Never be the one to follow a legend.

Care to be the coach who had to follow Vince Lombardi? Or Bear Bryant? Or Brett Favre? Dan Marino? Paul McCartney?

Of course, the title says follow a "legend" though the person I am referring to isn't a "legend" because of his greatness. Quite the opposite actually. His name is Judas. Or Judas Iscariot to be exact. The betrayer of Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. Yea, that guy.

I don't actually want to focus of Judas but more the guy picked to replace him among the 12 Apostles.

In Acts 1:21-26, it describes how he was replaced following his death (he killed himself because of guilt for giving up Jesus to the Romans.) I was amazed when I read the story of how he was replaced and by whom.

First, they reference the book of Psalms that tells them that he (Judas) needs to be replaced and they do so from the group of men who followed Jesus the whole time. They narrow it down to two (Joseph/Justus/Barsabbas and Matthias). Then they prayed. Then they cast lots, which means they put both names on two stones, placed them in a container and the person whose name came out first was selected. Kind of like spiritual Yahtzee. The bible is filled with references of casting lots. The majority of those verses (70) are in the Old Testament with only a handful (7) in the New Testament.

DETOUR ALERT: Some of you may be asking why it was OK to use
that method of decision-making back then but not now in our day and age...Well,
now that believers have the Holy Spirit inside, relying on a decision from a
stone or die would amount to turning your back on God.

Now, back to the original point I was trying to make. After the bible references Matthias being "added among the 11," he is never mentioned again in the scriptures. Maybe, it's just me, but I find that odd.

Can you imagine the enormity of his selection at the time? Put yourself in Mattias' shoes. To put that in perspective in the secular world, that would be like being chosen to replace the Beatle's John Lennon when he was killed in 1980. Except with this new Apostle, we have no recollection of his work from that point on.

Of course there is no true answer to what it all means or what we can learn from it but here are some possibilities:

1. Be humble: Just when you think you've "made it" or "arrived" there is no way of knowing what tomorrow may bring.

2. Be "Use able": His lack of being notated could simply be that his work from that point on was not as "noteworthy". Sometimes the biggest impact is made by those who work behind the scenes and receive little, if any, notoriety.

3. Location. location, location...AND be careful what you wish for: As they began to build the church, several of the apostles had more notable positions or jobs. For example Peter was the apostle to the Jews while Paul was apostle to the gentiles. While records aren't completely clear, it is believed he wasn't sent to the glitz and glamor of someplace like Rome or Athens. On the contrary, accounts do have him preaching to the barbarians in the interior of Ethiopia.

4. X-Factor: Maybe we aren't supposed to know until we meet him...

"Significant day in my life"...installment # 2 (of many....)

As I outlines in my last blog a few days ago, this is one of those dates that has significant meaning to me and along with the other days I will point out, has shaped me (in some degree) into the person I am today.



November 11, 2000.

At this point in my life, I had been married to Kellea for a little less than one year and we had our little girl Kylee who was about 4 months old. I had been a Christian for all of 6 days and was coaching my third basketball game since that incredible day.



I had taken my new position at the YMCA but continued to coach the boy's middle school team at Sacred Heart Catholic School. I had coached this set of young men since most were in the 3rd and 4th grade and loved them like no team I had ever coached. They were a great team. They knew how to play and they worked hard.

I put them through hell and regrettably most of it was not even remotely necessary. Call it misguided or self-indulgent or just plain stupid and all would probably fit just fine.



We made it to the Finals of the pre-season Tourney where we lost to San Jose Catholic.

We finished second in the regular season with only two losses...both to San Jose Catholic.

We made it to the Championship game where on this date (11/11/00), we lost to San Jose Catholic.



For lack of a better term, I was going to "retire" at the conclusion of the last game. I could no longer ask the YMCA if I could leave early every day for practice and with a growing family, my time was no longer mine to do with as I wished.

That was 9 years ago. Since then, I have skirted every chance to coach teams, including unfortunately those of my own children. I did dabble as an assistant for MCS a few years ago with my brother-in-law Bill who was coaching the girl's middle school team. And about 2 months ago, I was roped into being an assistant for my son's t-ball team. But never a head coach.

Some of you close to me, may wonder why I left out the details of my last game since there were plenty to share. I guess my answer is: I don't know. Maybe because I have blocked so many of the memories out of my mind or I've moved past it now. I can't recall what the score was or even how much we lost by. I vaguely remember the award ceremony. I can't even recall what color our uniforms were or what we called our offensive or defensive play sets.

Nevertheless, it's a day that will stick with me forever...or at least I think it will. :-)

"Significant day in my life"...installment # 1 (of many....)

This is the first of several days I plan to blog about because I find them of significant interest because....well, they are significant.(duhhh..) And while it would be easy to point out singular days with singular special occurrences, some of the ones I will point out go beyond the "ordinary" dates that one might expect like a wedding day, etc.

For example, this one today (11/5/09) stands out in my life for two reasons.
First, it would have been my father's 72nd birthday. He was born this day in 1937 but passed away in July of '03 from Alzheimer's.

Secondly, I gave my life to Christ on this same day in 2000 at the Billy Graham Crusade here in Jacksonville. It goes without saying that this is the single-most influential day in my life and I am so thankful that the Lord kept me around long enough to see that day.