Good-bye UNF Swimming

This week was a difficult week for a number of reasons and one of the contributors was the UNF Athletic Director announcing that he was cutting the UNF woman's swimming program. Coach Moon is a friend of mine and he talked with me pretty extensively about the problems both with the facility and with the leadership of the team. I know that cutting the program was a very hard decision for him but I do believe that was something he needed to do. All that being said it is still disappointing for me. The team started my freshmen year of college and I walked on my sophomore year. Even though I wasn't on the team my first year, I invested a lot of time, prayers, and tears into that team and trying to make it a success. Even after I graduated UNF and came on staff with Campus Outreach I spent a lot of time meeting with the girls on the team and helping out when they needed me. Below is what I wrote the day that Coach Moon made the announcement.

"Well, today the UNF Swimming and Diving Program was officially shut down. I'm not too surprised but I am very sad about it all. It's hard when something that meant so much to me and was so instrumental in my spiritual growth simply go away as I stand by helplessly. I can't help but to think about what Christ said about a kernel of wheat not being able to reproduce itself unless it dies. Things are sad and dark for a time when something or someone dies but that death leaves room for so much more. I think about Christ's death, yes of course He had impact on this earth, but He had to die in order to have the eternal impact that I and so many others experience today. I believe that all areas of our life are kernels that truly must die to produce God-glorifying fruit. I think the swim team was one of those things and a recent relationship was another. These are things that I just wouldn't let go of so that they could fall to the ground to produce fruit for His glory- I wanted it all for my glory and to find significance in. I need forgiveness for holding onto these things so tightly because I just don't want to suffer through that pain of death. I need the Lord to give me strength to let go and let these things fall."
The verse I was thinking on was John 12:23-26 Jesus replied," The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must also follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.