What are you doing?

That question was ringing in Dave Padilla’s mind for the 2,249 mile cross country drive from California to South Carolina. But who’s counting?

Last July Padilla accepted a coaching assistant position under Jay Mills. But this was more than a job, more than trading palm trees for Palmetto trees or the sweet vineyards of Napa Valley for sweet tea. He was walking away from his roots, his family and friends. For Padilla, California was home. He grew up first playing, then coaching high school football there.

“That was hard for me; I had a lot of doubts about leaving home,” he said. “I think even more than that was I had no idea what I was getting myself into.”

What are you doing?

“I’ve got a good job at Ventura College. I was going to school at Ventura College,” he debated. “Being a minority I qualified for scholarships into the UC system. So there were opportunities lining up where I wouldn’t have to pay for anything going to a UC school.”

As he drove through Arizona, New Mexico, past Oklahoma and Texas, the question reverberated: What are you doing?

He was a couple long days – and thousands of miles – away from the answer.

Padilla was introduced to Charleston Southern University and head football coach Jay Mills during his stint as director of football operations at Ventura College.

“I’m driving home and I get a call from Jamie Chadwell (former CSU football recruiter),” Padilla remembers. He told Padilla, “Our head coach is in the area.  Are you in your office? Can you help me out?”

Padilla was on his way home. He made a U-turn and went back to the office and waited for Coach Mills.

“In the process of transitioning we started talking about the Christian faith,” said Padilla, who was working for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) in Ventura. “I didn’t even know CSU was a Christian university at the time. We started talking about faith and football, and I gave him a brief rundown of how I came to Christ.”

Now that is a story. Padilla was led to Christ by a 14-year old high school freshman student-athlete he coached at Cambrio High School.

“He challenged me as to whether or not I knew God or why I cussed so much,” said Padilla. “I look back now and I realize that there was always something different about him, he wasn’t like other kids on the team.”

He was persistent remembers Padilla, hanging around, coming in the office at lunch time, asking questions, doing different things, always asking Padilla if he wanted to go to church.

“I think I put him up against the wall a couple times because he wouldn’t leave me alone,” Padilla confessed. “I didn’t like him.”

But, Padilla finally gave in. He went to church out of pity for the student. “I felt sorry for him,” said Padilla. “I went, sat there and was ready to go when it was over.” But a bond had already begun to form. Eventually Padilla became one of the church youth leaders without being saved.

On Easter Sunday 2000, without the aid of a persistent teen, Padilla accepted Christ.

Arkansas, Mississippi, cities and small towns are a blur now. Bathroom stops, lunch stops, dinner stops. Just a year earlier moving across the country was not part of the master plan.

“I said after I get my degree I may want to go up to the next level if I can find an opportunity,” said Padilla. “I was going to be content honestly with staying at Ventura College and going to UC Santa Barbara. That was my goal.”

Things change, so do people, especially when you’re following Christ. For Padilla that day was March 9, 2009. The day Coach Mills called.

“I’m a product of Jay Mills,” said Padilla. “He believed in me enough to bring me out here to be a part of this staff and to help me finish school. I don’t buy into this vision because of what he did.

“Coach has a vision for this team, not just to win a championship, but to make better men. The championship is a byproduct of making better men. I bought into the vision because I believe it. Coach Mills is part of the vehicle to help you guys get there.”

What started as a passing conversation had become reality. Padilla accepted the job and on July 6, 2009 he began the long cross country drive. Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina … What are you doing?

“The reality of it is that I’m gaining everything here,” Padilla said. “Had I not given up all there are certain things that I would never have experienced. Spiritually here I’ve been challenged more. I’m growing. God’s challenging me more. I think about the rewards and the relationships I’m building here. I think about the kids that I’ve impacted here. That’s where God wants me right now. I think that’s a great place to be.”

Padilla says his life verse deals with responsibility. It is Titus 2:6-8:

Encourage young men to be self-controlled. In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us. 

“He is preparing me for something,” said Padilla, who added Jeremiah 29:11 comes to mind: For I know the plans I have for you. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

What are you doing?

Padilla is at peace. He is now singing, confessing he walks around campus humming the song It Is Well with My Soul.

Peace, at last.