daily choose to be masculine and self-denying to win at football. Football prepares

you for life because it makes you understand that physical and spiritual conflict is

inseparable. In the Gospel of Matthew Jesus says the spirit is willing but the flesh is

weak. In the fourth quarter, you’ll feel your flesh weakening even when your spirit knows

victory is near. Peter says a man is enslaved by what he cannot overcome. In sprints, your

flesh says ‘one more is over-training’, your spirit says ‘one more is over-coming’.

I watched you play against DCA and I believe your team is prepared to win at football.

You know when I was in your place as a player on that undefeated team, there was

nothing in the world of football we could not do. We were known state wide as a team

that could legitimately beat anybody in any classification. Our pictures filled the papers

and our fans packed the stands as we won every game. My teammates and I left CPA

football as strong boys so full of promise and life that it seemed that we could overcome

anything. Looking back ten years later, you know what we weren’t prepared to

overcome? The conflicts of life’s next phase. We didn’t know that the conflicts of life’s

next phase would surpass any linebacker blitz or lineman combo block. The truth is the

game you’re playing isn’t football, the game is life and what is at stake at each snap is not

moving a ball down the field for a first down, what is at stake is equipping yourself to

grow from boys into young men capable of surviving the conflicts coming for you in the

next phase of life.

 

Conflict is coming for you and will continue to come for you for the rest of your life. You

cannot avoid the conflict; you can prepare for it. Seniors, less than a year from now most

of you will be at some American college campus. You will be on your own; drugs will be

available; sex with loose women will be plentiful; alcohol will be endless; agnostic

professors with agendas will be unavoidable and no one will push the Book of Proverbs

down your throat… let me guess, you already knew that about college.

Let me tell you something you don’t know about college. I’ve had more friends from

CPA ruin their lives at college than I’ve had West Point friends ruin their lives in combat.

I spent the year of 2009 as a paratrooper fighting in Afghanistan. My younger brother

spent the year of 2009 as a freshman in the Aggie Corps at Texas A&M. My younger

brother’s battalion of college kids suffered more fatalities from the debauchery of student

life than my infantry battalion suffered from combat operations. I’m trying to articulate

that the world you enter less than a year from now is so destructive that your chance of

survival is better in worn-torn Afghanistan with my Rangers than on an SEC college

campus with a fraternity. Don’t pray for my Soldier’s safety, pray for your own…equally

important, prepare for your own. In many ways Knoxville is more lethal than Kandahar.

Conflict is coming for you. The Bible says that Satan is a devouring lion who roams the

earth looking for those to consume and you better believe he has this group of lions on

his menu. Satan aims to destroy your soul and to destroy the reason you were created to

live, nor just your physical ability to live. I have seen dead men and I’ve seen destroyed

men and a destroyed man is a much more gruesome sight. The conflict is real and

ceaseless and the enemy is strong and ruthless and capable. The abilities needed to rise

from its grip are not some psychedelic realization that will settle on you later in life. You

will not overcome it solely by singing feel good songs in a youth group party atmosphere.

That’s the truth that the Brentwood culture doesn’t like to hear; as a culture, Brentwood

will focus on comfort rather that acknowledge conflict.

 

I don’t know when confrontation became a sin, but the myth that one cannot be

confrontational and a Christian is nothing short of heresy. Christians believe that good is

always opposed by evil and the line of opposition is drawn within the human heart so that

the soul of a person is the very battle at stake. By grace alone are you saved, but by guts

predominately you will act upon that grace. It’s moments of conflict like tomorrow

night’s football game where you can build your guts. CPA football coaches know how to

prevail in conflict that requires guts and that’s why CPA coaches care more about your

well-being that your feelings. Their job is to help you overcome yourself. The experience

is not meant to be comfortable for you, it’s meant to be good for you.

Just as CPA football tradition is to prevail on the gridiron, our spiritual heritage is to be

more than conquerors in Christ. It is not your destiny nor God’s will for you to stumble

and fall and be devoured by Satan. CPA football was the best preparation my friends and

I received for life; for too many of us, it still wasn’t enough. If I could go back in time

and hold hands in the huddle again with my friends, I would tell them we have to ‘make

ready everyday because the game isn’t football, the game is life and the only way we can

survive is to fearlessly run the plays that Christ calls in our lives. And when we do, He

will be watching our game of life and He will have no problem recognizing His own-

For the purple and gold banner will be clear, held high, unfurled and flying strongly

in the contrary breeze as the men who wear the gold hats move forward into enemy

territory. And so may it always be for all who wear the gold helmet of the CPA Lions.

