My first point in regards to the statement of Merrill Hoge saying, “The issue is not with concussions/head trauma, but with the treatment of those concussions”, is that I respectfully disagree.  I believe the biggest and most prevalent issue IS the concussions themselves.  We must continue, regardless of the sport, to work to limit the number of concussions, whether by better equipment, changing the way our games are played, or adjusting the intention we have as players when playing the games.  This IS the MOST important, but not only, issue we are facing.

I have spent the last 22 years of my life living with a child that has a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI).  I understand the challenges that come with having an injury to the brain and although my son is a tremendous blessing, I am saddened by the daily struggles he has to face due to the injury.  So I hope all can understand my fear of placing any of my children into an environment where the speculation of head trauma is in the forefront.

With that being said, I fully agree with Mr. Hoge’s point that a huge issue with concussions is the way that they have been treated over the years.  And although the treatment of concussions has gotten better in recent years, I still believe we have a long ways to go in that department.

It begins with the difficult task of dealing with an issue that is NOT an exact science.  Many very intelligent people have studied concussions and there are few constants when it comes to the brain.   How one person’s brain responds can be very different than another, so it makes the process much more difficult to diagnose and treat.

But, I love that fact that at the NFL level they have changed the protocol so that anyone showing concussion like symptoms cannot re-enter the game.  I also appreciate the fact that last season my 12yr old played Pop Warner football and they made each kid get a baseline test done (a test used to analyze brain function in a normal state, so when someone suffers a concussion they can have a baseline for that persons ‘normal’ function and can compare the two.  Then they use the baseline results as the first step in knowing if a player is prepared to continue participation.).

Many things are being done to help in the process of treating concussions and not placing someone back into an environment where more damage can be done.

I will also point out that many believe the long term effects of concussion are created two ways.  First, with the initial blow and injury, varying based on the level of the head trauma suffered.  Second, the continual blows to the affected area before complete healing is done.  For instance, when those that suffer a blow to the head are put back into a game or never let someone know they have been injured and continue to ‘bang their heads’.  These subsequent blows are believed to be responsible for a portion of long term and lingering effects.

What I believe Mr. Hoge was saying in his statement is that this secondary point is vital in helping prevent long-term effects one may have due to concussions.  A point to which I agree 100%.

But, unfortunately, I still believe this secondary aspect is the most difficult to treat.  The reason being, as mentioned above, it is an inexact science.  What may be ok for one person does not always mean it is ok for another.  I have suffered a few concussions in my day and have had to treat each differently.  Some I felt as if I was fine and went right back to playing as soon as I passed the baseline test.  Yet, another I passed the baseline test with flying colors, but I felt personally that I wasn’t 100% healed.  I couldn’t really put my finger on what the lingering effects were, but I knew that I wasn’t ‘right’.  As you can imagine, this is where things get particularly difficult.

Because at this point it becomes a combination of awareness by the medical officials and the player to make sure the individual truly is safe to return to the field.  Medical officials can do all they know to do and can clear a player unbeknownst to them if the player is suffering from any lingering effects.  On the other side a player could simply take the advice of the medical staff being cleared and passing the baseline test as meaning they are good to go.  So you take all these differing positions of thought and then add the element of  ‘pressure’ and all of the sudden there is a great deal of room for error.

In a world where perception is reality, you can imagine the pressure in professional sports to get back on the field.  The pressure can be personal in that a player doesn’t want to let down his teammates by sitting out a game when everyone says he is cleared to play.  The pressure can be peer driven.  The ambiguous looks and feelings one derives from coaches and players that say, “you need to be on the field for us”.  Whether these are real or just thought up doesn’t really matter, because either way they weigh upon an athletes mind.  Then there is the pressure for many marginal players that if they don’t get out there and play their job will be given to another person and their career could be over.  But, probably the most demanding pressure is that those playing football are supposed to be TOUGH.  And we all know that tough means having the ability to play through injury.  Those that place their pain aside and lineup next to their teammates for battle gain instant recognition from their team.  Nobody in this business wants to be recognized by his teammates/organization as ‘soft’.

So although it sounds pretty simple to say all we need to do is treat concussions better than we have in the past, it is much more difficult to ensure this is going to a happen.  It becomes vital that medical staffs continue to proceed with caution in each and every situation – regardless of the position or status of the particular player.  And on the flip side it becomes just as vital for the player to be fully forthcoming with the medical staff/organization on where they feel they are in the recovery process and with any ongoing effects they may be suffering.  (Note: this is something very difficult for a professional player who is very aware of his body and what normal feels like, but much more difficult, in my opinion, for a young child who does not fully understand what exactly they are feeling or suffering from.)

I personally understand how difficult it is to handle all of these varying aspects of concussions and pressure, and in the midst of it all try to make the ‘right’ decision on what you ought to do as a player.  I know there have been times when I have fallen prey to the pressures of the business and then another time when I was able to withstand the questions and make the right decision for me personally.  It would seem that one would be much easier than the other, but I speak from experience when I say they were equally difficult.

Here sit your two options: To feel on one hand that you are letting down those closest to you off the field, but appeasing the powers that be (org, coaches, teammates) or to feel as if you are letting down the powers that be, but making the best decision for you personally both immediately and for the future.  Can you understand the pressure or difficulty of making this decision?

And although we have made some wonderful strides in the area of concussions/treatment of concussions I do not agree with Mr. Hoge in his statement that. ‘these things will NEVER happen again in the NFL’ in regards to the mistreatment of a concussion.  I do agree that there are more protocols in place to protect from mistreatment, but we saw last year in the situation with Colt McCoy that these protocols don’t always work to protect the player.  Colt was placed back in a game after suffering from a concussion, resulting in his father speaking out against the Browns medical staff.  Now I am not saying that the Browns staff knowingly mistreated the situation, but it just shows that are protocols are not fool proof.

So I like to think, due to my circumstances, that I am both educated and informed to a degree on the subject.

But, as a football player and a fan of the game I want my kids to play the game that I am so passionate about.  They currently play football and there are few things that bring me more joy than watching them play and getting excited about the game I love.  But, at the same time I am constantly concerned about my kids and the violence of the game of football.  I worry about them suffering head trauma and developing any long-term issues as a result of that injury.

So yes, I love this game and all the things that it taught me and afforded me along the way, but regardless of all that I have a responsibility to my kids.  I cannot be oblivious to the risks of the game of football simply because it was good to me.  So as my kids continue to play I worry about them every time they get hit, just as my wife worried about me every time I got hit in my 12 years in the league.

Now, I don’t want to scare anyone about this great game and I will continue to support all of the adjustments being made by the NFL (& other levels) to increase player safety in hopes that the game of football has a long and healthy run as the world’s greatest team sport.  But, we must proceed with caution and be informed of how to handle these situations if we ever find ourselves in them (as Mr. Hoge so eloquently stated).

For me personally I wonder what my future will be like after a long career playing this game and my thoughts towards my kids are reflective of that.  Unfortunately, I don’t know if I will ever be able to get past those things… only time will tell.

Then on the final note that was expressed by Amani Toomer & Merrill Hoge (and maybe countless others) that my saying I would rather my kids not play was ‘throwing the NFL under the bus’, I fully disagree.

I don’t know why it is so hard for people to understand how I can BOTH love the game and be grateful for what it did for me and at the same time have concern for my kids in regards to playing it.  Why does it have to be one or the other?

