1987-1989
Being a young coach I was going to finally be a head boys basketball coach and was going to turn around a dismal program. No question about it. At least that was my plan.
The move to Lisbon took place because I wanted to be a head boys coach and was desperate to be one. I really didn't care where. It was my arrogant mentality that I could go anywhere and win. Wow, what a tough lesson to learn. Lisbon, at that time, was the wrestling capital of Iowa. How dumb does that make this move sound now? (I also found out later that my mom was not happy with me either for taking her 5 month old granddaughter 4 hours away......oops).
Well, from a basketball coaching standpoint it wasn't a great move at all. From an eternal standpoint it was life changing. As most know, and I mentioned before, I grew up in the church, knew about right from wrong, knew what God's plan for salvation was, but just hadn't made any commitment to it. Which brings me to this thought.
Can it be that God moves in the lives of a non christian to give them opportunities to come to Him?
I really don't know but I do believe that God loves everyone and wants all of His creation to come into a relationship with Him and I think He does work in lives to allow them the opportunity to choose whether or not to follow Him.
One thing that I do know is that I heard the message of God's love from someone other than my dad. Dad is a great communicator of God's word and was a fantastic preacher so it wasn't his fault that I hadn't yet become a Christian, but I think I did need to get away from the church in Griswold and hear it from Steve Pike at the church in Martelle, IA. Steve's preaching style really communicated with me and something about how he presented The Word made it start to really sink in. For those of us who are parents it's like when we tell our kids something and they say, yeah whatever or just blow us off, but if someone else says the same thing it may get them to listen and it makes more sense to them.
The biggest thing that happened was that God became my God. He wasn't just my parents God, or my other family members and friends God. He started to become my God and I started to really want and have that relationship with Him. There are times in our lives where God becomes very real and active in our life and for me it was when I moved away from my home church and home area. So, on a weeknight in October of 1988 Deb and I drove to the church, met with Steve and he baptized me. One of the main things I remember about that moment was that I felt a great relief and weight lifted off me knowing that I had been fighting this for many years, been stubborn about surrendering, and now I had a hope that I'd never had before.
I do believe that is the main reason I went to Lisbon, but from a basketball and coaching point of view I learned a valuable lesson as well. Talent beats good coaching, and granted, I wasn't that good of a coach yet, but that experience made me realize that you need talented players before you even think about having a good team. I think we did some good things there. We started an elementary program at Lisbon and that was something that they had never had before. We had some good kids who played hard and I think got better because we coached with passion and made them feel good about being a basketball player in a wrestling school and community. We only one 4 games in 2 years there. One in the first year and three in the second year. We were more competitive and played hard and I felt good about what we were doing. The guys got better fundamentally and worked hard and were good to be around. I don't know where many of them are right now, but I do run into one of them, even saw him last year when we went to Grand View for one of AJ's basketball games. I'd be interested to try and find out where some of these guys are at because there were some very smart and good kids and I'm hoping that they are doing well.
God has a plan and that was the first time I ever submitted to it. I still fight it from time to time, but isn't it cool to know that He loves us so much more than we love our own kids and grandkids, knows our name, and wants us to trust Him as we continue to find our way in this life? It's humbling but I'm so thankful for the move to Lisbon, IA for obviously more than just being a basketball coach. That move ended up helping me Find my Way and changed my life forever.
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