“’But what about you?’ he asked. ‘Who do you say I am?’” — Matthew 16:15
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I have been coaching high school basketball at the same school for 20 years. This fall I experienced a first: On a Saturday morning, my wife and I received a call from one of our former players’ mother to inform us that her son had passed away at 29 years of age. We were both shocked and deeply saddened. Micah had been a big part of our basketball carpool and program. He and his mom had made a decision to move closer to us so that Micah could be a part of our school and basketball carpool when he was in high school.
During those next four years, we got to know Micah and his family better than ever. And in the years following his graduation, Micah would appear in our lives periodically, usually at our homecoming basketball game each season. He meant a lot to us. We had his jersey framed for his family at his funeral service. Each game this season, our team is wearing a shooting shirt in warmups that has his initials and number on it.
As important as those things are to us, the lessons we learned from Micah’s life are even more important. Micah was not a 1,000-point scorer or all-conference performer during his basketball career at our school. In fact, although he was part of two conference championships as a JV player, we never won a conference championship with him as a varsity player, and Micah’s playing time was limited on varsity. But we learned from Micah that the quality of life is more important than the quantity of life. Although Micah’s life was shorter than we would have ever dreamed of, he knew Jesus Christ as his Savior and lived a life of character, loyalty, initiative and faithfulness. He lived a full life.
We also learned from Micah that relationships are more important than accomplishments. As already mentioned, Micah had the most critical issue in life settled because he had a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. He also had healthy relationships with the other people in his life. Micah modeled the true meaning of manhood to us: purpose and healthy relationships.
The legacy of Micah challenges the rest of us with two questions: 1) What’s your “why”? and 2) Do you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ?
— Frick Frierson
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