I love the X’s and O’s of the game.  I love the strategy of the game of football.  I love the competitiveness of playing the greatest team sport in the world, where 11 guys must come together at the same time for the team to have success.  I love the chess match within each game, the moves and countermoves and the pressure filled responses that dictate who will be the victor.  I love the discipline and hard work that is required to succeed in any sport, especially the game of football.

Yet, at the same time I am fully aware of the one aspect that I do not love… the violence.

And as I weigh all the tremendous benefits and joys of playing, it is difficult for me feel they outweigh the chances/risks that go with them, in regards to my children.  And this is a critical point: for my children.  I say that because obviously I felt completely different during my 12-year career.  There was no doubt in my mind that for ME, the benefits far outweighed the risks and I would never second guess my involvement in the game.  It has shaped me into who I am today and has provided me with many benefits for which I will be forever grateful.  Thus, the reason I love the game and have so much passion for it.  Things that I believe will never change… therefore I am extremely comfortable representing the NFL now, and hopefully for many more years, in the media, as I did during my playing career.

I believe I have a lot to offer to fans and players of the game due to my being educated and informed on most things football.  Therefore, I will continue to passionately share my feelings, both on the areas that I love and the concerns I have, to hopefully generate continual dialogue on how we can improve all things football moving into the future.

So I don’t believe I threw anyone ‘under the bus’, but rather spoke honestly about the concerns that I (and many others) have as a PARENT in regards to football.  I believe these concerns are the reason the commissioner of the NFL continues to do everything in his power to increase the safety of the NFL’s greatest commodity: the players.  Moves that I fully support across the board, because I believe at the end of the day, protecting the game and it’s players will ALWAYS be the MOST important thing.

Let’s move forward with this great game, but let’s continue to proceed with caution so as to preserve the ‘greatest team sport in the world’ and all of it’s participants, from the current players to future generations (which may or may not be my kids????).

Thanks for taking the time to read and I look forward to any thoughts, dialogue or debate that can keep us moving towards a brighter future.

God Bless,  KW

After the scripture was read someone got up and began talking about how loving the deceased was.  Not that I would expect anything else, but I often times think there are questions we ask that inevitably are answered the same way regardless of who we are asking.

For instance, have you ever asked someone if they are a good person? I have, many times, and NEVER have I had a person tell me NO!  Have you ever asked someone if they were to die today, would they go to heaven (for those of you who aren’t sure if there is a heaven, pretend there is and it is the place good ppl go)? I have and I have never had someone tell me NO (although I have gotten answers like “I think so” or “I hope so”) – even though sometimes I had to ask them a follow up question before we got to the fact that if it were up to them, YES they would be going to heaven.  Have you ever asked a woman if there is such a thing as ‘TOO’ many shoes? I have and I have NEVER received an answer of YES to that question (OK, just having a little fun now).  Last one.  Have you ever asked someone if they think they are a loving person?  If so, I would venture to say that you have never gotten a NO answer to this one either.

Why is it that we have such a positive outlook of ourselves?  Why is it that we can easily point out where others fall short of being a good person, earning their way to heaven, or loving others – but we have a hard time doing the same to ourselves?

One of the biggest reason I believe is because we have a larger view our own lives and we tend to gravitate toward the positive within ourselves, even when we may not do the same for others.  We could always point out a few moments when we were less than stellar in our life, but surely they don’t compare to ALL the wonderful things we do.

Go ahead… answer the three (4 if you are a woman) questions above and let me know what you come up with.  I am guessing I hit the nail on the head for just about every one of you!

What got me thinking about this was the fact we all view ourselves as generally good and loving people, but if we measured our lives according to what God tells us ‘loving’ people look like how would we rate.

As you read the following portion of scripture I want you to think about a couple key relationships in your life.  I want you to read the scripture and place each adjective into your relationship and really, honestly ask yourself if it is a characteristic you bring to the table.

“Love is PATIENT, Love is KIND.  It does NOT ENVY, it does NOT BOAST, it is NOT PROUD.  It is NOT RUDE, it is NOT SELF-SEEKING, it is NOT EASILY ANGERED, it keeps NO RECORD of WRONGS.  Love does NOT delight in evil but REJOICES in TRUTH…”

So that is the true picture of what a ‘LOVING’ person looks like… how did you measure up?

Yeah, I am sure you could put a check mark by each one of them at certain points in each relationship, but being a ‘LOVING’ person means doing them all.

Love is PATIENT… when your kids are screaming at one another all day long!

Love is PATIENT… when your spouse has had a bad day and is taking it out on you!

Love is PATIENT… when a friend is continually late for the meetings you set up or is forgetful when it comes to getting back to you in a timely fashion.

Love is KIND…  when your kids are trying their best but still can’t live up to your standard.

Love is KIND…  when you spouse says something less than intelligent in a conversation.

Love is KIND…  when a friend makes a bad move in business or a relationship that has cost them dearly.

Love does NOT ENVY…  when your kids are receiving accolades and honors that you could never achieve yourself.

Love does NOT ENVY…  when your spouse’s career has gone to the mountaintop and you find yourself still at the base.

Love does NOT ENVY…  when your friend hits the jackpot in their career or marriage and their life has become closer to YOUR dream than your own.

Love does NOT BOAST…  when your kids don’t achieve something that you did at their age.

Love does NOT BOAST…  when your spouse falls flat on their face by going against the advice you had given them.

Love does NOT BOAST…  when your car is faster, house is bigger, and life is better than your friends.

Love is NOT PROUD…  when you falsely accuse your kids, your spouse, or your friend of something they didn’t do and you must face the fact that you were wrong.

Love is NOT RUDE… when your kids are suffering from a bad decision they made.

Love is NOT RUDE… when you spouse has gained a few extra pounds and isn’t having their best moment.

Love is NOT RUDE…  when a friend commits an obvious faux-pa in the presence of people of stature.

Love is NOT SELF-SEEKING…  like pushing your child to do something they don’t want to do for the sake of making you look better as a parent.

Love is NOT SELF-SEEKING…  like  finding ways to make your spouse do ‘work’ while you are ‘being lazy’ (i.e. getting your child 2 go to mommy when they have a dirty diaper so you don’t have to change it – NOT saying I ever did that, just something I hear ppl with little kids do… LOL)

Love is NOT SELF-SEEKING…  like choosing to pretend to be close with something simply for what you believe they can do for you.

Love is NOT EASILY ANGERED… even when your son forgets to pick up his things everyday regardless of how many times you remind him.

Love is NOT EASILY ANGERED…  when your spouse fails to meet your expectations in the areas of responsibilities, personal standards, or intimacy.

Love is NOT EASILY ANGERED… when your friend shares something about you that is less than flattering to another acquaintance.

Love keeps NO RECORD of WRONGS… when your kids lie to you about something they have done.

Love keeps NO RECORD of WRONGS… to use against your spouse in a later argument showing them how far they fall short of you!

Love keeps NO RECORD of WRONGS… when a friend always seems to be on the taking side and never the giving side.

Love REJOICES with the TRUTH…  even when a child, spouse, or friend does something wrong, but has the strength of character to openly admit it.

… JUST TO MENTION A FEW!

I just wanted to give you a small idea of what ‘LOVE’ looks like and how a ‘LOVING’ person responds to those around them.  But, I would guess after reading each one you could insert numerous of your own.  I want to make sure the point of this exercise does not get lost in pointing out how others don’t live to each of these characteristics… I want each of you to really examine yourselves when it comes to ‘LOVING’ others.

