Today we’d like to introduce you to Ray Williams.
Hi Ray, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
It started with coaching HS football in 2008. I had found out, that I was diagnosed with keratoconus and needed two cornea transplants.
During that time, I wasn’t able to work and coaching was a perfect gig for that season. I fell in love with helping develop athletes in one of the sports I loved. After coaching that year, I realized that man, I can use my experience to help student-athletes not walk in the fear that I had walked as an HS student and that is where coaching picked up for me.
From there, I ended up getting into my favorite sport which was basketball and the rest was my journey in finding what I was good at. Connecting with young athletes to be the best version of them on the court.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
No. I wanted to develop their skills as quickly as possible in order to compete. I never had the talent, I always had to coach kids up. I remember coaching a feeder program of 7th and 8th-grade girls.
We lost every game and I felt the parents were going to do what they could to get me out of town. Thank GOD we made it through that season. It was at that moment I realized that I was giving them too much information and not enough fundamentals. They needed a strong foundation and I was giving championship plays.
It’s easy to say the kids suck and aren’t good. But I learned it was the other way around that I sucked as a coach and leader. They needed guidance and I was a young coach not knowing how to lead the right way.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
We’ll long story short, I don’t coach anymore, not on the court anyway. Coaching was a huge blessing and a vehicle the LORD used to prepare me for life. I still apply the gifts of coaching to relate to others but now I am more of a shepherd feeding sheep. I deny myself daily, that’s what I specialize in denying myself. The more it’s about me, the less I care for others.
I really needed the help of getting away from myself and that’s where The LORD came in. HE is the perfection that I was so desperately seeking. But that perfection couldn’t abide with imperfection and that’s where denying myself allowed room for HIM to be perfect in me. Not that I am perfect but HE is and with HIS perfection, I learn to love others more than myself. HE was weeding out all the selfishness that I had built as a habit for years; killing all the pride that I had taught to my players expecting them to work as a team.
HE had to increase and I had to decrease. I’m known for loving the lost because GOD first loved me when I was lost. HE sent HIS Holy Perfect Son to die for me as a sinner so that I may be reconciled back to HIM. I am proud to serve a good, loving, HOLY GOD who can do all things. HE sets me apart. GOD has called me to be Holy because He is Holy. We all can be set apart from our sinful life if we just choose to let The LORD lead.
Give HIM full control because HE is a gentleman who will not force us to have a relationship with HIM. HIS desire is for no one to perish, but all to come to repentance. That’s why HE sent HIS SON. But if we choose to do our own thing, that choice that we make is what determines where we spend eternity.
We’re always looking for the lessons that can be learned in any situation, including tragic ones like the Covid-19 crisis. Are there any lessons you’ve learned that you can share?
Absolutely. The Bible warns us of what the end times look like. These aren’t things that just happened. It’s amazing a book that was written in old times is 100% accurate to what we are living today.
HIS word is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword. GOD is love but we tend to get mad when some choose to not get vaccinated and complain about how we need to come together as a nation.
