What's it all about?

I guess it doesn't take much really to bring (us) coaches down to the realities of life. I mean, we seem to stay aloof with our aspirations and energy, while sometimes, seemingly, turning a blind eye to the realities our youth are facing. It's hard enough for today's student athlete to balance the rigors of their sport (or, in many cases sportS) with their academic demands along with church involvement, jobs, their social lives, facebook and last, but not least their family, but occasionally we run across a young-un (as Coach Loper would say) that has even more on their plate than any of us could imagine. Tonight I simply ask our Heavenly Father to please wrap Christian Holley and his family in His perfect arms and comfort them. You see while we coaches are searching for the cutting edge information on training athletes to make us "better coaches," Christian (a former KHS swimmer, friend of Matt's and who's mom and dad are friends) is fighting brain cancer. It hit him somewhat suddenly and is aggressive. It has always been situations like this that have brought my ego back into check. Whether it be the discovery of cancer or that dreaded phone call at 2:00 AM with a mom on the other end of the line calling to let me know she had just left the hospital where her son (a member of my team) had just died from injuries sustained from a motor cycle accident. Somehow the fights these people are going through make our aggressive coaching nature seem trite and very self-centered. These are situations that remind us that what we do really does have a "bigger picture;" that there really is a grander scheme of things. At this time I fight off the shame of being so self-centered, but grateful that I find myself at the throne of The Father, who is in control. So I pray for Christian, and his family, and I even pray for the Mother of Terry Short who lost her son 30 years ago to the cycle accident, and I pray that I NEVER find myself thinking that MY goals or aspirations supersede life.