When You See Grace Happening

I'm blessed to travel and meet some amazing people across the USA and Canada.

Recently those blessings brought me another opportunity to see God’s hand at work right in front of me.

I'd like to share a bit of a travel-journal if you will which I hope will inspire you in some way.

For a video testimonial from the Seton Hill University Football team click on the image below.

My first stop was at the Franciscan University of Steubenville Men’s and Women’s Lacrosse welcome barbecue at Coach Pete Rosaschi’s house.

Pete is a great friend by now so just seeing him and his family is a treat but I was blessed to meet many new families of incoming Freshmen and enjoy some outstanding burgers. A man does have to eat and if it’s free it just seems to taste better (smile).

After that it was off to the University to have a training session with as many of the head coaches of the sports at FUS that were available. I believe we had Men’s and Women’s Lacrosse, Men’s and Women’s basketball, Men’s and Women’s soccer, Rugby, Women’s Tennis.

Each coach shared their most inspiring moment from last season and I shared my personal experience at the wake of Coach Trent Todd who passed away recently. An amazing amount of emotion, passion and love was shared. So much good going on, so much to be grateful for.

We also discussed how we can make things better moving forward.

Sunday morning brought me to Seton Hill University in Greensburg, PA for a leadership and camaraderie building seminar with the football team. I had some time with the coaching staff and then we got after it with the whole football team, about 85 or so guys.

As soon as I walked into the room it was readily apparent that the guys were tired, frustrated and simply did not want to be there. They’ve experienced a lot, and I mean a lot of adversity as of late and had just experienced a disappointing scrimmage … so they just were not in the mood, plus classes started the following day.

As I began speaking I saw one kid roll his eyes so far back I fully expected them to fall out of his head. As I scanned the audience my estimation was that there were about 5 or 6 guys wanting the experience …

But I welcomed the challenge and I felt the Holy Spirit strengthening me … these guys need this and THEY ARE GOING TO CHANGE TODAY.

This was a tough audience. I’ve had the impression in the past with some groups that this is going to be tough all day but I did not feel that way that day.

We went to our first small group discussion … public interview, which is where each player shares some personal information about themselves. I decided to accompany a group led by one of the captains …

The GRACE as I call it started slowly but you could see it was building. One of the Freshmen players still had his backpack on … still wasn’t surrendering … but then after the second guy shared his story, the captain paused and said, “You gonna take that off and stay awhile? We need you and we need you NOW. Open up!”

He still didn’t take the backpack off but another player then said, “I’ll go” and by the look in his eyes I knew everything was about to change. I glanced over at the Head Coach who was next to me and he was welling up … The GRACE was about to come. Apparently this kid about to speak had never opened up to the team before. He poured his heart out. All the backpacks came off, tears flowed freely and you knew the day had just changed.

I LOVE seeing God do that. I get to go along for the ride.

Needless to say when we returned as a whole team, the atmosphere and attitude was completely different.

They loved the experience so much they wanted the four captains to get up in front of the whole group and share. This was powerful.

The next most powerful part of the day was “The Forgiveness Exercise” where we invite guys to go into the circle and call a teammate up to apologize for anything they might have done to hurt them … We had coaches to coaches, coaches to players, players to coaches … beautiful.

It is an amazing way to end the day.

I love working with teams. They make me a better person and I pray I help them as well.

Coaches, you are transforming lives! Thank you!

Virtue = Strength 
SportsLeader Strength for Life Manual to Teach Virtue