What do you expect

One of the greatest football coaches Alabama has produced was Ralph “Shug” Jordan. He was the head football coach at Auburn for twenty-four years and had an enviable win/loss football record of 176-83-6. He was the National Football Coach of the Year in 1957 and several times Coach of the Year in the SEC. He’s in the Hall of Fame.

He was also head basketball coach at Auburn and Georgia. He was an American patriot and a great military leader. He led four military invasions during World War II. He was wounded at Normandy. He was awarded a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star. I’ve heard that General Patton had a “War Eagle” sign on the front of his Jeep because he said that Shug Jordan told him to put it there!

A friend in Selma had the personal high school annual of his father who had graduated with Coach Jordan. I held that annual in my hands. I saw that next to his senior picture in the annual, Coach Jordan wrote these words, “Someday I expect to be a major college football coach.” Wow! He set his expectation level when he was a senior in high school – and he accomplished it later!

The old saying is, “What you expect is what you get.” What are your expectations for 2021? Where you will be in December 2021 will be directly related to the expectations you set in January 2021! If you expect something bad, it’s going to be a tough year. If you expect something good – get ready for some huge surprises! I dare you to expect God to turn a tough, turbulent 2020 into a terrific 2021!

2020 was tough, but it was not nearly as tough as what the apostle Paul experienced when he wrote to his friends at Philippi. He was in prison. His expectations were so high about the possibilities of what he could accomplish there. He considered prison to be the perfect place for him to do ministry. He expected the best for his people, and he led by example. He writes, “Because of my imprisonment, many of the Christians seem to have lost their fear of chains.” (Philippians 1:14)

Paul says a few verses later, “I’m going to keep on being glad, for I know that you pray for me, and as the Holy Spirit helps me, this is going to turn out for my good. For I know when I live in eager expectation and hope that I will never do anything that will cause me to be ashamed of myself…and I will always be an honor to Christ.” (Philippians 1:19 ff)

When Louis XVI and his queen were put to death by the people of France, they left behind a little boy who would have been King Louis XVII. They put the boy in prison where he was surrounded by terrible people who were vicious and vile. Their aim was to teach the boy vulgar thoughts and habits of profanity and unholy things.

But these men failed because of the expectations of that little boy. Whenever someone tried to get that boy to say a bad word, he would simply reply, “No, I will not say it. I was born to be a king!”

You were born to be in King Jesus’s family! Live 2021 in the expectation of what God is going to do through you. Make every day a day that God uses you to help Him increase His royal family and define Kingdom values for other people!

We are graduating from 2020. What are you writing by your picture for 2021?

He was also head basketball coach at Auburn and Georgia. He was an American patriot and a great military leader. He led four military invasions during World War II. He was wounded at Normandy. He was awarded a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star. I’ve heard that General Patton had a “War Eagle” sign on the front of his Jeep because he said that Shug Jordan told him to put it there!

A friend in Selma had the personal high school annual of his father who had graduated with Coach Jordan. I held that annual in my hands. I saw that next to his senior picture in the annual, Coach Jordan wrote these words, “Someday I expect to be a major college football coach.” Wow! He set his expectation level when he was a senior in high school – and he accomplished it later!

The old saying is, “What you expect is what you get.” What are your expectations for 2021? Where you will be in December 2021 will be directly related to the expectations you set in January 2021! If you expect something bad, it’s going to be a tough year. If you expect something good – get ready for some huge surprises! I dare you to expect God to turn a tough, turbulent 2020 into a terrific 2021!

2020 was tough, but it was not nearly as tough as what the apostle Paul experienced when he wrote to his friends at Philippi. He was in prison. His expectations were so high about the possibilities of what he could accomplish there. He considered prison to be the perfect place for him to do ministry. He expected the best for his people, and he led by example. He writes, “Because of my imprisonment, many of the Christians seem to have lost their fear of chains.” (Philippians 1:14)

Paul says a few verses later, “I’m going to keep on being glad, for I know that you pray for me, and as the Holy Spirit helps me, this is going to turn out for my good. For I know when I live in eager expectation and hope that I will never do anything that will cause me to be ashamed of myself…and I will always be an honor to Christ.” (Philippians 1:19 ff)

When Louis XVI and his queen were put to death by the people of France, they left behind a little boy who would have been King Louis XVII. They put the boy in prison where he was surrounded by terrible people who were vicious and vile. Their aim was to teach the boy vulgar thoughts and habits of profanity and unholy things.

But these men failed because of the expectations of that little boy. Whenever someone tried to get that boy to say a bad word, he would simply reply, “No, I will not say it. I was born to be a king!”

You were born to be in King Jesus’s family! Live 2021 in the expectation of what God is going to do through you. Make every day a day that God uses you to help Him increase His royal family and define Kingdom values for other people!

We are graduating from 2020. What are you writing by your picture for 2021?

Does age matter?

COVID-19 has taught us a lot of things about life. One thing we’ve learned is that age is not a factor when we need to reach out and help other people. (Read Job 12:12; 32: 6-10.) Here are four quick examples:

Cavanaugh Bell is a first-grader in Maryland. He heard about the coronavirus, and he started thinking about what he could do. He had $600 in savings. He asked his mom to go shopping with him. He bought cartloads of hand sanitizer, snacks, cleaning supplies, and toilet paper. He made 65 care packages.

Cavanaugh then went to his grandmother’s senior living community and passed them out. He observed all the social distancing guidelines. He wore gloves and a mask and kept his distance. He said, “I like giving back. That’s my passion.”  How passionate are you about giving back?  

10-year-old Chelsea Phaire was quarantined at home when she decided to use her time wisely to find a way to turn a tough situation into a terrific solution. She started Chelsea’s Charity. She sends out art kits to kids in homeless shelters and foster care facilities. In the past three months, this first-grader from Danbury, CT, has shipped more than 1,500 packages containing coloring books, crayons, markers, and other materials.

