Rich Dixon’s asking important questions:

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After meeting with a group of pastors at Carbondale’s Heartland Christian Center, our host told us we’d meet later with the Carbondale High School soccer team.

I’ll admit…I was a bit intimidated when I discovered both boys’ and girls’ teams were present, but I’d been invited to give a pregame talk for the boys before their final home game of the season. Senior night and a rivalry game with playoff implications was a big night for these kids and Coach Jeff Hansen.

We met many remarkable people doing remarkable things along Rich’s Ride. Actually, that’s not right. We met a lot of ordinary people doing remarkable things where they were, with what they had.

Jeff was a great example. Nearly every kid went out of the way to greet him, and he always responded in a genuine, personal manner. You couldn’t distinguish star players. He was busy getting us set up, as well as thinking about and preparing for an important evening, but no kid walked away feeling brushed off.

I never felt rushed or in the way. He truly wanted his players to hear about hope and overcoming adversity and something bigger than a game.

Ever think you can’t change the world? God gives you and me that power, every day, right where we are. Jeff had the audacity to believe he could touch hearts and change lives, as a high school soccer coach.

Each of us gets the same opportunity.

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I hoped my pregame talk would offer something meaningful, so I began with a simple question: “When a game ends, how do you know if you won?”

Obvious answer, right?

I hoped to discuss a more important question. “How do you know if you’re a winner?”

What’s your answer to that one?

To be continued…