#20 and why I love this COACH!

raise your hand if you were a teenage thug?!

I was.

you know the Haggard song “Momma Tried”

she did. and daddy did. but still.

I “thugged it” for a couple of years

and though I said and did many things I am certain The Lord was not pleased with-it could’ve and would’ve been A LOT worse had it not been for Coach.

Coach Billy Colburn

God knows what He’s doin’ y’all…

I was not an athlete, never played a high school sport and yet Coach Billy Colburn was my sophomore Health teacher and THANK GOD he was.

Sittin under Coach’s lectures were more like attending a Sunday sermon..Coach loves the Lord with all of His heart, soul and mind

and much more than I remember lessons about Health-I remember his stories about life-

and even more than I remember the stories he shared that year -I remember the life he lived out loud

See. He lost lost his sixteen year old daughter that year.

She was an AMAZING athlete, hilarious friend, a sister, Coach & Joy’s only daughter.

She was the apple of Coach’s eye.  It was a tragic accident that rocked our whole town.

Five days before Christmas.

I remember the funeral.  The song.  Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You”- The Spirit of the Lord and how very, very intimately I felt it that day..The flowers. The wrestlers serving as pallbearers. I remember it was overcast- And finally-Coach and  Joy and how very, very sad they were ..

and yet in the midst of their deep anguish and sorrow-their was hope.  The hope and certainty that they would see their sweet angel again in glory.

Their belief was infectious.

I had heard of Heaven and angels my whole life growing up in church but as a rebellious sophomore  they were merely words I was familiar with

until then-

with more respect for this man and his wife than I have words to describe-

Heaven and angels and their reality-took on a whole new meaning…

Coach and his response to this tragedy was pivotal

Heaven and angels transformed from a nice, imaginary place with sweet hypothetical beings to-

my eternal home … my God appointed protectors, helpers, messengers

Heaven and angels are real..and they became extremely personal to me that year…

The following year Coach let me be his teacher’s aid..and after I graduated from high school, entered college and needed work..Coach and Joy let me clean their house.

Leaving each conversation, each visit with more respect than I had before..

Coach is and will forever be one of the one’s who discipled me-meaning he lived his faith ..inspiring me to live out my faith in Jesus Christ in front of others….

I am eternally thankful God saw fit to place me in that Heath class that year

for the man Coach was then and

the friend he is now.

ps. WOW! God and His Sovereignty AMAZE me….I didn’t realize until I typed the title-and I typed it after I wrote the post…Coach is #20 :O) for those of you who may read this and not know..Coach’s daughter’s number was #20…and no this wasn’t planned. I simply woke with Coach on my heart today.