Written by Tommy Sewall, Director of This is My Story

Growing up, I loved all things sports. Basketball and soccer were the big ones I played in school, but I also loved action sports. Snowboarding in the winter and wakeboarding in the summer. I started out waterskiing, but once I discovered a wakeboard that was all I wanted to do. It was like a snowboard, but I could do it all summer long.

I grew up going to the lake every morning at 7:00 am all summer long, except on Sundays. I had friends who wanted to water ski every morning, and in New York State, you need three people to participate in any water sport behind a boat: a driver, a spotter, and a skier. I was part of the trio, and we were dedicated to being on the water. I started at the age of 12 and went every day all summer until I was 18 and went to college. Even after college, I returned home for summer breaks and got out on the water whenever my various summer jobs allowed me to. I had HUNDREDS of hours behind a boat on my wakeboard. I had a schedule that “wake” athletes around the world would envy. I wake boarded every day all summer. It was great. I was good, or so I thought. The problem was that I was self-taught and self-coached. 

All those years, I was the best wakeboarder I knew. And before you write me off for being prideful, I only knew a handful of other wakeboarders. We were a rare breed on the upstate New York lake where I grew up. And most of the other “riders” didn’t have near the hours I did behind a boat. This was before we had things like YouTube, so the only way to see wakeboarders who were a lot better was to buy VHS tapes from magazines or at pro shops. I never felt like spending money on the videos, so I just kept doing my thing. Just kind of guessing and feeling out what worked.

Like I said, I didn’t know anyone better than me. Then one day, I rode with someone who was better, who was married to one of the best in the world. I went wakeboarding with my friend Kevin, who was married to Emily Copeland, an X Games gold medalist in the sport. I was feeling good; after all, at this point, I was 22, and I had been wakeboarding all summer for 10 years. I got up behind the boat and started hitting some jumps, and only a few jumps in, my friend stopped the boat. I was confused. Why did he stop? He stood on the back of the boat and tried to hide his confusion. For a guy with as much wakeboard experience as I had, I was doing it all wrong. I didn’t even know the fundamentals. Kevin, kindly and graciously gave me two pointers, which I immediately tried, and instantly unlocked a whole new level of progression. I had spent years trying to master something that was unlocked in 5 minutes with the proper coaching—someone who was more advanced than I. I NEEDED someone who knew what they were doing to help me, to show me what I was doing wrong, and point me in the right direction.

This is true in our faith, too. We can’t do it alone; we can’t just figure it out. God has graciously given us the Bible, His Word. “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 timothy 3:16-17) and he also calls us to live in community, to be involved in the church, where men and women who are ahead of us in their faith can help us. They can coach us. In 1 Corinthians 11:1, Paul says, Follow me, as I follow Christ, In other words, look at what I am doing and copy me, because I am copying Christ. This is not just for those who were around Paul, but a model for us as followers of Jesus. Find someone who is ahead of us in their spiritual maturity and follow them, do what they do, act like they act. This is a way that we can receive the coaching we need to walk closely with Jesus all of our days. Where do you find someone like this? At church.

Don’t make the same mistake I did and think that you can figure it out. I can only imagine the trick I would have learned if I had had those simple coaching pieces 10 years before. And how much more important is our faith!