THE JOURNEY / 2015 WINTER
Never Miss an
Opportunity In Memory of Coach Jack Roten
J
ack Roten accomplished many great things in his lifetime. If you asked him, he would probably say his greatest achievement was his family. God and family were his two great loves, though you likely remember him as the star college athlete, or as head coach for the Watauga High School football team. Maybe you knew him more for his Powerlifting abilities or how he led kids in the Special Olympics. A lot of what he did was in the realm of sports and athletics. I bet many of you hardly ever used his real name, but simply called him ‘Coach.’ Because Dad’s life was spent in the world of sports, it’s tempting to go into how he ‘ran the race’ or dedicated his body as God’s holy temple, but I think that would be a little too cliché. While those verses are very fitting, I think they’re a bit too obvious and lacking the true richness of character he lived on a daily basis. What he did went way beyond sport. Yes, he loved athletics, but that was only a carrier, a conduit, a delivery method for something more, and I did not see the full power of it until after he was gone. As letters and messages flooded our family after his death, we had the opportunity to hear about the difference he had made in the lives of others. We stood in the reception line for over six hours during his viewing, listening to story after story from people about how Dad reached out, comforted, gave, mentored and loved each person. We all got to see the impact he left behind him, not only on the football field or in the weight room, but more so in the hearts of the members of this community. We got to see his Legacy. Legacy is a big word. It’s something we all want to leave behind for the next generation, but we rarely take the time to define it in our own life’s context. Dad
successfully touched thousands of lives over the years, though he never stood on stages or traveled overseas to hand out food in remote villages, or built a nationally known football dynasty. He didn’t have a massive platform to use in order to influence others, yet he was still able to make such a huge impact. So, as my family and I spoke at his funeral and we listened to the rest of the community speak of him, I was left wondering how on earth he touched so many. How could I do the same? I wanted so badly to build on the Legacy he left behind, but how do you go about carrying on such a thing? I wanted to make the same impact he did; to build up others like only he could, but without Dad here to tell me, I was at a loss in more ways than one. I told my mom this a few days later, and I will never forget her reply. She said that while he did make an incredible impact, he never set out to change the world. He just loved people and met them where they were. I stood perplexed for a moment after my mother’s remark. As she walked away a spark of clarity came, and it’s because of this clarity that I can so clearly see my Father’s heart. It began with this: I believe Dad was able to leave the Legacy he did because he never really chased one to begin with. Not long ago, my mom told me that he began with a conviction, burdened with the thought of playing church on Sunday morning and then going back to ‘business as usual’ that afternoon. He wanted for others to not only find faith in Jesus Christ but to also build their faith on solid ground instead of shifting sands. Looking at the state of affairs in the High Country he saw that a change needed to be made. Second Corinthians 5:19 says: “… in Christ, God was reconciling the world
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