The one thing I noticed in writing down all those examples is that ‘LOVE’ is NOT easy!  To be a loving person takes a lot of work and a conscious effort if we are going to live up to the standard Jesus has set for each one of us.

The amazing thing is that after going through all of those things, and being personally challenged by each and every one of them, I realized that this wasn’t even all of the characteristics pointed out in this scripture.  Let’s pick up in verse 7:

“Love ALWAYS protects, ALWAYS trusts, ALWAYS hopes, ALWAYS perseveres.”

Wow, that’s a pretty powerful verse.

Love ALWAYS protects… when your kids are being mistreated, even when they are grown up & seem to be able to handle themselves.

Love ALWAYS protects… when your spouse is being criticized by someone who doesn’t even know them.

Love ALWAYS protects… when a friend is speaking badly to you about another friend.

Love ALWAYS trusts… when your child tells you they didn’t do something, even when every adult in the room says they did.

Love ALWAYS trusts… that your spouse has your best interest in mind.

Love ALWAYS trusts… that your friend will keep the secret that you just told them.

Love ALWAYS hopes… the best for your children, your spouse, and your friends regardless how bleak the circumstances.

Love ALWAYS perseveres… even after walking on thin ice through the teenage years.

Love ALWAYS perseveres… even through those rough spots in your marriage when there appears to be no way out.

Love ALWAYS perseveres…  even after you have been let down a time or two by your best friend.

What I love (pun intended) about this verse of scripture is that it uses the word ‘ALWAYS’!  It doesn’t say every so often…  It doesn’t say sometimes… It doesn’t even say most of the time… It says ALWAYS!  The kind of person God is calling us to be is one who carries the characteristics of love with us ALWAYS!  That is setting the standard pretty high, but would you really want it any other way?

Let me ask you this, “If you had a parent or spouse or friend that did most of these things but not all of them, what kind of parent/spouse/friend would you say they were?”

For instance, let’s say that you had parents that didn’t trust you or protect you, would you consider them ‘loving’ parents?  What if you had a spouse that was easily angered, keep a record of all your shortcomings, and was always out for themselves would you consider them a ‘loving’ spouse?  Or what if you had a friend who was always rude to you, boasted continually, and very seldom showed you any kindness, what kind of friend would they be?

So now, take a moment and flip the coin… Let’s say you were the parent, the spouse, or the friend in the above paragraph, would you consider yourself a loving parent, spouse, or friend?

I believe the problem we have in society today is that our ‘LOVE’ standard has diminished tremendously.  We no longer expect anyone to treat us according to ALL the characteristics in this verse, so we settle for most or in many cases a few.  We are so starved for true love in many cases that if someone shows us even one of these characteristics we follow them around like a lost puppy because it feels so good.

And this is exactly the reason we  all think we are ‘LOVING’ parents, spouses, and friends, because we are just as good as those around us… problem is, we are comparing ourselves to the wrong standard!

I believe because there is very little ‘love’ in our culture we begin to weigh our lives on everything but.  We believe we are successful as a parent if we provide for our children, we believe we are a good spouse if we never cheat on our wife/husband, and we believe we are a good friend if we get invited to all the important events in another’s life.

It sounds a lot like the beginning of 1 Cor. 13: 1-3:

“If I speak in tongues of men and angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging symbol.  If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.  If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.”

What is Paul saying?  He is saying that it matters not if you possess any of the things the world says are important if you do not have love.  You could be the greatest performer in your field! You could possess the most unique skill man has ever seen!  You could give away everything you POSSESS!  But, none of it means a thing if your life is not rooted in love.  In other words, it isn’t the gifts that we possess or give that makes us great, for greatness lies in the means by which we distribute our lives!

As I heard this verse and all of  the kind words during the funeral I was impacted by the thought that I don’t want people to get up at my funeral and talk about me as a ‘loving’ father, husband, and friend, just because that is what you do at a funeral.  I want to spend the rest of my life making sure that is the kind of person I really am.  So no one in the audience says to themselves… that isn’t exactly how I remember him!

It doesn’t take too much searching to see the lack of love in our society.  Turn on the TV and flip through the channels and you are bound to find story after story of abuse and betrayal.  Every where we turn these days we hear another story of how envy, jealousy, self-promotion, pride, anger, etc… stomped out love and crushed the life out of a child, a friendship, or a marriage.

I want to be the exception!  I want to strive for the standard of Jesus!  I want to be better than I was today, not just better than the guy sitting next to me at church or the office.  I want LOVE to be my legacy!

I don’t just want my kids to hear “I LOVE YOU” everyday, I want them to see it.  I don’t just want my wife to hear “I LOVE YOU” everyday, I want her to see it.

In verse 8 of this passage  Paul makes the most powerful statement in the who chapter when he says, “LOVE NEVER FAILS”!

Ladies and Gentlemen, true love never fails.  When love is the strongest thing in a room, it ALWAYS wins.  When love is the strongest thing in a marriage, it ALWAYS wins!  When love is the strongest thing in a society, it ALWAYS wins.

The problem is, love is very seldom the strongest thing anymore.  Love has been overtaken by the opposite characteristics mentioned above.  Parenting is often dominated by power.  Marriage is often dominated by jealousy and self-seeking.  And friendship is often dominated by envy, pride, and distrust.

Every time I read this verse I can’t help but recommit myself to walking in ‘love’!  Why? Because I don’t want to fail those I love the most!  I don’t want to fail my kids!  I don’t want to fail my wife!  I don’t want to fail my friends! And most importantly, I don’t want to fail my Savior, Jesus!

We have spent the last 6 pages focusing on what most call the #1 love passage in the Bible, but if that’s #1 then I have to finish this letter with the #2 love passage, John 3:16:

“For God so LOVED the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whomsoever believes in him, shall not perish, but have everlasting life!”

You want to talk about a love that is patient and kind, that does not envy or boast, that is not self-seeking or easily angered… and we could go on and on down the list.  This one act bottles all that love is and packaged it together for all of us to see.  And the reason we know that this was the epitome of love is because it didn’t fail!

Jesus didn’t fail is his ability to walk in love every minute of every day and Jesus didn’t fail in using his love and sacrifice to cover each and every one of our shortcomings.  That is what love does… it covers a multitude of sins!

My hope to all of you who read this letter is to begin ‘loving’ those around you in a new and profound way.  I hope that each of you commits to leaving a legacy of ‘love’, similar to that of Jesus.  I think you will be amazed at the walls that are broken down, the fences that are mended, the friendships that are strengthened, and the marriages that persevere if you commit to this one thing.

The Bible tells us that ‘we love, because He first loved us’!  The love was placed on display some 2000 years ago when Jesus died on the cross for each and every one of us.  He loved us so much that he was willing to ‘cover our sins’ with it.  To experience that love in a daily relationship I encourage you to pray the prayer below:

“Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for sending your send Jesus to show me what true love is.  I thank you for His sacrifice on the cross for me.  I ask for your forgiveness of all my shortcomings… cover me with the blood of Jesus and help me to walk in your love from this day forward.  I know that walking in love ALWAYS is not an easy task, so I ask that you be with me daily to give me the strength, guidance, and faith to offset my moments of weakness.  Thank you for loving me the way that you do!

In Jesus’ Name, Amen!”

