By now, you have all have heard the tales of sports greatness attributed to my father. While amazing, this is not the thing I wish you to leave here with today.
One time, a few years ago, after a lengthy discussion at our house about the greatest athletes from this city, my father said this: A mans name dies quicker than the man.
At the time, it did not make sense, won’t we always talk about an athlete’s greatness, won’t we always speak fondly of his awards and feats?
The long answer now is clear to me. No. We will not…always.
Dad never spoke to me of all of what other people say of him. I think I was 10 years old before I knew who King Snake was and approaching middle school before I knew he played for the Globe trotters and only knew he was in Wayne States HOF after he was inducted into Michigan’s sports HOF. If you come by the house, you will not see those awards hung up. Honestly, I only knew of his SPORTS greatness through what everyone else told me.
Put that together and look at the plaques on the wall in my house, I took that quote to mean that your life really begins AFTER the shoes and cleats are hung up.
It is the battles AFTER that that make the hero, in my opinion. Sports gives a platform from what to build on.
The hero I know was the one who taught me what it meant to be a man, specifically on these points I want to point out this morning.
- When you say something, do it, or your word is your bond. When my father said “When you need me, call me”. He meant that. Those who took him up and made that call found out that these were not just words he said.
- Love is action, not words. No, Dad wasn’t the “I love you” guy, but he showed up at every game I played that he possibly could, even in High School when our teams were awful and in college when I had no chance of seeing action in a game my first two years. I cannot remember a time when I or anyone else in the family really needed him and he wasn’t there. We knew he loved us because of what he did. He was there every time it counted! And in his final years, his commitment to my mother and making sure she was ok was inspiration personified.
- Stay committed to what you say you are committed to. I think the only marriage and family advice I got from my father was to “keep coming home”. I think we could save the preacher some words by condensing the marriage vows to that. Keep coming home….No matter what you are feeling, if they got on the last nerves, you keep coming back to your family. Because they need you and need to know that no matter what, they still have a home and someone who has their back.
- Trust in God. Both of my parents remained faithful through a lot of hardships, too many to mention. But their faith kept me in mine when we were right here in this place in August of 2005 when the world came apart from all of us (I’m still working on that, but I have a model to follow). Through that they came back the next Sunday, and the Sunday after that and telling me and everyone else “God is Good” and kept teaching and loving in this church.
So Dad: We will miss you, but we want you to enjoy your new walk. Free from pain and free from worry. I assure you that your name is not dead, it will live in through all of those whose lives you touched.
Quiet Thunder 
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