For the past 8 years, I have chosen a word as my theme for the year. I had heard about this process before, but after receiving the book, “One Word,” I was intrigued. I had just taken a position as the first Regional Director at Nations of Coaches, a ministry to college basketball coaches and athletes. Before I had taken this opportunity in June of 2013, I had been coaching college basketball in Wisconsin. I knew it was my last season as far back as November of 2012. By then I had the book, read it, and was looking at my word for the 2013 year.
In December of 2012, I was preparing to share with my team that my family and I were moving on. I did not want my team to find out other than from my own mouth. I also wanted to let them know that I clearly felt God had called me to Nations of Coaches. It's important to understand that I would be required to raise my own support for the new opportunity with Nations of Coaches. After praying, meditating, and spending time evaluating life’s next steps, I knew the right word for 2013—Provide. I told the team in early January all that was going on in my heart. They responded with understanding and saw the opportunity to finish well.
I'm here to share with you that is exactly what occurred. Our season provided our team with great moments. We went undefeated in our region, won the Regional Championship, I was blessed to be Regional Coach of the Year, and later National Coach of the Year. Amazing memories were created daily during that season, and I still stay in touch with most of those young men today.
Embrace Vision
From there, we started our ministry in 2013 with a zero-balance, and we attained our full funding by April 2014. In less than a year, we were fully funded and have never been in need. In fact, we helped raise a surplus for our ministry to help others. Clearly PROVIDE was a great word for 2013! Since then I have had a string of powerful words that seem to match each season of my life.
- 2013: Provide—in need for provision and clearly supplied.
- 2014: Exalt—giving praise for all that our Creator had done.
- 2015: Expand—we were growing and needed to expand our horizon.
- 2016: Simplify—that growth had led to increased responsibilities and I desired clarity.
- 2017: Symmetry—a real need to mesh my work, family, and community.
- 2018: Resolve—to work daily to improve and grow.
- 2019: Value—I spent time valuing my health (it had slipped badly) and my
opportunities. - 2020: Embrace—not to live life, but to truly embrace it.
This is where it might seem a bit tricky. My word for 2020 is EMBRACE. It's tricky because I might have not chosen this actually for January 1st. I had decided on RISE and had an acrostic and everything. But, in the first week of January I finished reading some books and an article, and it hit me, "Do I want to do these things?"
- Real and powerful relationship with God
- Intentional about health
- Study and seize opportunities to grow
- Expand our sphere of influence
The answer was yes, but I didn't want to just do them, I desired to embrace these opportunities.
What is the difference between doing and embracing? “Do” is defined as performance or execution. “Embrace” is defined as taking willingly or eagerly. There to me was a distinct difference. Not just to perform or execute, but to eagerly grab on to something. Not just live life, but instead to attack life with vigor—embrace it.
With that difference, my question for each of us is how do we handle life? Do we just live, and go through the day “doing” things, or do we embrace each day? Do we embrace each moment? I want us to meditate on our daily occurrences and honestly assess how we engage with them.
How do you start your day? Do you have a purposeful routine in the morning, or do you just get up, grab, and go? Do you spend intentional time with your family? Do you endure work, or do you bring great energy to your job? Do you make time to better yourself mentally, physically, socially, or spiritually, or is it more reactionary and you just “do” what you have to?
Don’t live life. Don’t go through the motions. Embrace life. Bring energy, encouragement, and excitement to each day. Adversity will come. It always does. I remember cringing back from trials when I was younger, but I now understand that through trials and failures I grow. I grow deep. I grow wide. Failure is never final, and failure is never fatal. I have learned to embrace the lessons that struggles bring.
Embrace Adversity
I started the article sharing about the 2012-2013 basketball season at our college. It was a great year. I loved coaching those young men. They were coachable, humble, and truly became a brotherhood. We accomplished much. 2011-2012 was not a great year. We were competitive, but we were very young. We had young talent, but we struggled to mesh. We would be in games, but we could never get over the hump. We lost a lot of close games. We lost 8 games in a row. It was brutal. I hate even typing it. I learned a lot from that season. I learned about my team, but I learned more about me.
During the summer of 2012, we had two young men transfer into our program. They were good players, really good players. They had played basketball at a higher level than ours, but they did not feel mentored. Our college was highly intentional about investing in young people’s lives. I began mentoring these young men as soon as they hit the campus. They loved our school, the philosophy, the impact on their lives, and—here it is in a nutshell—they embraced the mission of our school and the culture of our team. Their attitude was infectious. Their upbeat and vibrant spirit literally rubbed off on the team. Things that some of our players had taken for granted, they had never had. They were grateful, and it made a difference.
They loved our school, the philosophy, the impact on their lives, and—here it is in a nutshell—they embraced the mission of our school and the culture of our team.
I helped these young men grow, but their energy and the way they embraced our program inspired me. I relaxed more and didn't try to make things happen. Instead I enjoyed the moments more and didn't speed through the season. Practices were fun, travel was enjoyable, and I anticipated my daily interaction with my team. It was fulfilling. Why? They embraced the program, and they impacted the rest of the team who began to embrace each moment also.
In conclusion, what is your response? Will you just "do" life or will you embrace it? I spend time with coach after coach and team after team. I have decided to be a difference maker for each person I come in contact with, to embrace each moment I get to spend with them. Embrace the moments. Embrace life.