If you are praying this prayer for the first time I would love for you to reach out and let me know.  I would love to pray for you as you begin this spiritual journey with Jesus, I promise it will be the greatest decision of your life.  Along with letting me know, I encourage you to find a good Bible based church and liked minded Christians to help you in this walk with Jesus.

For those of you who didn’t pray this prayer or have prayed it before, I hope that if nothing else, this message made you take a look at your life.  I hope that it pushed you to take an honest assessment of where your ‘love’ life stands right now and where you need work to approach the standard that Jesus has set for us.

I know none of us are perfect, but the more we can overcome our perfections with “LOVE”, the greater the impact we will have on the world around us.  I don’t know about you, but I would love to live in a world that majors in love and not hate… I would love to live in a world that instead of looking to be offended is looking to forgive… I wouild love to live in a world that didn’t look to one-up their fellow man, but looked to lift their fellow man up one… and I know for that to happen we have to start someone! So what do you say we start right here and right now… I am in, hope you will join me.

Thanks for reading… send me your thoughts & comments on facebook or twitter & I would even love for you to encourage me and others by sharing anecdotes of how you shared the ‘love’ of Jesus with someone due to this writing!

Let’s do this again soon…

YBIC KW

So often this life of obtaining stuff… money, fame, position, etc… just leaves us exhausted, depressed, self-conscious, and selfish!  We become so consumed with what it is that we think will satisfy US – a better living, a bigger house, a faster car, a better job – that we actually forget what life is all about!

Here is what I have come to believe about people.  I believe that everyone truly wishes to see a person or people that exemplify values, character, and morality.  We long to have people that not only talk the talk, but that truly walk the walk.  We want to believe that a life of integrity can actually be accomplished and we want to see someone show us. 

I believe this is why we love Super-heroes.  We want to believe in that ideal that good can triumph over evil.  We want to believe that there are individuals that will put their lives on the shelf for the good of another.  We want to believe that it is giving to others in life, instead of living for yourself, that will actually get you ahead in life.

The problem is very few every live up to the ideal set in all of our minds.  Too often, just when we have started to believe in someone they let us down.  Just when we are beginning to gravitate toward the idea that it can actually be done… BOOM, the bottom falls out from under us. 

You all know what I mean!  Just when we begin to believe that great role-model athlete, who has it all, is perfect… BOOM, a sex scandal.  Just when we start to believe that perfect actor or actress is whom we are going to model our marriage after… BOOM, we hear about them getting a divorce.  Just when we have found an authority in the church community that we look up to and that we think has all the attributes to follow… BOOM, they are caught in an affair. 

It is because of all these unmet expectations that I believe our world has become a bit calloused and now embrace those moments when those in the lime-light fall.  I believe our culture now is more apt to look for the chinks in the armor than the actual Knight in shining armor.  Our culture has come to justify their lives and lack of morality based on the norm in our society.  The more people fall in life, the farther our culture falls in relation to their longing for a hero.  Even when there is someone who is beginning to live up to the model we lean towards the old adage, “It’s just too good to be true” and we start looking for where they fall short.

Our society still longs for the model, the ideal, the hero… but we have come to find comfort in the fact that person just isn’t out there.  And if that person isn’t out there, then all of our shortcomings, selfishness, lack of integrity and morality can be overlooked because, ‘we are just like everyone else’!  And due to this, we begin wallowing around in life believing that can never actually succeed at representing our ideal, so what’s the use of trying.

This whole idea stems from the true reason that I wanted to go on Dancing With the Stars.  I wanted to submerge myself in the world – away from the church, away from the ideal, away from the comfortable confines of my Christian friends – and try and give Jesus proper representation.  I wanted to try and model something different and uncommon that would attract people to Jesus, instead of turn them away. 

I had the greatest of intentions when committing to the show, but at the same time I really had no idea how I was going to do this.  Was this going to look like sitting down with everybody I met and sharing Jesus with them?  Was this going to look like carrying my Bible and quoting scriptures whenever the moment felt right?  Was this going to look like throwing the name Jesus out in every interview or handing out Christian material to everyone I came across?

I went into this experience open to how God would lead me, but with no preconceived ideas of what this would look like.  In tonight’s writing I want to share with you the few things I learned in this process – in hopes of encouraging you to jump into your own ‘DWTS’ opportunity – whether that be at work, home, church, bar, etc…

The one thing that becomes almost immediately evident when being submerged in the world is that often times ‘we are the only Jesus someone will ever see’!  So many people have never given Jesus the time of day or have moved so far in the other direction that just the simple mention of his name makes them run in the opposite direction. 

So the first thing I learned is as Saint Francis of Assisi once said, “Preach the gospel always and if you HAVE to use words.”

People don’t really care to HEAR about Jesus if they can’t SEE Him!  Most times they must recognize Him in your life, long before they will actually listen to what you have to say about Him.

OK, again that sounds great, but what does that look like?  How do we show the world Jesus without talking about Him?  How do we impact people for Jesus with actions only?

Here are the things that God shared with me along this journey in hopes that they can encourage you when you come across your ‘DWTS’ opportunity.

First, I turn to the book of Ephesians 4:8-9 where it says:

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things.  Whatever you have learned from me, seen in me (this is Paul talking, but he is saying with the model of Jesus in mind) – put it into practice.  And the God of peace will be with you.”

In other words, go into every situation focusing on those things that represent integrity, morality, and character.  You must plan ahead in regards to how you can place all of these things on display no matter what the circumstance you find yourself in.  Know what it is that you stand for and strategically represent them to those you come in contact with.

For instance, I went into this situation knowing that I would be dancing next to a beautiful women for up to 6 hours a day.  I knew that I could very easily see my partner more than I would see my wife during my time on the show.  I knew that there would be times that we would be in close proximity and she may not be wearing a lot of clothing.  I knew there would be plenty of opportunities where the simple appearance of something, in and of itself, could be misinterpreted.

So we always planned ahead in relation to how we would deal with the situation.  We made sure that my partner and I were never alone together where someone could misinterpret the relationship.  We made sure that very early in the show (after first dance) we brought recognition to my marriage and love for my wife by kissing her after a performance (which was actually Anna’s idea – whom I thank God for – because she wanted to represent the same things I did).  We made sure that my wife and kids were a constant presence throughout the show.  We designed each of the routines to display all the proper requirements, with a healthy respect & chemistry, but never delving into the world of overly sexual. 

And one of the coolest things that we did, before every dance, was to pray that Jesus would be properly represented and glorified in us.

We tried to do exactly what Paul was sharing to the Ephesians, which was ‘think about such things’.  It is important for us to go into each situation with a focus on all the excellent and praiseworthy aspects of Jesus.  We must make a conscious effort in life, particularly when we are entering the more ‘worldly’ areas, to prepare ourselves in how we can best represent Godliness.

To me, impact begins with intentions.  It begins with understanding what and whom it is that you represent and ‘thinking’ on how it is that you can best represent them within your current circumstance.  Impacting others for Jesus must begin with taking all those things that make up Jesus (that which is mentioned in Eph) and putting them on display with conviction and consistency for the world to see.

I believe, if you can enter every situation knowing the hurdles, as well as the possibilities and you can represent the character of Jesus – you have a chance to impact everyone you come in contact with. 

The second thing that became apparent to me is that you have to be willing to rub elbows with anyone who crosses your path.

