Why?

What is the favorite question of every child two to five years old?    “Why?” 

Some things never change as it is still the same question for me today at age 56. 

If you ask my children what my response to this question was while they were growing up, they would tell you. “There once was this kid.” Just a random answer I coined to a question that I didn’t know the answer to. 

Coaching camps with a 100 kids in the gym, about every five minutes a camper walks up and ask a question like, “How much time until break?”  I would tell them to go find one of my children and ask them. It was payback for all the times they asked me “Why?”

It is a question I have asked my Heavenly Father a thousand times since Friday’s  challenging loss in the NAIA Tournament. 

This season, I was blessed with a group of very special young men. They played so hard. They did their best to represent Christ Jesus before and during the game. Our goal was to reach the highest platform possible to share the Gospel and to make our King Famous. Psalms 34:3. If we would have won the National Championship this season that would have been our team’s record. Why not God?

We led most of the game Friday night, but in the end a last second shot hit the back of the rim inches short of victory. Why Father God?

To be honest. I have no answer, nor have I heard an answer from my Heavenly Father. 

I could blame many people beginning with and mostly myself. I have second guessed myself a million times already since the final buzzer suffering through two sleepless nights. This has not changed or helped anything, yet it is what we do.

For nearly 364 days, since last year’s championship game buzzer sounded, we have prepared, worked, and focused on climbing back and finishing what we came up so close to accomplishing last season. Yet once again we came up short, only 1 point, 1 play, and inches short. I truly believed this was the year. Why Father God? 

I had a goal of demonstrating nothing but love the entire game and I failed. Was it my Moses moment of striking the rock in frustration that kept us from the promised land? I know it sure didn’t help. I accomplished my goal 99% of the game, but cracked just for a moment. 

The truth is I’m human just like my players, we all did our very best to reach our goal. The truth is we have so much to be thankful to God for! An incredible 30-4 record that very few could have dreamed we were going to reach, three nets cut down, and multiple championship and honors accomplished this season. 

The days leading up to our final game, I asked my players what they were thankful for. Not a single player responded with all the wins, time after time they responded that the relationships and love we all shared and enjoyed together off and on the floor was what they are most thankful for. One of my young players gave me one of the nicest gifts he could ever give. He said, “Coach I am thankful for you. I am thankful that you don’t go an hour without sharing Jesus with us.”  

That encouragement will help me get back to my feet after getting knocked back to the bottom of the mountain. I have an amazing staff and an incredible group of warriors returning ready to start our next journey! Time to shake off the sackcloth and ashes and get back in the fight. Yes there will be a National Championship Team this year, but through Christ Jesus we are all capable of being champions destined for spending eternity with our Champion!