Watch this video!  It about the University of Southern Mississippi 1981 football team.  The two guys interviewed are Reggie Collier (QB of USM… 1st QB in NCAA history to run AND pass for 1,000 yards… AND the guy that took my job {Which wasn’t hard to do}) and Rhett Whitley (One of my best friends to this day… who is one of my two “brothers,” the other is Ryan Whitley, Rhett’s brother.).  After you watch the video… I have a couple of comments.

Rhett was inducted to USM’s Football Hall of Fame last fall and I got to attend as his guest.  He has been a steady presence of faithful encouragement in my life since 1978… 33 years!  He was in my wedding… I was in his.  We have celebrated and cried together often.  When people can find a person to be that kind of friend, they are blessed.  I have two like that.

The year USM was so good in football (#8 in the country) was the year AFTER I left due to a knee injury.  Missing USM’s banner year and playing college football was a great disappointment in my life for a long time.  I missed So Miss tying Alabama in Tuscaloosa for Bear Bryant’s final home game.  I missed the first bowl game So Miss was invited to.  There were so many things I missed that for a while I wondered, “Why God would cause so much disappointment in my life?”  Honestly, I felt as though I would be a failure in life and all the things I missed by leaving USM were just the beginning of many more.

But God used all those things (Going to USM, Meeting Rhett, Losing my position to Reggie, having a knee injury, ad infinitum) to make my life richer today than it would have been otherwise (Romans 8:28-29).  “Just because we don’t see how something can be good doesn’t mean it isn’t!”  I met my wife… THE blessing of my life; I was called to ministry; attended NOBTS, met Ryan, have 3 wonderful children… and… well… trust me, there are so many things that resulted from ALMOST being one of those at USM who “Believed” you don’t have time to read them all.

So here’s the lesson: TRUST GOD!  He is just as much God in the hard times as the good.  He is just as much God when things are going weird as when they’re normal.  He is sovereign.  He is in control.  He knows what He is doing… every time… all the time… no matter how things look or seem!  Bless you Rhett…