Setting and Keeping Priorities

"Is it really business, family, God or is it God, family business?"

• Urban Meyer
  

Setting and Keeping Priorities

I got in my car Sunday night and began to back out of my garage in the cold, dark December night. As I coasted to the end of my driveway I reached over to turn the radio on. I thought it would be a chance for me to listen to some music during my sojourn to the airport to pick up my daughter.

I knew it had been a long day for her. Weather, just before the winter holiday traffic began, had caused flight delays and cancellations. She had been trying to leave New York for several days and finally took advantage of a small window of opportunity. Still, it hadn't been easy.

She had boarded the first plane only to sit on the tarmac for over an hour before it was announced that a mechanical problem was forcing a plane change. This delay was sure to cause a cascade of other challenges and we knew one of them was that she would miss her connecting flight. Still, she continued on, not knowing every obstacle she would face, but having faith that it would all work out in the end.

And it had worked out in the end. Here I was, on my way to relieve her from a fifteen hour journey that began on a train, was forever on airplanes, and would end in the comfort of a warm, welcoming car.

It was in the welcoming car that I heard the news that Urban Meyer had been having health problems and was taking a leave of absence from his coaching position at the University of Florida. Now, I normally don't give a second's thought to coaching changes, but I do follow news regarding Urban Meyer. After all, he taught me one of the great lessons of my life when he was at the University of Utah.

That lesson is: One man can make a huge difference. He can make a difference in a football program, a university, a community, in an individual and a family. I've watched him do it in Salt Lake City and in Gainesville while stating over and over again it isn't a coach that makes the difference, it's the program.

I continued listening to the radio program and heard Mr. Meyer say, "And then I'm a person of faith, and I just wanted to make sure I had my priorities straight. A lot of times coaches do not have their priorities straight. You put business before God and family, you have a problem."

I drove on, knowing that at least for this one night I had my priorities right. My daughter slid into my car, we talked and laughed, and drove home together. Our drive together was a small window of opportunity and I was taking advantage of it. I don't know all of the obstacles I'll face as I manager my program of priorities, but I'm more determined than ever to have my priorities right, and to have faith that everything will all work out in the end.