I played football for a total of nine seasons. If you play football, one of the things you get used to is being yelled at. It’s just part of it.

I don’t remember the season or the coach who yelled this one particular time, but I’ll never forget what he said. It may have been when I was 14 and playing Pop Warner football for the Brick Township Green Dragons. We finished the season 1-7, so I’m thinking there was a lot of yelling that year. (Fortunately, over my nine years, I won many more games than I lost, but that season was not one of them.) Ironically, the only team we beat, Jackson Township, was the only team we lost to four years later when I was a senior. That one loss kept us out of the playoffs, but that’s another story.

Whatever season it was, I had apparently made a mistake during one of our practices. I began to explain myself to the coach by saying, “I thought…”

My coach yelled, “Don’t think!”

At the time, that seemed like bad advice. Thirty years later, I think it’s pretty good.

In 2 Kings 5, there’s a guy by the name of Naaman. He’s a valiant soldier, but he’s got leprosy. He goes to Elisha the prophet to be healed. Elisha tells him to go wash in the Jordan River seven times and he’ll be cleansed.

But Naaman went away angry and said, “I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the LORD his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy.”

Naaman eventually gets healed of his leprosy, but it would have been a whole lot easier had he just listened to Elisha in the first place. His problem was bringing his own expectations into the deal and thinking more than just trusting and doing.

I’m learning that when it comes to God, sometimes the one thing I need to remember is “Don’t think!” His timing and ways generally don’t make sense to me, so I just cause myself frustration and aggravation by thinking too much.

It’s better to just believe and obey Him.

Yes, that’s me in the picture.