Yesterday a fantastic person, a lover of Jesus went home.  Funny thing is that he wasn’t know for being a man that Loved Jesus..but he was better known as the greatest basketball coach of all time.

John Wooden won more than most people could ever dream of…1o championships with the UCLA Bruins in 12 seasons.  Yet basketball wasn’t the most important thing to him…Jesus was.  In his own words “I have always tried to make it clear that basketball is not the ultimate. It is of small importance in comparison to the total life we live. There is only one kind of life that truly wins, and that is the one that places faith in the hands of the Savior.”

More and more I realize what an influence coach Wooden’s life and legacy has been on me.  My dad, a coach at heart, adored Wooden.  As a kid I thought my dad loved him for his accomplishments…then I met people who knew the spiritual side of John…the passionate Christian…and I began to understand the lure of a man like coach Wooden.

Today I say thank you to John, not coach Wooden, but to the man that knew the simple truth that “Material possessions, winning scores, and great reputations are meaningless in the eyes of the Lord, because He knows what we really are and that is all that matters.”

My heart is humbled today to know that there are people like the ‘Coach’ that went ahead of us and set the pace in this world…not to for the sake of accomplishment but for the pursuit of people knowing that there is more to this life than winning…Jesus was Wooden’s passion and purpose…is it ours?

The truth about John Wooden being know better as a coach than a lover of Jesus is more of a tell on how we place value today than a statement on John’s spirituality.

“Many have the will to win, Few have the will to prepare to win.” -something I will walk with for the rest of my life.

live//PC -Coach did!