Too often in the Christian world we would rather hang around other Christians that say and do the same things.  It is much easier to be around like-minded people because then the boat will never be rocked and we will never run the risk of having to get into the water (out of our comfort zone).  It also allows us to stand on our little pedestal as Christians and criticize the rest of the world for NOT being as good as us.  I always notice how much easier it is to recognize the faults of others when we have a little higher (more arrogant) vantage point.

As I entered this world I quickly realized there were very few like-minded allies in regards to my faith.  I realized that God had placed me smack dab in the middle of the battlefield and that He had done it on purpose.

I was continually reminded throughout this process that Jesus spent MOST of his time hanging out with people who were completely different than Him.  He spent his time with people of different races, cultures, social standing, character, integrity, finances, and morality.  He embraced the differences of each one and took each and every opportunity to represent a higher standard. 

His calling, as I believe is mine (and all of ours), was to impact the world by representing His Father to every man, woman, and child he came along.  His goal was to represent the essence of all that was good, God, and in doing this to help us all recognize our need for a relationship with Him.

I can’t begin to tell you all of the crazy things I encountered in the ‘DWTS’ world, but it is safe to say it wasn’t much different than the locker room or various other worldly areas I have been in the midst of throughout my life.  It was a world full of sinners (which of course, included me) that needed Jesus, like all others.

But, let me just say, if any of you want to be in the ‘world’ changing business you have to embrace the ‘world’!  There is no way to change the world from the comfort of your own living room or from the chair in your local church. 

The world needs to see Jesus and the only way they are going to get that chance is if we pull up a chair right next to them and show them.  My encouragement to all that wish to change the world is to make one step tomorrow toward whatever worldly area God is calling you.  It doesn’t matter if it is in your place of employment, your local neighborhood hangout, your friend’s book club or card game, or everyone’s favorite bar – God is calling you to change the world, now it’s up to you to get out of the boat and start swimming towards it!

The third, and last, thing I will share with you tonight about my experience comes from the book of 1 Cor 9:19-23:

“Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible.  To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews.  To those under the law I became like one under the law, so as to win those under the law.  To those not having the law I became like one not having the law, so as to win those not having the law.  To the weak I became weak, to win the weak.  I HAVE BECOME ALL THINGS TO ALL MEN SO THAT BY ALL POSSIBLE MEANS I MIGHT SAVE SOME.  I DO ALL THIS FOR THE SAKE OF THE GOSPEL THAT I MAY SHARE IN IT’S BLESSINGS.”

What I have learned from this passage of scripture is that to impact people we have to meet them where THEY are at.  We must go to them and embrace who they are in hopes of sharing the greatest blessing we can, Jesus.

Again, you are probably wondering what exactly this looks like.  To me this looks like the world, but maintains the character of Jesus.

Think back to life of Jesus.  Do you remember when he entered the house of the tax collector for a meal?  Do you remember when he allowed the prostitute to pore oil on his hair?  Do you remember when he sat at the well and spoke with the Samaritan women?  Do you remember when he hung out with the sick and shunned?  Do you remember when he entered the synagogues and preached? Or when he spoke with the governing officials and church leaders?

In other words, if you think back to the life of Jesus he took on whatever role he needed to so that He could reach the world.  There were no places or people that were off limits.  There were no practices, that didn’t compromise His sinlessness, that were unpracticable.

Jesus was willing to go to any length to share himself with the world in the hopes of saving it!  Aren’t we called to do the same?

If that means we are called to dance next to a beautiful woman, we dance next to a beautiful woman.  If that means we meet someone in a bar for a drink, we meet them in the bar for a drink.  If that means the only way to have dinner with another is on their turf, we meet them at their house.  If that means we must eat what they eat, do what they do, go where they go, and act like they act to reach them, then we do just that.

(VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: Understand that the only way we are called to do any of these things is if they don’t compromise the standard and beliefs by which we live.  We don’t EVER go against Godliness in the name of saving another – but it is ok to make whatever concessions we can from our own lives, outside of that, if it can help us reach another.)

During my time on the show I saw God show up on the dance floor, in the interview rooms, in the make-up trailer, during our football games, in the audience, with the judges, on the big screen, with the cast, with the staff, with the band, on the set, off the set, at my hotel… and the list could go on.

I heard testimonies from cast members, dancers, camera people, musicians, audience members, fans, and producers of how God worked through me on the show.

Please, know that I say none of this to brag or promote myself, but simply to encourage you that if God can work through me in that setting, He can work through you in yours.  I have seen God show up every time I made myself available to Him and I believe He will do the same thing in your life.

What I know is that I have never been the most talented or gifted person.  And I don’t really bring anything unique or special to the table.  But, I am continually amazed and humbled that God would choose to use me like He does.  The only thing I can attribute it to is my commitment to represent Him properly and my willingness to give Him situation, regardless of what it is.

The same is true of all those that He used in the Bible.  The Bible is a compilation of stories about average men who God used in extraordinary ways.  That is what He does!  He takes a willing vessel and He uses them to impact the world.

My encouragement to all of you today is to make yourself available to God.  Give Him your life and your circumstances and watch what He can do.  Like me, I am sure you will be amazed.

Remember, YOU may be the ‘only Jesus someone ever sees’! So your responsibility is to look as much like Him as you possible can (and don’t worry, he’ll help you if you let him)!

What does He look like?  First, He looks like a man of unmatched integrity, character, values, and morality (Eph 4:8)!  Second, He looks like a man who has no judgment or prejudice, but is willing to meet with anyone of whom he has audience.  Third, He looks like a man who is willing to meet anyone right where they are at.  He doesn’t play favorites, He doesn’t set requirements, He doesn’t force others to appear or act a certain way, He doesn’t only meet with them on His terms – He joins them in their world and where they are comfortable in hopes of joining in a relationship with them.

I am sure there we times on the show where I didn’t represent Him exactly as He would have liked… I know that I am still a work in progress.  But, my encouragement comes in watching the impact He had through me when I did represent Him properly.  That encouragement excites me about continuing the relationships I began on the show and also in regards to where God is going to take me next.

I was able to see a glimpse of how the world longs to see Jesus represented by us.  The world wants to know that there is hope when it comes to living with character, morality, and integrity… and it is our purpose to make sure they know that hope lies in Jesus!

My hope is that everyone reading this is encouraged to give their lives over to Jesus… for those who have a relationship with Him already, I hope you take a step to represent Him tomorrow better than you did today.  And also that, like I did with DWTS, you embrace the new opportunity to reach the world that God has placed in life.

For those that have never had a relationship with Jesus, but long for something greater in and from their life, my hope is that this message has touched you in some way and that you would pray the following prayer and begin a life of walking with Him:

Dear Heavenly Father,

I thank you for loving me.  I thank you for creating me with a purpose.  I thank you for making me unique and wonderful.  I know that I am not perfect and I recognize that I have made mistakes, but I thank you for sending your son Jesus to cover each and every one of them.  Please forgive me of my sins, so that I may get back into a right relationship with you, both now and for eternity.

Help me from this day forward to become more like you daily.  Mold me and shape me into the person you wish for me to be.  Give me direction, guidance, and courage to represent you the way you deserve to be represented – so that more people may come to know you personally.

Help me to love you the same way you love me.

In Jesus’ Name… Amen!

(If you prayed that prayer for the first time, congrats on making the best decision of your life! I would love for you to let me know, so that I can pray for you and encourage you moving forward.  I would also encourage you to find a good Bible based church in your area and hook up with some like-minded people to help you in the beginning stages of this process.)

