Calling Audibles Part XX: White Out

istock white out

“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” ~1 John 1:8 Living a lie is a well-worn habit for human kind.   We human beings tend to avoid hard truths especially when they might mean we have to change.  The tenacity of our denial tends to increase the more there is to lose. I will confess my own shortcoming in the face of all of this football mess here at UNC—anger. There have been several angry moments during this situation for me.  Many have told me that my anger is justified. … Read the full post

Calling Audibles Part XVII: Game Plan

Game strategy drawn on blackboard

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts ~Isaiah 55: 8-9 Lots of people ask me what football coaches do while they are working all those long hours.  “What could they possibly be doing in there for all that time?”  Early on in our marriage, I use to ask my husband, John, the exact same question periodically.  During his years in the NFL the answer was mostly “watching film”… Read the full post

Calling Audibles Part XVI: American Idol(atry)

iStock football idol

Strive at first to meditate Upon the sameness of yourself and others, In joy and sorrow all are equal Thus be guardian of all, as of yourself ~Shantideva, The Way of the Bodhisattva …the human mind is, so to speak, a perpetual forge of idols. ~John Calvin, The Institutes An idol is anything we excessively adore.  That something may well be worth our love and affection, but it becomes an idol when that affection gives way to a distorted adoration.  Idols become everything—more than they could ever really be.  They embody our fantasies, our hopes and dreams.  And even more… Read the full post

Calling Audibles Part XIV: Touchdowns for Jesus

iStock football and sky

What is impossible for us is possible for God. ~Luke 18:27 “Tell John Kasay that God doesn’t care about football.  She’s a baseball fan.” This was the witty retort of a minister friend of mine back in the late 1990s when my husband, John, was coaching for the Carolina Panthers.  We had lost a big game to Tampa Bay.  Kicker John Kasay had missed a field goal that could have won the game in the last few seconds. When asked about the missed kick in a post game press conference, Kasay suggested that the wind suddenly changed and that God… Read the full post

Calling Audibles Part XIII: Call It, Run It

iStock line of scrimmage

“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you…”  ~Galatians 1:6 Apparently Coach Todd Graham, who left the University of Pittsburgh suddenly this week to become the Head Coach at Arizona State, had a promotional video on the Pitt website while he was still the Head Coach.  In it he said that what he loved most about coaching at Pitt was his relationships with the players.   Word has it that Graham didn’t tell his players face to face when he left to take the ASU job.  Instead he had an assistant forward a text telling… Read the full post