Entering the Unknown Territory Ahead

   There were not any cameras present on the day I retired from a career in sports. After graduating from college, I took my first job as a men's basketball assistant coach at Coastal Georgia Community College in Brunswick. A year later, I was reunited with one of my former coaches from Georgia Tech and coached a year at Clayton State in South Atlanta. That was it: two seasons of coaching. But, I loved every day of it; preparing for games while watching films and scouting in person, traveling and recruiting talented high schoolers, offering them a chance to keep playing and earn a degree, and the thrill of tip-off in a crowded gymnasium. I made friends that I still have in the seven years I was a student manager and then later a coach. In the end, God was calling me to a new thing and I enrolled in seminary to be a United Methodist pastor.
   Coach Cremins was a significant influence on me in those years and even since. He was mentor and friend, and example of an active faith in God and deep loyalty to his friends and family. I got a note in the mail from Coach the week before he retired from the College of Charleston, where he spent the final seven years of his thirty-two year coaching career. I know firsthand how much influence a coach can have in the lives of the young women and men they lead, and in the communities that follow them and cheer them on.

   Of course, I am remembering those days as news breaks this week that one of our own is stepping aside for something new. Coach Bryan Way was able to come home thirty-two years ago, when he started out as teacher (first driver's education then science) and assistant football coach at Warner Robins. His days playing and coaching the Demons have made his family, his church, and people around the state very proud. In the short time I've been in Bonaire, the Coach Way I know is humble, smart, passionate, and kind.
   Imagine all of the decisions on the field a coach makes in a single game, or in a season, or especially in a career like Coach Way's. Really, every play presents risks. "Do we go for it, or play it safe?" In one interview yesterday with the local paper, Coach Way suggested he did not know what was next. I admire a person to admit as much. Then I come across this line in my morning devotion,

"Hope prevents us from clinging to what we have and frees us to move away from the safe place and enter unknown and fearful territory." - Henri Nouwen

   That is a word for all of us, isn't it? Every day we are asked to let go of the safe places we would cling to, and enter unknown territories ahead. This is the stuff of faith, of maturing, and of life. May we have such faith to let go and move forward. And may we celebrate those around us who have been examples of such faith for so long. Thanks Coach Way.
   Grace and peace, Scott

Career Day

   Paul writes to the church in Philippi to share his current status, for he was suffering in prison, and to say that he longed to see them face to face, again. He goes on to lift up persons as examples of faith for the believers who would read his letter to follow. After referring to Jesus, Timothy, and Epaphroditus, Paul gets around to his own life in the third chapter. He describes the career he made for himself and then uses choice language that is translated into English as rubbish or refuse to say that all of the career he made for himself before encountering Jesus was worth nothing. (read more here)
   Since 'retiring' from a career in college basketball, I have thought about the ways in which my path was similar to Paul's. While Paul reached the pinnacle of excellence at an early age and was admired by his peers, my career trajectory was slightly lower as a junior college coach and then a Division II coach. I did have the chance to help Georgia Tech win a couple of championships, and spent a couple of summers working in the NBA and for the Olympic Dream team. Yet, like Paul, the accomplishments of those days pale in comparison to the work Christ has called me to now. 

Teresa, Quinley and Leighton

Blaire and Leslie

   On Monday evening, a couple of Epworth's very best walked across the stage as they graduated from Columbus State University. The names Blaire Delane Morris and Quinley Augusta Russell were called out as their families looked on with pride. Their stories are awesome and they deserve a moment to bask in the glory of such an accomplishment, as do all of the graduates this year who will be celebrated in the coming weeks. 
   It was on this same Monday night that my father, Dan Hagan, came into town to visit. He was speaking at Sam and Jack's elementary school for their Career Day. This is the fourth or fifth time he has done so and each year he returns more excited to talk about science, bugs, and the neat things he has been able to do. But, how do we reconcile a successful career with Paul's words about counting it as refuse?
   I think Paul was right. Our careers and accomplishments are rubbish compared to the glory of knowing Christ. But, I think we have misread Paul if we come away thinking that our careers cannot be used for the glory of Christ. My father is a Christian who happens to be a biologist. Blaire and Quinley are Christians who are now college graduates, both of whom have the chance to take the past and leverage for the Kingdom. God calls us to use all that we have to be about his Kingdom agenda: bringing healing to broken places, putting the world back together and sharing the amazing love that was first shared with us. I think if Jesus had ever spoken at a Career Day he would have shared those very ideas like he did in the parable of the sheep and goats in Matthew 25. 
   May we all make such accomplishments be our goals, as well. Grace and Peace, Scott