God wants to use all of us to impact the world for Him… but to do this He needs more of us to represent him properly… I hope this letter has encouraged of few of you to try and do just that! 

Let’s impact the world together… starting today!

 YBIC, KW

 I recently had a conversation with a friend of mine who had suffered from various addictions and has found himself sober for about 10 months.  He has recommitted his life to the Lord and is working to figure life out with God as the center of it.  In our conversation he mentioned some of the struggles he has dealt with in the past and some that he still continues to deal with.  One of the big issues that came up in our conversation is letting God take over our lives in places where we feel like we can handle it ourselves.

 I would guess most of you, who have a relationship with God, have managed to find yourself in this situation at least a few times in your life?

 I struggle with this issue probably more than any other in my life.  Why, because God has blessed me with some amazing gifts.  I am aware of the gifts, but too often I tend to rely on them instead of on God.

 Over the last couple of seasons playing football I found myself in this place.  I was continually trying to accomplish everything on my own.  I found myself pushing more and more every season and every week to be better than I was the week before.  I was only sleeping a few hours a night, I was losing weight, and I was beginning to feel the physical affects of these efforts.

 The problem was that I was also seeing the rewards on the football field.  I was having some of my best seasons playing.  I had the opportunity to prove many wrong who thought I couldn’t play anymore.  And I was blessed with the chance to play in my third Super Bowl, which not many people have had the chance to do.

 The more success I had and the more I seemed to be able to control the situation around me, the more addicted I became.  I couldn’t pull back from the current routine, because I was worried that if I worked less I may not have the same kind of success.  Also, the more success I saw the more I feel into the world’s motto “more is better”!  I felt that if I was having this level of success working this hard it was just logical that if I worked even harder I would have more success! Thus, they cycle began!

 So throughout those couple of years I justified all the sacrifices physically for simply the price that I had to pay for success.  I mean, after all, success NEVER comes easy, right?

 The thing I realized in the process was that the more committed I became to working the less time I had to enjoy my relationship with God.  I would spend 12 hours a day thinking about football and would be lucky to spend 15 mins with God.  I would always choose football over God, because if I didn’t I thought the success would stop and I always knew God would be there whenever I could make time for Him.

 I was right from the standpoint that God would be there!  Every time I did make time to read my Bible and pray, sure enough He would show up.   Even if I only had 15 mins it seemed like God always gave me some new direction within that time.  Each time I spent with God was the best part of my day, because it made me feel the most alive.  It gave me passion for living life for Him and not just living for worldly success.  It was at these moments where I began to believe God was leading me to retirement.

 The only problem was that I always left our time together and walked back into the cycle of the life I had created.  Soon after I left my quiet time I was back to the grind and too often would forget everything God had showed me just minutes earlier.

 I began to recognize the complications that we developing in my life.  I was able to recognize how all of this time, stress, and pressure was tearing me apart, but I had no idea how to stop it.  I knew I couldn’t pull back, because if I did and stopped have success, then I would blame myself for not doing all I knew I had to do.  I had gone too far into the process, and as a competitor, I couldn’t pull back.

 So I did what most Christians do, I prayed that God would step in and save me from all the physical affects of this process.  I prayed that God would allow me to do the same amount of work, but if He could just sustain me physically we would be all good.

 The problem was that no matter how much I prayed this, nothing happened.  Yes, God continued to show up when I did my Bible studies and chapel services, so I knew He was there, He just wasn’t answering my specific prayer.  Anybody ever been there?

 So I figured that it just wasn’t the right time or I just wasn’t doing it right, so I continued to pray the same prayer day after day believing that God would one day meet my needs.  So days went by, weeks went by, and months went by with seemingly no answer.  The more I prayed for God to relieve my burden the more I realized He wasn’t.  I couldn’t figure out why God would allow me to suffer from all of this.  I felt like I was living a good life, making good decisions and still loved Him with all my heart, so why wouldn’t He just fulfill this one request.

 About this time I was led to a verse in 2 Corinthians that has impacted my life almost as dramatically as any other.  The verse is found in chapter 12 starting at verse 7:

“To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given to me (notice it doesn’t say by God) a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.  Three times I PLEADED with the Lord to take it away from me.  But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in your weakness!”

 Wait a second, did that just say that God told Paul, NO?  Paul, the greatest evangelist of all-time, just asked God for something and God told him no! 

 I know there are many verses that talk of asking for God for things and believing for them and they will happen.  I believe all of these verses, but I also come to believe that there is a contingency to each of them.  The contingency is that we are asking with right motives and they are a part of God’s plan.  He isn’t just going to answer one of our prayers if it pushes us further away from Him, even if it might  make life easier for us.

 You see, in the instance of my prayer before God, I was simply asking because it was hurting me.  I had no intention beyond alleviating MY burden.  I was asking for selfish reasons, so I could continue to dedicate my life to worldly success and not have to suffer any of the consequences from doing it.

 This verse changed the way I started looking at life.  This verse showed me that the biggest problem I was dealing with wasn’t the physical consequences, but that I was trying to do everything myself.  I was living my life without allowing God to enter the equation.  I wanted to do everything on my own and was only turning to God for the alleviation of the suffer I was causing.

 Notice in the beginning of this verse it says, “To keep me from becoming conceited…”  I often wondered what this meant, but then if you read the rest of the sentence it begins to become more clear, “… because of these surprisingly great revelations.”

 In other words, Paul was starting to see some great revelations taking place because of the work that he was doing.  He was beginning to see the losingest franchise in the NFL start to turn things around.  He was beginning to hear people talking about all the great things he was doing.  He was beginning to get all the headlines.  He was seeing the fruits of his labor (as I was, if you couldn’t make the connection).

 I was realizing that all the hard work I was doing was paying off.  I was experiencing a level of success (those ‘Great Revelations’ Paul was talking about) that no one expected and I was feeding off of it.  The only problem is that I wasn’t always looking at if from a Christian perspective.  I wasn’t always viewing the situation as, ‘look what God is doing’, but often times was saying, “look what I am doing”!

So in this process I began to become conceited.  Now, it wasn’t that ‘I am Great’ arrogance that you find in some, it was more of the ‘if I work hard enough I can do this by myself’ conceit.  I started to act in such a way that it was all about me (conceited).  I didn’t seem to need God in this part of my life – yes he had gotten me this far, but I could take it from here.  Take it I did! And I began to feel the ramifications of trying to do life all by myself.

 In my anguish, I reached out to God to solve my issue! God take away all the ‘bad’ stuff in my life – this is ALL I need you for – I got the rest! Anybody ever pray a prayer like this?  It’s like the old prayer, ‘God if you just do this one thing for me, I will never ask for anything else again!’  The only problem with a prayer like this is that God doesn’t want us to NOT ask for anything ever again.  In all actuality He wants the exact opposite, He wants us to ask Him in EVERY area of our lives.

As I read this passage over and over, I began to realize that God is NOT going to answer every prayer the way we hope for Him to.  His ultimate goal is NOT always to make life easier on us.  His goal is for us to walk life right next to Him, understanding the importance He plays in everything we do.

 The problem is, that I too often forget to make God a part of every area of my life.  I too often separate life into two categories 1) the things I can handle on my own 2) the things I need God for.  Somewhere I got away from the premise that I need God in every area of my life.  That I can’t handle life without Him and specifically, I can’t handle life the way He desires for me to, without Him!

