We don’t have football in my country, well at least not the American kind so the first time I found out about Tony Dungy was through this quote that someone had as a profile picture.
After reading that I decided I needed to know more about someone who says that and because I’d like to say it too I knew I had to learn from him so I got a copy of his book Quiet strength.
When I started reading I feared I might not understand much of the football stuff since my ‘football experience’ involved watching Peyton Manning do a Comedy Central Roast and googling him afterwards because it was so funny.
Right from the start Dungy makes it clear that the book isn’t just about football so phew. I enjoyed reading the book and would definitely recommend it. I learned a lot from it but the following stood out:
View your work as a ministry. I’m working on that at the moment so reading this book right now is just what I needed. It gave me much needed guidance in navigating between the pursuit of my dreams and my ministry/purpose of glorifying God on this earth. Or maybe even on Mars someday if, or rather when Elon Musk delivers.
With God you can get through anything. Because I didn’t know much about Tony Dungy before reading this book, I didn’t see the tragedy close to the end coming. It caught me by surprise and I couldn’t handle it and wondered how he would handle it. With such strength of character and resilience is how. He showed me that if you put your trust in God He will get you through things you could never imagine going through until you’re experiencing it. God’s grace is indeed sufficient.
It also showed me what it truly means to trust God. We often say we trust God but when difficult times hit, it’s easy to forget that. Trusting God means trusting Him even when it hurts, when things don’t go according to plan and when life makes you want to scream at someone.
I also learned about the importance of persistence and sticking to what you believe is right even if everything around you is chaotic and people are telling you to rethink your strategy. In time all your effort and hard work and trust in God will pay off in ways you could never have imagined.
I’m so glad God led me to this book. Give it a read and see what you’ll get from it.