Chelsea says that she hopes her kits will give other children something creative and fun to do when they’re feeling down. She said, “Whether I’m happy or sad, art is always there for me.” God has something there for you. Are you willing to see it, use it, and make somebody else’s life better?

Meet Anna Adcox and her sister, Francis Trimble. They live in Dadeville, Alabama. They are 95 and 87 years old respectively. They are very productive. They spend their mornings working in their garden, and in the afternoon, they sew dresses and shorts for children around the world. These two ladies have finished about 7,000 dresses!

You’ll never hear Anna and Francis saying, “I’m too old, I can’t do that, I don’t know how.” They are continually learning, serving, and making a difference in the world. Several thousand boys and girls are glad they didn’t know how old they were!

Tom Moore is a 99-year-old World War II veteran who wanted to do something for Britain’s National Health Service. He decided to walk 10 laps around his garden every day and complete 100 laps by his 100^th birthday on April 30,2020. His goal was to raise $1,000. Tom’s 16-year-old grandson, Benji, shared his vision on social media. Donations started pouring in. I saw the TV clip of him walking his laps with his walker and several British Military officers saluting him. He raised over $36,000,000!

In July, Queen Elizabeth II used the royal sword to bestow knighthood upon Tom Moore. At 100 years old, he did ask if he could remain standing during the ceremony, saying, “If I kneel down, I may never get up again.”

If your age is between Cavanaugh and Tom – you’re the right age to make a difference!

She defied death and discovered new life

Bill Gates rules for life and living

Missionary To Cannibals

A.W. Milne was a missionary to cannibals.

In the 19th century Milne joined a group of men known as “One Way Missionaries.”

Milne embarked on the mission but didn’t take a suitcase. He packed all his worldly belongings in a coffin. Milne and the other one-way-missionaries bought one-way tickets to their destinations, but no return ticket. They fully expected to spend the rest of their lives on mission and die on the mission field.¹

Milne spent decades loving on cannibals in a tribe in the New Hebrides in the South Pacific. He journeyed to their village knowing the cannibals had murdered every other missionary who went there.

When Milne died, the cannibals buried Milne in his coffin in the middle of their village. On his grave the cannibals wrote this epitaph:

When he came, there was no light.
When he left, there was no darkness.

¹Source: All In small group Bible study by Mark Batterson

Grave Visiting

Dance Lessons

By Dr. John Ed Mathison
Executive Director
John Ed Mathison Leadership Ministries

Many interesting life lessons were learned from this past basketball season.  Many coaches and teams can testify that you can get overconfident and be upset.  Many learned that there is no such thing a sure win in the “big dance.”  Coach Ron Hunter from Georgia State learned that you can get injured on the bench if you celebrate too much!

On February 18, 2015, I wrote about Coach Dean Smith and things he taught as a coach.  On October 29, 2014, I wrote about a new hero of mine, Lauren Hill.  She scored the first basket of the college basketball season.  She is on hospice, but still alive and doing God’s will.  Both of these blogs are archived on my website.

Here are two more powerful lessons I learned from this past year:

When Austin Hatch was 11-years-old he survived a plane crash that killed his mother and two siblings.  Would you believe that eight years later another plane crashed and killed his father and stepmother and left Hatch in a coma?

Austin wanted to play college basketball.  As a 20-year-old he finally realized his dream when he walked on at the University of Michigan.  He scored his first points when he sank a couple of free throws.  He said, “My past won’t define my future.  What happened to me is kind of unique, but that’s what happened.  That’s not who I am.”

Our past should not define our future.  If our past is tragic and bad and disappointing, God’s gives us a new chance and a new hope for the future.  If our past was extremely successful, we can’t rest on the laurels of the past but have to move on to what God is calling us to do today.  Our past should never define our future.  The Apostle Paul said, “Forgetting the things that lie behind, and reaching for the things that are before, I press on toward the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”

Coach Kevin Willard is the coach at Seton Hall.  He did not have a really good season as he was 16-14 and 6-12 in the Big East when he played Georgetown.  He desperately needed a win.  There was some talk that his job was in jeopardy.

Georgetown had a player by the name of Tyler Adams.  Tyler came to Georgetown on a scholarship, but developed a heart ailment and couldn’t play.  Georgetown’s final game was with Seton Hall and the NCAA granted a waiver for Tyler Adams to play.

At the opening tip Seton Hall fell back and allowed Adams to dunk his first goal in college basketball.  He then was taken out of the game and left with an emotional exit.  Georgetown did not know that Seton Hall would purposely let Adams score the first goal.

It was a class act on the part of Coach Willard!  Seton Hall went on to lose the game by only 4 points.  He received some criticism for allowing Georgetown to get 2 easy points.  He said that it was more important for Tyler Adams to have a memory of his only game in college basketball than it was for him to get a win.  That is class!  The Bible says that we should esteem others better than ourselves.

In life winners are not those who score the most points, but those who score the most with their lives.  If you want to advance through the brackets of life, learn and practice these lessons taught by Austin Hatch, Kevin Willard, Dean Smith, and Lauren Hill.

The “big dance” takes on a new meaning.  David relates how in Psalm 30:11God “turned our morning into dancing.”  The wisdom of Solomon is expressed in Ecclesiastes 3:4 when he tells us that it is a time to dance.  Austin, Kevin, Dean, and Lauren are pretty good dance teachers!

John Ed’s blog posts appear each week in For His Glory.
Contact: JAM Executive Suite 4,4131 Carmichael Road, Montgomery, AL 36106 Phone: 334-270-2149 Email:info@johnedmathison.org