Against All Odds
Dear Champions,The short excerpt is in honor of the start of college football, and it is written by Larry Williams from TigerIllustrated.com. The Scripture is Genesis 50:20 You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.
When I see these guys, I see more than just football players, Clemson head football coach Dabo Swinney said. I see a lot of myself in a lot of these guys. Lost kids trying to find their way. Scared. They do not know what the future holds. Problems at home. Financial problems. Whatever it is.
Swinney endured all of that and more starting at age 8, when he began to notice the effects of his father s drinking. I started seeing things that kids should not see, said Swinney, the youngest of three boys. There were times where my dad would be gone and would not come home, and I did not know why and mom would say this or that. There would be big fights and arguments, police called to the house, windows broken. I can remember praying to God to keep my family together and make things OK and protect my mom and my dad. My dad was a great dad. But when he would drink, it was not a good thing.
Were Swinney given an opportunity to change anything, he would change nothing. Because all the strife, the heartache and heartbreak have shaped him into who he is today; a devoted Christian, a loving and committed father and husband, a successful coach.
When Swinney was 14, his fathers appliance business began to flounder and the family lost the home it had lived in for 10 years. The slow deterioration culminated in his parents divorce when he was in the 11th grade. He remembers sitting in the field house at Pelham High School crying like a baby after he heard the news. To that point, he had tried to keep everything from his friends while painting his family as happy, sober, and normal. I was playing three sports and in the Honor Society and all of that, but it had really taken a toll on me. Swinney and his mother moved out and began renting a condo; but her job at the mall could not pay all the bills, and the eviction notice was nailed to the front door after just three months so they moved in with one of Swinneys high school buddies.
He says that he would not have been able to get through it without his relationship with Christ. He remembers the day he was saved (Feb. 3, 1986), remembers what he wrote in his Bible that day (I dedicate my life to the Lord, and my life will never be the same.).
After mine and his mothers marriage broke up, we had some hard times for a while, his father Ervil Swinney said. But he was just always an inspiration, and he was definitely an influence on me getting sober because I realized I wanted him to be as proud of me as I was of him.
It is just amazing how things work in your life, Coach Dabo Swinney said. I know how to be successful, and that is: You put your eyes on the Lord in everything you do, you believe in yourself, and you never quit. If you do those three things, you are going to be successful.
Champions, have a great week!-David Vining
P.S. The entire article may be found at this site: http://clemson.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=882281
Posts
