ONE PLAY FROM GLORY!
How small is Sports in the Grand Spectrum of Life?
I woke up and was reminded painfully this morning of this truth. A close friend and fellow warrior in the coaching ministry went to heaven last night while enjoying the NCAA Championship Game. The fact that we all are just one play from Heaven is so difficult to understand.
As a coach, you dream of coaching in Championship games like last night and enjoy the rush of adrenaline you experience even watching others coaching in championship games. This special warrior with one of the biggest hearts God could give a human being crossed over the baseline into heaven last night winning the ultimate championship.
Coach Dwight Coleman was the head basketball coach at Dallas Christian University and former head high school basketball coach at Nolan Catholic High School. He spent every minute of his life pouring into others. Training kids, leading men, and encouraging everyone he came in contact. Dwight was an uncommon light in a world growing ever so dark. An encounter with Coach Coleman was an encounter with Christ and you would never be the same.
He had one of the most loving hearts I have ever known. With that Heart he continually poured out Jesus’ Love so beautifully to so many. He did so as passionately and fervently as any Coach I have ever met. It seems his heart was just too big and could not take all the Love it held. I am inspired by Dwight to pick up exactly where he left off and continue the race He so passionately ran!
An amazing husband and father of six young children. My heart breaks as I cannot imagine what they are enduring this morning. As I cover his precious family with my prayers today, I don’t have any answers to the why. It makes no sense to my carnal mind.
What I do know with 100 percent confidence is that Coach Dwight Coleman heard Jesus say the words loud and clear “Well Done Coach!” Yes, my friend is in a better place, but it doesn’t stop my heart from hurting. I find Peace and Joy knowing will be together again in Glory one day and that is all I need to continue to fight the battle that stands in my path. He would want me to do so, and I know he has joined the saints and is cheering us all on even as I write this.
I added an elite warrior from God’s Special Forces to the list of Champions in my favorites on my phone that are waiting now for me in Heaven. Not a casualty of war, but a Victor and Champion who are now reigning in Victory with Christ Jesus for eternity.
Until I join you again my friend! ASAH RUAH!