Honoring Coach Guthrie

This past year the greatest mentor of my life was welcomed into heaven. If ever a man was greeted with "Well done my good and faithful servant," it was my high school football coach Sam Guthrie. I was unable to attend his funeral but sent this to the family to be read during the service by his son Brian.

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For most of my adult life, I believed I played high school football because I loved the game. I fooled myself into thinking that what I really loved was the contact, the competition, and the green grass under stadium lights. I thought I loved my team mates most of all. I loved them because we sweat and hurt and laughed and cried together.

 I did love all those things, but they were not the reason I played.

Truth is… I played for a man. I played for Coach Guthrie. I look back on those days and realize that at that time in my life Coach was what I needed more than anything else this world had to offer.

In him was all the approval I had desired from my own father but never received. In him were the words of affirmation I so desperately wanted to hear. I realize now that I played football to hear Coach Guthrie say “Well done”.  But he said so much more with his life.

 He presented the picture of manhood that I had been missing. In him was a man who could be firm and strong and yet still convey love. In him I saw for the first time a man who could love his wife and children and Jesus and still have room for the young men he coached. In him I found the image of Christ. And it was that image that changed the trajectory of my life for eternity.

Because of Sam Guthrie, I gave my life to Christ. And in me,… like in so many others he influenced for Jesus,… his work continues.  It is now his turn to hear his Coach say “Well done! my good and faithful servant.”

A prince among men has been ushered into the presence of the King. I rejoice that I will see him again, but the line to greet him is likely to be long.