A quick update to this post: Jim Tressel resigned over the weekend as the scandal at Ohio State seems to get deeper and deeper. As we learned from the Reggie Bush sanctions against USC (which were just upheld on appeal) the school will get hit while the coach gets off scott-free. Meanwhile, Cam Newton and his laptop were picked first in the NFL Draft, so he should make enough money to pay for his dad’s church to get up to code.
So in this cesspool of college athletics and religion I keep waiting for the next shoe to drop. Mark Richt, evangelical celebrity and University of Georgia football coach, just put his two-million dollar home up for sale. A home he bought just a couple of years ago. A sign of trouble ahead? To quote Lee Corso, not so fast my friend! (man, I can’t wait for college football season to start back up)
After rampant internet speculation of Richt being in danger of losing his job, Georgia being under investigation, or some other malfeasance, the coach came out and stated that he is selling his home because of a book. The coach was convicted by The Hole in Our Gospel by World Vision president, Richard Stearns, who writes that 40% of the world’s population lives on $2 or less a day and 15% live on $1 or less. Meanwhile those in the United States live on an average of $105 a day. In that backdrop, this coach who has made more than $25 million since joining UGA choose to sell his home.
It is exciting to see someone actually put their money (literally) where their faith is. Like Francis Chan, who also was convicted by Jesus’ example and downsized his home and eventually stepped out of his mega-pastorate, Mark Richt is catching criticism for valuing treasures in heaven more than things on earth. Yet I pray his example, and the examples from books like Stearns’, Chan’s, and David Platt’s motivate Christians in this country to re-examine our priorities and comfortability.
“Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Luke 12:33-34)
Tough call, but good for the soul!