Fall is in the Air! I can smell the season changing and see it to. With Fall, Comes Football! Yippee! And this morning I read of a mom telling a story about her son’s experience so far with football season. Thought I would share her story: Her son had moved up this season, and went from being the big kid on the team, to the small one. His mom had watched the past few weeks as he is piled on by the bigger kids. Whats the saying….deeper levels, bigger devils? She clinches her fists everytime he gets the ball, and holds her breath waiting for him to come out of the bottom of the piles. And after each practice, she watches him shake the coach’s hands and sit silently with his helmet on all the way home. He has always loved football and she really thought he always would. It was part of him. But lately, she felt he was struggling, and lately she didn’t see the love for it in his eyes, at least she didn’t think she did. She has never been one to let or encourage her kids to quit, but a few weeks back, she had to ask…”Son, you still enjoy playing football?” “Mom, I’m not quitting,” he responded. She explained that’s not what she meant (silently hoping) maybe he just might want to try something different. It was so hard for her to watch him get crushed every practice…she could only imagine how he felt.
She went on to tell that his team had since won their first three games. Her son plays a lot of the game, always defensive line. He had recovered fumbles, crawling straight through the offensive line, going for the prize. First game of the season - she sat there in the stands seeing a big pile of football players, knowing her son was at the bottom. . .she said she wanted to jump to her feet, wondered if he would be okay. He is after all her "baby boy." He is after all the "little guy" out there she said. The coaches start pulling the players off one by one and then, there was her son, football hugged as tight as possible to his chest. He had taken the ball from the offense and waited until the mound could be pulled off of him. The coaches got to the bottom of the pile and his coach lifted her son off the ground way into the air, He was still hugging the ball, to show the ref his team did indeed get the ball from the offense. There he was, her son, With the Ball. He is not a quitter she said with tears in her eyes. He is a gentle giant, and she was super proud of him. Not because he got the ball, but because He got the ball because He didn’t quit.
Hearing this story made me think of how God looks at our life. How he sees us being knocked down, beat up, and when we hang on and get helped back up…how proud He is of us. Today I am reminded…Life will hurt sometimes.It wont always be easy. It will require dedication. It will take prayer, lots of prayer. It will require will power. We will need to make healthy sometmes hard decisions. . . and it will take sacrifice. We will need to push our bodies and minds to the max. There will be temptation. But here is God’s promise to us, when you reach your goal, It's worth it all. Just like the little boy playing football, he gets knocked down, piled on by big kids, plays his heart out….but when he gets the ball and that touchdown….It’s worth it all!
I want to be like a football player on the defensive line. I'm not quitting. God, help me to keep plunging myself through what seems way too big for me, going for the prize. A lot of days I feel sat on, on the bottom of the pile (the laundry pile that is), the giants around me holding me back. I see in my mind these little boys getting up, shaking off the dirt and lining back up again on the line to go at it again…play after play. And this week a dear friend and mentor brought this verse to me. Matthew 18:3, And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. May we all be reminded today, kids don’t have it all together, their just out there learning their way through life, we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to be perfect and know the perfect things to do, at least I do. Our kids trust us and the choices we make for them. We should be like them….trusting our Heavenly Father and just doing what he tells us to do. Never giving up, just learning how to live this life, in Him.
Be encouraged today friends, the world will tell you to run from difficult situations, but think of how difficult we are, and the fact that God never runs from us. Problem after problem, issue after issue, that most we have brought on ourselves, He never quits, never runs out, never gives up on us.
And yes today, I’m singing Jesus Culture…One Thing Remains....His Love.
http://youtu.be/6_KXsMCJgBQ
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