{"id":27263,"date":"2023-08-04T10:11:57","date_gmt":"2023-08-04T14:11:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?p=27263"},"modified":"2023-08-04T17:38:48","modified_gmt":"2023-08-04T21:38:48","slug":"chicago-bears-coach-shares-how-he-finds-strength-in-christ-i-want-to-lead-like-jesus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2023\/08\/chicago-bears-coach-shares-how-he-finds-strength-in-christ-i-want-to-lead-like-jesus.html","title":{"rendered":"Chicago Bears Coach Shares How He Finds Strength in Christ: &#8216;I Want to Lead Like Jesus&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_27281\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-27281\" style=\"width: 768px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2023\/08\/Matt-Eberflus-v04_credit-Chicago-Bears-YouTube-scaled.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-27281\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2023\/08\/Matt-Eberflus-v04_credit-Chicago-Bears-YouTube-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"768\" height=\"576\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-27281\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chicago Bears \/ YouTube.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The Chicago Bears head coach says his faith in Jesus gives him peace in life, and the closer he grows to God, the \u201cmore truth you see.\u201d Matt Eberflus, in his second year with the Bears, told the Sports Spectrum Podcast that he was raised Eastern Orthodox and served as an altar boy but didn\u2019t study Jesus\u2019 life until he was an adult, saying that a turning point came several years ago.<\/p>\n<p>He said, \u201cAnd my whole life, I was studying football, of course, and I was studying military history. But I never really studied the man, Jesus, never studied Him. And I just said, \u2018I\u2019m diving into it.\u2019\u201d He drove to a Barnes and Noble, walked to the religious section, and saw the book \u201cSo You Want To Be Like Christ?\u201d by Charles Swindoll and bought it.<\/p>\n<p>Eberflus told the Sports Spectrum podcast, \u201cI read that, and I\u2019ve read multiple number of his books. And about seven years ago, I started doing the One Year Bible, so I\u2019ve done it seven times now.\u201d Eberflus previously held the defensive coordinator role for the Indianapolis Colts under then-head coach Frank Reich, an outspoken Christian.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/bSL2lmami3M\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Eberflus said of his spiritual growth while studying Christ\u2019s life, \u201cIt\u2019s remarkable how He cleans and how you change from the inside out. And you can affect other people. When you\u2019re walking with the Lord, He kind of reveals things to you and shows you where it\u2019s going. And our call is really to bring others to Christ, lead like Jesus. And that\u2019s what we\u2019re trying to do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Bears coach said he has learned \u201cemotional stability, how to have self-control, how to really be yourself, and be one with Him\u201d by studying Jesus. He said, \u201cThe closer you get to God, the more truth you see. And sometimes it\u2019s revealing, and you have to get on your knees and pray and say, \u2018Lord, you know, I want to be like you. And please take this part away from me. And that\u2019s the walk you have every day. It\u2019s \u2018take up your cross\u2019 that, to me, is so important.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He paraphrased\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblestudytools.com\/matthew\/passage\/?q=matthew+22:37-39\">Matthew 22:37-39<\/a>, saying it is key to his life: \u201cIt says, \u2018Love the Lord with all your heart and your soul. And the second thing is love your neighbor as yourself.\u2019 So that, to me, are the two most important commandments, and that\u2019s how we\u2019re going to live.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Bears finished 3-14 last season as they continued to build a team around second-year quarterback Justin Fields. Their first game is on Sept. 10 against Green Bay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Chicago Bears head coach says his faith in Jesus gives him peace in life, and the closer he grows to God, the \u201cmore truth you see.\u201d Matt Eberflus, in his second year with the Bears, told the Sports Spectrum Podcast that he was raised Eastern Orthodox and served as an altar boy but didn\u2019t&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":657,"featured_media":27281,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[5723,3555,5720],"class_list":["post-27263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-television","tag-chicago-bears","tag-faith-and-football","tag-matt-eberflus"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ 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