Classic Book of the Month: Becoming a winner in God’s book

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Tuesday, September 5th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: our Classic Book of the Month for September. Football fans may especially appreciate today’s pick, but so will anyone who could use some practical wisdom from a good dad. Here’s WORLD book reviewer Emily Whitten.

SPORTSCASTERS: Intercepted by Hayden. He may run it back all the way. He does!

EMILY WHITTEN, REVIEWER: Back in 2007, the Indianapolis Colts were facing off against the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl 41.

That interception and touchdown seals the Colts’ win, 29-17. At one point, the camera zooms in on Colts’ Head Coach, Tony Dungy. He’s clearly elated with the win. But in our Classic Book of the Month, Uncommon, Dungy explains more of what that moment meant to him.

DUNGY: I was fortunate enough to coach a team to a Super Bowl win and reach what is recognized as the pinnacle of my profession. But it never has been an all-encompassing quest for me. It was not going to make my life complete if we won and not winning it certainly wouldn’t ruin my life. Instead, I tried to focus on those priorities I had already decided were important.

Dungy’s first book, Quiet Strength, tells more of his personal story, and it’s definitely worth reading for Christian football fans. Lots of locker-room discussion and behind-the-scenes NFL stories. But Uncommon may have broader appeal. In it, Dungy zeros in on his principles as a coach and dad—as the subtitle explains, he wants to help younger men find their own “path to significance.”

DUNGY: God’s scorecard is different from ours. He does want to bless us. But His scorecard doesn’t use money or material possessions or fame or status. He judges by the state of our hearts and our desire to serve him.  People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. 1 Samuel 16:7.

Dungy doesn’t fully unpack the Biblical roots of these virtues until later chapters. Early on, he focuses more on personal stories and principles that might intrigue non-Christians. For instance, the first chapter looks at the importance of character.

DUNGY: What you do is not as important as how you do it. Those are the words that keep coming back to me when I’m tempted to choose what is expedient over what is right.

For many NFL teams, results are all that count. As long as you win on Sunday, you’re a success. Dungy says that he coached with a different philosophy—and because of that, he lost out some talented players…something he never regretted.

DUNGY: For the Colts, character is a quality that can be measured just like height, weight, and speed. In fact, we put more emphasis on this area than we do on physical tools. Coaching ability or talent cannot make up for lack of character. In the draft, only a few things will knock a player out of consideration for our team, and this issue of character is one of them.

Co-author Nathan Whitaker says the concept for Uncommon grew out of Dungy’s experience as a dad.

WHITAKER: We sat in his living room watching a Pacers game and just brainstorming the legal pad, the two of us and the thought was if you were driving your child to college to drop them off for their freshman year, what would be the checklist of things you wanted to make sure that you had covered?

That night, Dungy and Whitaker came up with seven things to include—from developing honesty and integrity, to loving your family and living out your faith. The book specifically targets young men, but it has something to say to anyone—a dad, a mom, a coach, a pastor.

My one caution—don’t get this book if you want fine theological details about justification or gender roles in marriage. Wisely, the book sticks to the main and plain things of godly living—and in that, it’s powerful, not least because Dungy lived what he preached.

Whitaker loves to recall one story on that point. On the night before Dungy’s first game as an NFL coach, he’d already gone to bed when his brother-in-law showed up at his hotel room. They debated for a while, but Dungy insisted on moving to the couch.

WHITAKER: And his brother-in-law keeps saying, Tony, your, your wife, my sister is gonna kill me if I sleep in the bed in the hotel and you have the pullout couch before your first NFL game as a head coach. And Tony said, well, you're my guest. And so this is darkened room and Tony's already in bed and his brother-in-law walks in and, and they have this debate and it just so sums up Tony and how you put others first.

Our Classic Book of the Month, Uncommon by Tony Dungy and Nathan Whitaker, offers principles that can help men find their footing in an unstable world. Ultimately, Dungy shows you don’t need a Super Bowl ring to be a winner in God’s book.

DUNGY: In football, when our team isn’t playing well, I might say, We have to get back to our fundamentals," referring to those basic principles that allow us to play the game successfully–blocking, tackling, running, catching. Right now, our society also needs to get back to the fundamentals, those basic principles that will allow us to succeed as men.

I’m Emily Whitten.

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