I was looking through some older movies online and stumbled upon ‘Miracle’. It’s the movie that tells the story of Herb Brooks, an American ice hockey player who became the coach who led the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team to victory over the seemingly invincible Russian (Soviet Union) hockey team. When Brooks was recruited, the US Ice Hockey committee members were most interested in not being embarrassed at the upcoming Olympics. Coach Brooks takes it up a notch and sets his goals clearly: he wants to beat Russia and take the gold medal. “That’s a pretty lofty goal Herb,” a committee member tells him. “Well that’s why I want to pursue it” Herb responds.

Coach Brooks hand picked his team and what a team he picked. He picked several of his Minnesota players as well as several from their rival, Boston University. To compete in the same arena with the Russian hockey team, coach Brooks put a big emphasis on teamwork and creativity, a difficult thing to do with a two college teams that were bitter rivals. He also focused on peak conditioning, because one of the reasons he thought the Russian hockey team had dominated international competition was that many of their opponents were exhausted by the third period.

I was 11 during the 1980 Winter Olympics and can still clearly remember how awesome it was when the US ice hockey team won a stunning gold medal in an incredible upset over the Russian hockey team. As I watched the movie Miracle, I realized that the coach Herb Brooks had an interesting view of success.

This video shows one of the most powerful scenes of the movie. This scene shows how the coach pushes the team to do better than their best after the game — because they weren’t focused. This scene also shows the incredible determination needed to achieve winning the Olympic gold hockey medal against an “un-beatable” Russian team.

Even though most of the players wanted to give up, they didn’t and with this drill, they understood the key to success. Through all of the pain, they learned an important life lesson: to pay attention and strive towards the goal with an I’m-never-going-give-up attitude. Another example of success we can learn from coach Brook is this powerful quote, “I’m not looking for the best players, Craig. I’m looking for the right ones”. When he said this, he threw the gloves off saying that sometimes the best players aren’t the right ones for the mindset of winning.

When the coach was putting this team together, he didn’t look for guys who had the most talent, he looked for guys that had the most potential…the ones that were coach-able and could work well together as a team. Just a week before the tournament, the formidable Russians trounce the USA team in a warm-up match, having already dispatched the National Hockey League professional all-stars in the same way. But somehow, the USA team is able to turn around their game when it mattered.

Great moments are born from great opportunity.
And that’s what you have here tonight, boys.
That’s what you’ve earned here, tonight.
One game.

If we played ’em ten times, they might win nine.
But not this game. Not tonight.
Tonight, we skate with ’em.

Tonight, we stay with ’em, and we shut them down because we can!
Tonight, we are the greatest hockey team in the world.
You were born to be hockey players — every one of ya.
And you were meant to be here tonight.
This is your time.
Their time — is done. It’s over.

I’m sick and tired of hearin’ about what a great hockey team the Soviets have.
Screw ’em!
This is your time!!
Now go out there and take it!

Lets orient this theme towards you and your life. When that decisive moment comes in your life, what will you do? Will you deny, ignore, make excuses or run? Or will you realize that God has put you on the Earth for such a time as this and resolve to face up to your responsibility and go?

Focusing on the central theme from the book of Esther, the heart of the story ( and yours) lies in these echoing words, words which I hope make your stomach tighten just as much as if Mordecai were saying them to you today. “Perhaps you have come to this place, to this moment, to these people, to this challenge, for just such a time as this.”

Will you recognize the moment in which you are called upon to exercise your gifts for the opportunity before you?