I can only tell you that moments of conflict are coming. I can’t go back in time and join

the huddle. It’s your time. Make the most of it.

[eers]

Excellent!

[tradertwo]

It's humbling to see in words how very insignificant seemingly large everyday problems really are,and moreso how important the REAL meaning of our lifes ULTIMATE goals sholud be,but often are not.

[jrpfhs21]

Amazing. Something you can't read without getting chills up your spine.

[pujo]

All coaches should be teaching life,sounds like this kid was prepared.

[pujo]

The following is an address given to the CPA Varsity Football Team by Captain Marcus

Gill. Marcus played on the 2000 CPA Football State Championship Team and is a

graduate of CPA and West Point Academy. These remarks were given in a team devotion

on Thursday, Sept 30 2010- a week before Captain Gill was going to be deployed in

Afghanistan for a 2nd tour of duty.

 

 

Coach Mathews, thank you for having me here today.

 

The sport of football means a great deal to me. Ten years ago, I was in this field house

wearing shoulder pads and a gold helmet as a player on CPA’s first state championship

football team. It’s a privilege to be back, it’s a privilege to be with another CPA football

team.

 

As coach said, my name is Marcus Gill. I am a member of the 2nd Ranger battalion and

will deploy next month to Afghanistan. The US Army Rangers are the most elite light

infantry fighting force in the world. Afghanistan is twelve time zones away and 7000

miles over the horizon. It’s dark in Afghanistan right now. Right now, Rangers from my

unit are airborne in the darkness. Right now, their assault forces ride on helicopters

through the night into harm’s way. They will land in enemy territory and use deadly force

to impose their will upon enemies of our country.

 

I get told a lot “thanks for serving our countryâ€- which is a nice, patriotic gesture by our

citizens- but much of the time people say it because the only other thing that comes in

their mind is “you are crazyâ€. That just doesn’t have the same ring to it. They think I’m

crazy because the conflict of combat doesn’t fit into their surroundings.

In some ways, being a soldier and a football player are similar, for the conflict of football

doesn’t fit into some of your surroundings either. You are raised in the richest county in

the State of Tennessee. The level of affluence and comfort is staggering, yet there is

nothing comfortable about two-a-days in August.

 

Many of your peers struggle to get out of bed, but you struggle against an opponent lined

up across from you. Much of the surrounding culture is feminine and self-gratifying, but

you daily choose to be masculine and self-denying to win at football. Football prepares

you for life because it makes you understand that physical and spiritual conflict is

inseparable. In the Gospel of Matthew Jesus says the spirit is willing but the flesh is

weak. In the fourth quarter, you’ll feel your flesh weakening even when your spirit knows

victory is near. Peter says a man is enslaved by what he cannot overcome. In sprints, your

flesh says ‘one more is over-training’, your spirit says ‘one more is over-coming’.

I watched you play against DCA and I believe your team is prepared to win at football.

You know when I was in your place as a player on that undefeated team, there was

nothing in the world of football we could not do. We were known state wide as a team

that could legitimately beat anybody in any classification. Our pictures filled the papers

and our fans packed the stands as we won every game. My teammates and I left CPA

football as strong boys so full of promise and life that it seemed that we could overcome

anything. Looking back ten years later, you know what we weren’t prepared to

overcome? The conflicts of life’s next phase. We didn’t know that the conflicts of life’s

next phase would surpass any linebacker blitz or lineman combo block. The truth is the

game you’re playing isn’t football, the game is life and what is at stake at each snap is not

moving a ball down the field for a first down, what is at stake is equipping yourself to

grow from boys into young men capable of surviving the conflicts coming for you in the

next phase of life.

