Read a War Eagle Excerpt

Read John 15:12-17.

“I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit — fruit that will last” (v. 16).

Pat Dye threw two players out of the first team meeting he ever had with his Auburn football team in January of 1981. Things only got tougher after that.

Defensive tackle Donnie Humphrey, a member of Auburn’s Team of the Century, said the first spring training under Dye was “the hardest thing I’ve ever been through. . . . They ran a lot of players off. If you weren’t willing to put forth the effort, [the coaches] didn’t want you around.”

According to Humphrey, the Tigers "seldom practiced more than about an hour and a half" before Dye arrived. That changed drastically. “When Coach Dye got there, I think we went every day for about three or four weeks from 3:30-7:30.” Work, work, and more work — that was the foundation of Dye’s coaching approach. The coach “built a powerhouse on his beliefs of hard work and physical play. Dye believes football is a test of will, of endurance, of willingness to sacrifice.” “We worked so hard,” Kurt Crain, an all-American linebacker under Dye, said of those early days. “We thought we worked harder than anybody else.” Work worked at Auburn; the Dye years were among Auburn’s greatest: four SEC championships, four 10-win seasons, and – perhaps most importantly of all — a four-game winning streak against Alabama.

No matter how hard you may try, you really can’t escape hard work. Despite all these labor-saving devices like cell phones and laptop computers, you’re working longer and harder than ever before. Your work defines you perhaps more than any other aspect of your life, but you're part of a workforce that doesn't show up in any Labor Department statistics or any IRS records. You're part of God's staff. You are charged with the awesome responsibility of spreading his love around as freely as possible. The hours are awful — 24-7 — but the benefits are out of this world.

I've always believed that if you put in the work, the results will come. -- Michael Jordan

God has a job for you: spreading his love.