Virgie,

I loved it too.

Vick

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "VIRGIE UNDERWOOD" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, February 06, 2007 5:18 PM
Subject: Re: [ECHURCH-USA] Coach Dungy


> Hi Vickie,
> This is truly a touching story.  Thanks for sharing it.
> Virgie and Hoshi
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Vicki and The Rors" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Tuesday, February 06, 2007 3:29 PM
> Subject: Coach Dungy
> 
> 
> A friend of mine passed this along to me.  No indication of it's source. 
> Thought you guys might be interested.
> 
> 23 January  2007
> It was with great pride  and joy to watch the Colts, led by Head Coach
> Tony
> Dungy, win their trip to  the Super Bowl this past Sunday night.  While
> not a
> big football follower, there was good reason and insight to support and
> cheer
> with enthusiasm for Tony Dungy's Colts team!
> Below is a very touching story  about this great man, and the essence
> of his
> purpose in life. It was most  amusing to hear Coach Dungy's responses
> to the
> TV  sports interviewer, when  he was asked how great it was to be one
> of the
> first "African-American" head  coaches to take his team to a Super
> Bowl?
> Head Coach Tony Dungy responded immediately with, "Yes that's good, but
> what is really great and awesome, is how God worked this out for us;
> it's just
> amazing how He made this all come together!" Thus, as Paul Harvey would
> say
> after reading the following, "and now, you know the rest of the story."
> Dungy Makes Super Bowl Stop to Speak at Athletes in Action Breakfast
> DETROIT, Mich. - They were there for breakfast, and  they were there to
> cheer
> New York Jets running back Curtis Martin. And it was Martin who
> received
> the Athletes in Action Bart Starr Award Saturday morning, but the
> hundreds
> who gathered in the fourth-floor ballroom at the Marriott Renaissance
> in Detroit,  Mich., on the morning before Super  Bowl XL were clearly
> touched by the featured
> speaker.
> That speaker was Colts Head Coach  Tony Dungy.
> Two hours into the breakfast, emcee  Brent Jones introduced Dungy, who
> was
> welcomed with a lengthy standing ovation.  Dungy thanked the crowd,
> shared
> an anecdote about Martin, then told the crowd he was going to speak for
> about
> 15 minutes.
> "It's great to be here," Dungy told  the crowd, then adding with a
> laugh, "I just
> wish I wasn't here in this capacity so many times of being just that
> close to
> being in the game and just being an invited speaker.
> "My goal is to have our team here  one day and have a couple of tables
> with
> all of our guys here. Because we have a  special group of young men, a
> great
> group of Christian guys. It'd be wonderful  to have them here so you
> could see
> their hearts and what they're all  about.
> "It hasn't quite happened yet, but  we're still hoping one day it
> will."
> He told them he was going to talk  about lessons he had learned from
> his
> three sons. The crowd fell silent. Then  Dungy spoke.
> And although this was a breakfast -- and although at many such events
> speakers speak over the clinking of glasses and  murmurs from
> semi-interested
> listeners -- for most of the 15 minutes, the room was  silent except
> for Dungy's voice.
> He spoke of his middle son, Eric,  who he said shares his
> competitiveness and who is
> focused on sports "to where  it's almost a problem." He spoke of his
> youngest son,
> Jordan, who has a rare congenital condition that causes him not to feel
> pain. "He feels
> things, but he doesn't get  the sensation of pain," Dungy said. The
> lessons learned
> from Jordan, Tony  Dungy said, are many. "That sounds like it's good at
> the beginning,
> but I promise you it's not," Dungy said. "We've learned a lot about
> pain in the last five
> years we've had Jordan. We've learned some hurts are really necessary
> for kids. Pain is
> necessary for kids to find out the difference  between what's good and
> what's harmful."
> Jordan, Dungy  said, loves cookies.
> "Cookies are good," Dungy said, "but  in Jordan's mind, if they're good
> out on the plate,
> they're even better in the oven. He will go right into the oven when my
> wife's not looking,
> reach in, take the rack out, take the pan out, burn his hands and eat
> the cookies and burn
> his tongue and never feel it. He doesn't know that's bad for him."
> Jordan, Dungy  said, "has no fear of anything, so we constantly have to
> watch him."
> The lesson learned, Dungy said, is  simple.
> "You get the question all the time,  'Why does the Lord allow pain in
> your life? Why do
> bad things happen to good people? If God is a God of love, why does he
> allow these
> hurtful things to  happen?''' Dungy said. "We've learned that a lot of
> times because
> of that  pain, that little temporary pain, you learn what's harmful.
> You learn to fear
> the right things. "Pain sometimes lets us know we have  a condition
> that needs to
> be healed.
> Pain inside sometimes lets us know that  spiritually we're not quite
> right, and we need
> to be healed and that God will send that healing agent right to the
> spot. "Sometimes,
> pain is the only way that will turn us as kids back to the Father."
> Finally, he spoke of  James.
> James Dungy, Tony Dungy's oldest  son, died three days before
> Christmas. As he did
> while delivering James' eulogy in December, Dungy on Saturday spoke of
> him eloquently
> and steadily, speaking of lessons learned and of the positives taken
> from experience.
> "It was tough, and it was very, very  painful, but as painful as it
> was, there were some
> good things that came out of  it," Dungy said.
> Dungy spoke at the funeral of  regretting not hugging James the last
> time he saw him
> on Thanksgiving of last year. "I met a guy the next day after the
> funeral," Dungy said.
> "He said, 'I was  there. I heard you talking. I took off work today. I
> called my son. I told
> him I  was taking him to the movies. We're going to spend some time and
> go to dinner.'
> That was a real, real blessing to me."
> Dungy said he has gotten many letters since James' death relaying
> similar messages.
> "People heard what I said and said,  'Hey, you brought me a little
> closer to my son,' or,
> 'You brought me a little  closer to my daughter,''' Dungy said.
> "That is a tremendous  blessing."
> Dungy also said some of James'  organs were donated through donors
> programs.
> "We got a letter back two weeks ago  that two people had received his
> corneas,
> and now they can see,'' Dungy said.  "That's been a tremendous
> blessing."
> Dungy also said he received a letter  from a girl from the family's
> church in Tampa.
> She had known James for many years, Dungy said. She went to the funeral
> because
> she knew James.
> "When I saw what happened at  the  funeral, and your family and the
> celebration and
> how it was handled, that was the first time I realized there had to be
> a God," Dungy
> said the girl wrote. "I  accepted Christ into my life and my life's
> been different since
> that day."
> Added Dungy, "That was an awesome  blessing, so all of those things
> kind of made
> me realize what God's love is all about."
> Dungy also said he was asked often  how he was able to return to the
> Colts so quickly
> after James' death. James died  on December 22, and Dungy returned to
> the team
> one week later. Dungy said the answer was simple. "People asked me,
> 'How did you
> recover so quickly?"'' Dungy said. "I'm not totally recovered. I don't
> know that I ever
> will be. It's still very, very painful, but I was able to come back
> because of something
> one of my good Christian friends said to me after the funeral.
> "He said, 'You know James accepted  Christ into his heart, so you know
> he's in heaven,
> right?' I said, 'Right, I  know that.' He said, 'So, with all you know
> about heaven, if you
> had the power to bring him back now, would you?' When I thought about
> it, I said, 'No,
> I  wouldn't. I would not want him back with what I know about heaven.'
> "That's what
> helped me through the grieving process. Because of Christ's Spirit in
> me, I had that
> confidence that James is there, at peace with the Lord, and I have the
> peace of mind
> in the midst of something that's very, very painful.
> "That's my prayer today, that  everyone in this room would know the
> same thing."