 I have found myself dealing with that issue during this time in my life.  I am engrossed in the DWTS.  I often find myself trying to handle things all by myself and asking God to take away the frustrations I have.  But, what I realize again is that if God answers that prayer and the frustration is gone, what forces me to seek His face everyday?  What pushes me more towards Him than practicing more for the show?

 The point, just like the Lord was making to Paul in this verse, is that if God takes ALL our struggles away we won’t feel the need for having daily interaction with Him.  If we begin to feel that we can do life all by ourselves, that is exactly what most of us will choose to do! Why? Because it’s easier!

It’s easier to live a life where everything is in your control.  It is easier to know that you are NOT dependent on anyone else to make your life successful, by the world’s standards.  It is simply easier to live life without having to deal with trials, PERIOD (I know I can get a witness on that one)!

 My goal in this letter today is to encourage you to go to God daily, NOT simply to pray for the alleviation of struggles and trials, to ask Him to walk through life with you.  He wants us to know that the greatest success in life is found in walking with Him not just having Him solve all of our problems.

 I think about my marriage.  What kind of marriage would I have if the only things I ever said to my wife were, “Can you iron my shirt it’s really wrinkled?  Can you make me dinner, I am starving?  Can you pick up my house, it’s a mess?”  If all I did was ask my wife to make my life easier, what would that relationship look like? 

 My point is that just like in marriage, the greatest aspect of God is the relationship.  And that holds true NOT only for us, but for the other entity as well.  God’s greatest joy does not come in solving all of our problems, although I know that makes Him happy, but it comes from having daily interaction with us.  Just like my wife’s greatest joys aren’t in fixing my problems, although again, she loves do that, it’s in spending time everyday with me (I know, hard to figure out how that could be someone’s greatest joy – set myself up for that one)!

 At the end of this verse in 2 Cor, God let’s us know the key to this whole Christian life thing.  God tells us that ‘His grace is sufficient’!  His grace is there to surround us every moment that we need it, regardless of whether that is from sin or from trials.  If we will just call on Him, He will cover us with that ‘grace’.  Now, isn’t that the greatest gift we could ask for?

He tells us in John 3:16, “He so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whomsoever believes in Him shall NOT perish but have everlasting life.” 

 His grace is sufficient where we are NOT!  This holds true first in the area of sin, which He has covered through the giving and sacrifice of Jesus.  And this also holds true in the struggles of life, where He informs us He is there to go along for the ride, to help us through it, if we will simply call out to Him daily!

 There is a reason Jesus tells us to pray for our ‘daily’ bread!  The key is daily.  How many of you go without eating for a whole day?  I know I don’t.  So why do I think I can go a whole day without the one who sustains me spiritually? 

 I hope that this message has encouraged you in 2 ways.  First, I hope that is shows you God does NOT abandon you in your struggles.  He is NOT just saying, “sorry, not going to answer your prayer, you are just going to have to figure this one our on your own!”  God is right there, hoping that you will ask Him, not just to take the struggles away (although there is nothing wrong with that – I do it all the time), but more importantly, to be there everyday to help you through it!  This is so much greater for us than simply having God take all of our burdens, why because it promotes relationship, which is truly what sustains us as human beings.

 Second, I hope this letter encourages you to stand in God’s grace everyday of your life.  I hope that it encourages you in knowing that you don’t have to do life all by yourself.  You don’t have to kill yourself for the world and it’s successes, because that’s NOT what life is all about.  Let God step in and pick up where you can’t.  Let God step in and hold you up when you fall.  Let God step in and comfort you where you are struggling.  This is what being a Christian is all about: Living in daily interaction with Jesus!

 My last couple of years playing football were a continual struggle for me both physically and spiritually, because I tried doing life by myself.  I tried to take on all of the burdens of life I could handle and then give the consequences over to God.  He has shown me that He is looking to take away the consequences as much as He is looking to take the burdens.  By this I mean, He wants to be the one that lifts us up, He wants to be the one who promotes us, He wants to be the reason we are successful, He wants us to give our lives over to Him, NOT just be the genie who gives us our three wishes when we are ready to ask for them (or dealing with trials).

 Understanding the gifts and talents God has given me often makes this a struggle for me.  I often tend to lean on myself whenever I can, but the more I tend to do this the harder life becomes.  The more burdens I take on myself, the worse I actually get at being a good husband, a good father, and a good _______________ (fill in the blank with my current profession).  Life by ourselves is hard.  Life by ourselves is a grind and a struggle. 

 God wants to make life easier on us.  God wants us to enjoy our lives more.  God wants to extend His grace to us in every area where he need it.

 The key is understanding that all of this doesn’t come simply by God ridding our lives of all difficulties, but that they come with walking next to Him daily!

 My prayer God is that all of us quit bombarding you with ONLY the request of ‘take my thorn’, but that right after (or maybe before, now that would be progress) those requests comes the most important one ‘cover me with your grace’ (because I really need it in my situation).

 God’s grace is sufficient wherever you are in need – take a moment today (and everyday), and focus more on acknowledging it and thanking Him for it!  I am going to do that right now.

 Blessings to all…

 YBIC KW

I can promise you that it wasn’t because I felt I was a superior dancer and just wanted to show off to the world.  It wasn’t because I had nothing else to do and wanted to spend more time away from my wife and children.  It surely wasn’t for the money or fame or attention that it would bring.  Nope, not so I could take the opportunity to embarrass myself in front of 20 million people each week or because I had an open shelf in the trophy case where I thought the ‘Mirrorball’ would fit perfectly!

So why?  Why choose to do a show that many deem ‘provocative’?  Why participate in  a show that places you next to a beautiful woman, who is not your wife, for up to 6 hours a day in close proximity?  Why associate yourself with a show where many of the contestants wear little clothing and move around in a sexual way?  Why do a show that may affect the credibility you earned while playing in the NFL?  Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?

I have received letters from friends asking these very questions!  I have received letters from those in the ministry criticizing me for making this choice! And I have received numerous facebook and twitter messages referencing how big a mistake this whole thing is!

So amidst all of these questions I wanted to take a little time to share with all of you why I have made this choice.

In the early stages of receiving the offer to be on the show, I almost immediately said NO!  I couldn’t see how something like this could be a benefit to my marriage.  I didn’t need the notoriety I would receive because God had already taken care of that throughout my football career.  I didn’t see any positive side to making a fool of myself in front of all those people.  And my perception, like I believe many of you, is that it doesn’t appear to line up with the idea of Christianity at all.  So with so many strikes against it, I was ready to simply go my first response.

But, before doing that, I thought I would take a little time and pray about the whole situation.  I realized that God had taken me this far and done some amazing things in my life, even though the initial signs appeared bleak, and I owed it to Him to at least ask Him what He thought!

Fully expecting my initial answer of ‘NO’ to be confirmed in prayer, I spent some free time hanging with Jesus.  And it didn’t take long before He directed me to a couple passages of scripture that would ultimately help me to make my final decision. 

The first scripture was Matthew 9:9-12 and it says this:

“As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth.  “Follow me,’ he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.  While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and ‘sinners’ came and ate with him and his disciples.  When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, ‘Why does your master eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners’? On hearing this Jesus said, “IT IS NOT THE HEALTHY WHO NEED A DOCTOR, BUT THE SICK.  BUT GO AND LEARN WHAT THIS MEANS: ‘I DESIRE MERCY, NOT SACRIFICE.’ FOR I HAVE NOT COME TO CALL THE RIGHTEOUS BUT THE SINNERS.”

