Coach K

1977. Jimmy Carter was President of the United States. Star Wars was the top box office draw. Atari 2600 was released in the United States. Jim Kessler started coaching Men’s Basketball at Grace College. 42 years later and over 1300 games “Coach K” has decided to hand the baton off to Scott Moore next season. Over 780 victories, 10 Conference Championships and an NAIA National Championship in 1992. Who can forget that season in the little “cracker box” gym when the cheers were, “Is this not a basketball?” Gathering during the Championship game to watch it on the “big screen” as we cheered David James, Scott Blum and the rest of the Lancers to victory. When I read about his retirement “Coach K” is more than statistics and accomplishments as he “retires”. (He is going to serve as Special Assistant to the Athletic Director). What has set him apart these four decades is that he loves his players and students. How many has he mentored over the years and helped to develop into winners not only on the court but in life? I do not know him well but just watching one can tell how much he cares for others. The amazing thing is that he has done this over four decades at the same institution which now has a court named in his honor at the MOCC. Philippian 3:14 is his favorite verse, “I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” We need more like Kessler in 2019 who as Followers of Christ put their faith into action. When the last buzzer sounds and his coaching career ends we all will say, “Well done good and faithful servant!” When time runs out on the clock of our lives may Jesus say the same to all of us in eternity!

Choose Life

My mother went to be with the Lord this past summer. I have had many moments remembering times when I visited her in Iowa. One time we were in the living room watching the news when there was a report about abortion. “How can anyone kill a child?”, she lamented as tears rolled down her cheeks. In February 1963 on Lincoln’s Birthday my mother lost my sister, Sandra, in childbirth. She grieved the rest of her life up to the day she died asking, “Do you think I will see her again one day?” The recent news on the abortion front has been appalling. This is not a political but a moral statement. A nation that allows the killing of children from conception to birth will not survive. History has proven over and over that any nation that devalues life, especially children, the disabled and elderly eventually collapses. The early Christians rescued Roman children who were put out for “exposure” to die if the parents did not want them. I have read about my Viking heritage where the Christians made an impact by rescuing the unwanted and changed their society. They did so because life does not come from the mother (or father) but from God Almighty. He is the giver and taker of life, who even in the Constitution of the United States is called the Creator. The Bible puts it poetically in Psalm 139:13-14, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” This obsession with infanticide does not go unnoticed by God and He will judge America no different than other nations. But He also has mercy and grace. For the one who has been involved in having, encouraging, performing or legislating abortion there is forgiveness in Jesus. He calls us individually and as a nation to repent and turn from our sinful, wicked ways. There is also hope as a follower of Christ. If you have lost a child, even from abortion, one day you will see them again because they are held in God’s hand. My sisters and I encouraged our faithful Mother in her last moments, “Sandra is waiting for you.” She turned and looked at us with the biggest smile. When she died she left a testimony of peace on her face. It must be quite a celebration in Heaven! Choose Life...