Trevor Lane White Funeral Service
by Walter Sensat


What is Your Story? What will they say about you and what your life was all about when you are lying here like this?   The story of one’s life can take on a number of directions. There is the reality of who we really are.  There is a perceived reality of who others think we are when they really don’t know us.  Then there is a perception of who we are by the story of our lives created by what people say about you.  Regardless of what you have heard or what you think about Trevor White, I’m here to help you understand who he really was. Many of you knew him as a football coach or an athletic director or a teacher.  Some of you have known him personally and some of you only by his position. Regardless of how well any of us knew him, the easiest thing for us to do is to let what we hear and what people are saying determine what we believe about who he was. The over-riding questions that come to us at such a shocking time as this is: how could this happen and why?  What about Coach White’s family, his wife, his boys, and us who loved him?

My goal today in these few moments that we have together is to help us grab onto something that will sooth our souls and give us hope when our world seems to be falling apart. I’ve heard people say things like this over the years as tragedy has struck their lives.  How could a God who says He loves us allow something so heart breaking happen?  We may not voice it, but inside where only we can see, we still ask the question. While there never seems to be a good answer that will satisfy us in resolving that question, the Bible gives us scriptures that can help us get our minds to thinking correctly so that we might get some comfort in our time of need. The apostle Paul says to us from the Bible in his letter to the Philippians. Whatever things are noble, that are just, that are pure, that are lovely, and are of good report, think on these things.  Meditate on them so that your minds will not take you in directions that you don’t need to go, because it could be unhealthy for you and even wrong. If we choose not to think in the way Paul instructs us, then I believe we will miss an opportunity that perhaps God has designed just for us.  You know, God cares about you and loves you enough to allow even a tragedy like this to reach into your heart and change your life forever. Let me remind us of another scripture found in I Samuel 16.  It’s important so that we don’t draw conclusions, especially if we don’t know the whole story.  Here is what the scripture says.  “The Lord does not look at the things men look at.  Men look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.

Let me tell you about the heart of coach White.  As a young person, he gave his heart to the Lord.  I came to know him while he was a very young man in East Bernard, Texas when my family and I moved there to begin as pastor at East Bernard First Baptist Church.  As his pastor, I saw spiritual growth in him that took him from a nominal Christian to an active one who involved himself in the lives of young people and adults alike.  I heard him preach as a young man with conviction and a belief in God’s word that was in my opinion outstanding for one his age.  And I really believed that God would call him into the gospel ministry some day in his future. As we parted for a number of years, Trevor went back to school and got his degree to be a teacher and a coach.  Then I realized God had called him not to a pulpit but to a classroom and a football field.   And, I would guess that he touched hundreds, perhaps even thousands of young people’s lives over the years in a very positive way. My hope for you is that you will leave here today with hope for your own life and eternal future even if your life on this earth were to end at a young age.  It ought to occur to us.  We are all destined to experience the same fate.  We too will die someday. Why do I say this?  Why is it so important for you to understand?  You might ask, isn't this service about coach White? Yes it is, but if we leave here with only a few words spoken to eulogize Coach White but are not really affected by his life and who he really was, then we will leave here discouraged and no better off than when we came.  Perhaps God will take the impact of this tragedy on your life and use it to help you think about whom you really are and what your life story is all about. You need to know that your eternal destiny is not dependent on your performance and conduct on this earth, but rather on what Jesus Christ did for you on the cross.   The scripture says that while we were still in our sins, Christ died for us.  He said, I did not come to call good people, but sinners to repentance.  And then the apostle Paul reminds us that there are none righteous.  We have all sinned and fall short of what God require of us. So, what can you do?  Come to Christ in faith and allow Him to be your substitute that will please God.  Billy Graham has said over the years that when we allow Jesus to be the substitute for our sins, then we can approach God with a clean slate, just as though we have never sinned.  But we must come through Christ.  The scripture says, that there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Jesus said Himself.  I am the way , the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father but through Me. 

Coach White, Trevor, my friend and brother in the Lord, did what he needed to do as a young boy to secure his eternal future in heaven.   He lived his life the best he could on this earth.  And I’m sure he disappointed himself and perhaps others a number of times over the years in the decisions he made and by some of the things he did.  But, there are two things that I am certain of.   One is, that his eternal destiny in Christ was and is secure regardless of what he might have done while alive on this earth.  And, I as his friend would never or will never stop loving him.  And I know that God never stopped loving him either. If we can make sense of all of this and in some way be changed for the good because of it, then I believe that would be the ultimate tribute to our beloved friend and a tremendous encouragement to his wife and children.  The greatest tragedy would be if it were all in vain. Just before Jesus left this earth at His ascension ,  He left words of encouragement for His followers.  He said .  “Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God believe also in Me.  In my Father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so I would have told you.  I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare this place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am there you may be also.”  And the scripture is very, very clear.  Jesus is there sitting at the right hand of the Father in heaven.

I believe Norma said it simply the best way it could ever be said to her children.  Daddy is in heaven with Jesus and when we get there we will see him again.  If your decision is made to make Jesus Lord of your life and let Him have control of your eternal destiny, regardless of your age or your circumstances, or how long you live on this earth, at the end of your life’s story when it ends in death, you too will see coach White again and will also forever be with the Lord.

I have one last word of encouragement for you.  These words were penned by Corrie Ten Boone.  “There is no pit so deep that God’s love is not deeper still.” And the scripture says that there is nothing that can separate us from that love.