I am more than a little saddened by the recent news that Randy Shannon has been fired as the head football coach of the University of Miami. Why was he fired? He wasn't considered a winning coach--winning defined as contending for a national championship. Never mind that he inherited a program known for off-the-field arrests and boorish and arrogant behavior on the field.  What did he accomplish? He restored honor to a tarnished program and produced the third highest graduation rate in the country, behind only the Army and Naval academies.

Then again, most people were not surprised that he was fired. Richard Bauckham and Trevor Hart (Hope Against Hope, 1999) argue that the dominant theme of modernism is progress, getting better, always winning. We appreciate character, providing the team is winning; if not, most would accept a team of pinheads as long as they are 'winners.'

"Still through the cloven skies they come, with peaceful wings unfurled,

And still their heavenly music floats o'er all the weary world:

Above its sad and lowly pain, they bend on hovering wing,

And ever o'er its Babel sounds, the blessed angels sing.'

Even so, come, Lord Jesus, come."