UNTIL AFTER THE TRIAL OF YOUR FAITH

UNTIL AFTER THE TRIAL OF YOUR FAITH

… faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith.
Ether 12:6 (emphasis added)

I was a volunteer basketball coach, and my team kept winning – everything. Local, region, state, and multi-state tournaments, teams older than us – everything. We got back from a national tournament, and the local high school coach asked how we did.

“Well, we got to play for the championship.”
“Second place?! In the nation?! With just local girls? Wow!”
I couldn’t walk into a gym anywhere in our four-county area, which I did quite frequently following my own daughters’ games, without being recognized and approached by coaches, players, and their parents, all wanting to talk. What a rush!

Coach Curtis approached me one day. “Coach, I’m stepping down. I’m moving on. I want you to apply for my position. What you’ve done with those girls is phenomenal. You could step into my shoes, and in a couple of years, with your present girls as the varsity team, you’d be playing for a state championship. Go for it. If you repeat what I’m about to say I’ll deny I ever said it, but I happen to know you’ll get my job if you apply.”

Wow! Is this what I was born to do? This was the gist of my thoughts for days, weeks even. I had installed a reworded version of the “For the Strength of Youth” pamphlet as our team’s code of conduct. Sometime during the season the moms would approach me and say, “Thanks, Coach. I’ve been trying to talk to my daughter about things like that, but she listens to you.” Dads, the few who were still part of their daughters’ lives, would say, “I like the way you coach; I’m glad my daughter’s on your team.” The players would playfully slug me on the shoulder and say, “That’s cool, Coach. Thanks.”

A good difference was being made in the players’ and their families’ lives. I was in a major mental rut at work, so launching a new career would constitute a huge burst of energy, optimism, and enthusiasm for me. Wouldn’t the greater good be served at this point by me becoming a high school girls’ basketball coach? I was, as they say, becoming a legend in my own mind.

I talked to my wife. I could sense fear entering her countenance as she began to realize this was not merely one of my myriad fleeting fantasies.

“I could retire early from CES, take the coaching/administrative job at the high school, and be experiencing a real sense of accomplishment the rest of my life, something I certainly am not getting from my present career right now!”

Try as I might, I could not seem to convince her.
I took it to the Lord. The thought came to my mind and to my heart: “What is your real motive, Bob – helping your players or basking in the honors of men?”

“The girls, of course – and their families. Young people in the Church will be taken care of, but no one’s taking care of these girls. I feel like I’m on a rescue mission.”

“So what’s your real motive – helping your players or the honors of men?”
“Didn’t I just answer that question?”
“Did you really?”
“Ok. Tell you what – I’ll give up coaching just as soon as something else enters my life that is just as fulfilling.”

“Give up coaching and something will.”
“But it needs to present itself first; then I’ll make the change.”
“You receive no witness until after the trial of your faith.”
That’s how it went. For six months. Around and around, like a media loop. At least I kept going back to the Source. To this day I stand all amazed at the patience He offered me.

Our team kept winning. Everything. But I did: after the local post-season tournament in mid-February, which we won, I turned the team over to the assistant coach.

Toward the end of the month I came home from work, having received an interesting phone call.

“Honey, how does College Station, Texas, home of the legendary Texas A&M Aggies, sound to you?”

It was the answer the Lord had been waiting to give me just as soon as I chose to muster the faith to accept His will.