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Open Door Living

“If then God gave them the same gift that was given to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder, God?” -Acts 11: 17 God’s door is open. Who are we to stand in the way? Anyone who participated in last week’s National Multicultural Conference in Charlotte, NC still has those words ringing in our ears. From the theme song written by Bruce Harding especially for the event, to our preachers, our tracks, and our celebrations, this open door is more than a slogan to us. It is a place we crossed … Read the full post

Calling Audibles Part XXI: Thank God for the NCAA

“Here may encouragement be found and relationships strengthened.” ~ from Celtic Daily Prayer: Prayers and Readings from the Northumbria Community At the beginning of the 2010 football season UNC played LSU in the Chick-Fil-A Bowl in Atlanta. Looking back on that game I realize the remarkable ways that it set the stage for this tumultuous path we’ve been traveling since then. In fact, I had a strange experience that night in 2010 riding back to the hotel from the game. I actually wrote about it on my blog way before I had even imagined doing this “Calling Audibles” series. The … Read the full post

Calling Audibles Part XX: 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 XIX: The Sound of Silence

I’ll admit it, during the last several weeks I lost my stinger about speaking out about the problems of big-time football. I felt like “what’s the point.” I felt silenced by the situation—by our discernment of what we should do next, by the way UNC took John and me and the other coaches’ families out of the conversation, by the fact that I am female and there are those who feel that because of that I should be quiet about football. Truth is, I was enforcing my own silence on these topics. On Wednesday I participated in the panel discussion … Read the full post

Calling Audibles Part XVIII: Bright Lights, Small Shadows

…truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me… ~Matthew 25: 45 My seven year old daughter woke up this morning and said, “It’s Super Bowl Eve!” Indeed it is. And as a football family we are, of course, looking forward to the biggest game of the year, the pinnacle of football’s yearly NFL season. And we are especially excited for players like Hakeem Nicks, who we know from John’s years coaching at UNC. And we’re pulling for friends coaching in the Big Game … Read the full post

Calling Audibles Part XVII: Game Plan

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)

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 XV: A Sam’s Town and Hotel Casino Christmas

… Mary was about to be delivered… there was no room in the inn… Mary laid her baby in a feeding trough among the sheep and cows… wise men and working men followed a wild star to come and see this baby. Christmas is a time of paradox and contradiction. In a world so full of paradox and contradiction, we have tried to turn away from the sharp edges of Christmas. If you believe the commercials, Christmas is about electronics, jewelry, and lots and lots of decorations. Christmas is about getting what you want and giving others what they want—and … Read the full post

Calling Audibles Part XIV: Touchdowns for Jesus

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

“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

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