 

Conflict is coming for you and will continue to come for you for the rest of your life. You

cannot avoid the conflict; you can prepare for it. Seniors, less than a year from now most

of you will be at some American college campus. You will be on your own; drugs will be

available; sex with loose women will be plentiful; alcohol will be endless; agnostic

professors with agendas will be unavoidable and no one will push the Book of Proverbs

down your throat… let me guess, you already knew that about college.

Let me tell you something you don’t know about college. I’ve had more friends from

CPA ruin their lives at college than I’ve had West Point friends ruin their lives in combat.

I spent the year of 2009 as a paratrooper fighting in Afghanistan. My younger brother

spent the year of 2009 as a freshman in the Aggie Corps at Texas A&M. My younger

brother’s battalion of college kids suffered more fatalities from the debauchery of student

life than my infantry battalion suffered from combat operations. I’m trying to articulate

that the world you enter less than a year from now is so destructive that your chance of

survival is better in worn-torn Afghanistan with my Rangers than on an SEC college

campus with a fraternity. Don’t pray for my Soldier’s safety, pray for your own…equally

important, prepare for your own. In many ways Knoxville is more lethal than Kandahar.

Conflict is coming for you. The Bible says that Satan is a devouring lion who roams the

earth looking for those to consume and you better believe he has this group of lions on

his menu. Satan aims to destroy your soul and to destroy the reason you were created to

live, nor just your physical ability to live. I have seen dead men and I’ve seen destroyed

men and a destroyed man is a much more gruesome sight. The conflict is real and

ceaseless and the enemy is strong and ruthless and capable. The abilities needed to rise

from its grip are not some psychedelic realization that will settle on you later in life. You

will not overcome it solely by singing feel good songs in a youth group party atmosphere.

That’s the truth that the Brentwood culture doesn’t like to hear; as a culture, Brentwood

will focus on comfort rather that acknowledge conflict.

 

I don’t know when confrontation became a sin, but the myth that one cannot be

confrontational and a Christian is nothing short of heresy. Christians believe that good is

always opposed by evil and the line of opposition is drawn within the human heart so that

the soul of a person is the very battle at stake. By grace alone are you saved, but by guts

predominately you will act upon that grace. It’s moments of conflict like tomorrow

night’s football game where you can build your guts. CPA football coaches know how to

prevail in conflict that requires guts and that’s why CPA coaches care more about your

well-being that your feelings. Their job is to help you overcome yourself. The experience

is not meant to be comfortable for you, it’s meant to be good for you.

Just as CPA football tradition is to prevail on the gridiron, our spiritual heritage is to be

more than conquerors in Christ. It is not your destiny nor God’s will for you to stumble

and fall and be devoured by Satan. CPA football was the best preparation my friends and

I received for life; for too many of us, it still wasn’t enough. If I could go back in time

and hold hands in the huddle again with my friends, I would tell them we have to ‘make

ready everyday because the game isn’t football, the game is life and the only way we can

survive is to fearlessly run the plays that Christ calls in our lives. And when we do, He

will be watching our game of life and He will have no problem recognizing His own-

For the purple and gold banner will be clear, held high, unfurled and flying strongly

in the contrary breeze as the men who wear the gold hats move forward into enemy

territory. And so may it always be for all who wear the gold helmet of the CPA Lions.

I can only tell you that moments of conflict are coming. I can’t go back in time and join

the huddle. It’s your time. Make the most of it.

Thanks Robjim for sharing this with all of us,but it needs to be posted on every thread,every kid in America should read this. I've always been a fan of CPA, Now I'm a fan of Marcus Gill. If you ever get the chance ,you need to read the book,Lone Survivor

[robjim]

Thanks, Pujo, good to hear from you. I am familiar with the events of the "Lone Survivor", but haven't read the book. I'll put that on my list. Keep'em straight for me out there is east TN.

 

 

Thanks Robjim for sharing this with all of us,but it needs to be posted on every thread,every kid in America should read this. I've always been a fan of CPA, Now I'm a fan of Marcus Gill. If you ever get the chance ,you need to read the book,Lone Survivor

[Gerry Bertier]

Great message from what has to be a great young man. He gets it. Wish he could take a turn and go to every high school in the state and give that message.

[OLD PIRATE]

Old Pirate says this was the most inspiring post OP has ever read on coacht. Surely they are some proud parents of this young man.

[855fan]

Extraordinary!!