Hmm, does the question asked by the Pharisees sound familiar?

The second comes from the book of Mark 16:14-15: “Later (after being risen from the dead) Jesus appeared to the Eleven and said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel”

After reading this two scriptures for the thousandth time, I was struck by exactly what God was trying to tell me.  He was letting me know that He didn’t place me in the position I am in to hide out in the church and preach only to those who enter those buildings (although I know this is important and part of my calling).  He had called me to the WORLD, to those people who may never set foot in a church and may never (in their circles) have Jesus shared with them.

In taking me to these scriptures He enlightened me on the fact that His placing of me in the NFL was no different then the idea of Dancing with the Stars!  He showed me that there is little in a locker room that appears Christian either.  There is vulgar music, violence, language, sexual innuendos, hate, selfishness, pride, prejudice, judgment, etc…  So why did I never get these same questions in regards to my football career?

My point is simply that God has called me to reach the world, by going into places where all Christians may not choose to go.  He has equipped me to be a light in the darkness and my responsibility is to embrace it, step into, and allow him to use me as he sees fit.

I look back at my 12 year NFL career and reflect on what God did during that time.  He allowed me to lift up his name on the podium at the Super Bowl.  He gave me numerous opportunities to have conversations with people that had no direction and were spiraling out of control.  He allowed a uneducated young Christian the opportunity to speak to hundreds of thousands of people about Jesus.  He blessed me with the unique gift of showing people what it looks like to love Jesus when you are on top and when you are in the valley.  He allowed me to hear a comedian reference me as ‘David’ going into the Lions den on Monday Night Football.  And he has allowed me the opportunity to represent Him daily in the public eye.

Wow, not bad considering that it all took place in a very secular, sinner dominated environment! Hmm, sounds very similar to what many think of when they hear ‘Dancing with the Stars’!

I also find it ironic that it seems to be so closely related to the portion of scripture that I referenced above in relation to the situations that God called Jesus too.

What is my point?

My point is simply that I believe God has called me be ‘in the world, but not of it’!  He has called me to embrace the ungodly things, in hopes of sharing the Godly in them.  I am not sure if He is calling all of you to the same things, but I know He has me, and He is equipping me for them by giving me perspective.

Where many say, how can you possibly work so closely with a beautiful woman wearing such little clothing?  My response is, watch me show you how you can do such a thing and still honor your marriage and love your wife.  And already in my first dance (which I know wasn’t the greatest! LOL) I was able to make that statement by going over and kissing my wife in front of 20 mil people after just dancing with that other beautiful woman!

Where many say, how can you take the reputation you built during your football career and destroy it by doing something like Dancing with the Stars?  My response is twofold, first I don’t really care about my reputation, I care about reaching people and this platform allows me to do just that.  Second, I say that what I have come to find as the most attractive characteristic of any Christian, to a non-Christian, is a realness that comes from sharing your shortcomings as well as your strengths.  This show allows me to show that I can laugh, make fun of myself, and engage in relationships with people of all kinds, and still in the midst of it all, Love Jesus!

Where some say, you must not get along with any of the cast members, because they appear so worldy and sinful?  My response is that I love the other cast members on the show.  Yeah, they are flawed, just like I am, but they also are real and need a relationship with Jesus as much as I do, and they need someone to show Him to them!

I could go on and on, with other questions and answers as to why I am doing this show, but I think you all get the point.

I have not been placed on this earth to judge or criticize or determine the fate and sin of others.  I have been placed here to direct the ‘sick’ to where they can be healed and to go into all the world and preach the gospel.

Right now, that world is found and the sick are tuned in on Monday and Tuesday nights on ABC! 

I know all of you may not agree with me and would not choose to do the same thing, but I would ask that you not judge me, but that you pray for me.  Pray that I can represent Jesus the way He deserves to be represented, because I believe if I do, you will all see exactly why God chose to put a Christian on DWTS!

Thanks for listening and supporting  KW

The trip was amazing from many different standpoints.  The history of Roman culture is second to none.  I am continually amazed at all they accomplished so many years ago.  The character of each city was exciting to see and explore, from the seasoned look of Venice, to the hustle of Rome, and eventually to the extreme beauty of the Amalfi coast.

And then there was the food! I think we spent 10 days simply trying every different kind of pizza and pasta we could get our hands on (I am sure the scale will reflect this when we arrive home).  All the pizzas were relatively simple in toppings, but due to the freshest of ingredients it made them outstanding and the dough was the best.  The pastas, on the other hand, were tried with great variety.  We had olives, capers, cherry tomatoes, clams, seafood, sardines (or minnows, as my wife calls them), octopus, and squid, just to name a few. Then we actually ended our trip at a cooking class taught by Momma Agata, a must for any traveling to the Amalfi coast, it was the highlight of our trip (can tell you more about later, if interested). 

I don’t want to bore you with all the little details of the trip, but wanted to just set the table for what I am writing about today.  I wanted to break down all of the different things that we saw and experienced and then talk about how God, amazingly, is able to speak to us in most of them, if not all, if we are looking for Him.

I could begin a lot of places, but it only seems fitting for a piece like this to start in Vatican City.  Wow, what an amazing place. Did you all know that it isn’t just a city, it’s actually it’s own country?  No, I am not kidding.  From my understanding, everything you could possibly need to survive is located there behind those walls.  They even print their own money, although I believe it’s only a limited amount. 

Everything about this place, starting with it being it’s own country, was done in grandiose fashion.  Every where you looked you were captured by the quality of the architect, the materials, the paintings, the sculptures, the layout, etc…  As our guide was telling us about all the pieces and rooms that made up this amazing place, we were overwhelmed by the details in which they did everything. 

They had marble columns and statues that were finely sculpted down to the smallest details.  They had 20×20 hand woven tapestries depicting different scenes and people that are hundreds of years old, but looked as if they were produced last week (they actually have a group of nuns on property whose jobs are the study how to restore these tapestries).  The mosaics (pics designed by using millions of small, colored glass pieces the size of your fingernail) were simply incredible.  You had no clue they weren’t paintings until you walked up within a couple feet and saw all the little pieces it took to create such a scene. It was simply jaw dropping at moments.

Funny thing is, all of this was before we even entered the Sistine Chapel, saw the Pieta, or wandered around St. Peter’s Basilica.  It didn’t matter where you went in the whole city (oops, country), the attention to detail in everything was extremely well done and almost, from some perspectives, excessive.  It is in light of this amazing, and a bit overwhelming, visual display that my letter is derived today.

How many of you have ever watched a movie with a friend or spouse and upon discussing the movie at the end wondered if the other person was even in the same theatre as you?  Or how about having a conversation with a group of people about a specific topic and hearing how different someone else’s view is from yours?  How about when recalling a common experience you and another shared, only to find out they saw the whole situation from a completely different perspective, even though you were holding hands with them through the whole thing?

I would venture to say that you have all been there a million times.  My wife and I are so familiar with one another that I can even recognize the look on her face, when I am telling a story about something we have shared, that seems to say, “Were you high on something that day, because that is NOT anything close to what happened!”  Trust me, this happens far more commonly than you may think.

It is nearly a daily occurrence in our relationship that we experience something together, read the same book, see the same movie, hear the same story from our kids, watch a news program, hear a persons life story, etc… and upon discussing we realize that we see things so differently.  This is exactly why the last book we wrote, First Things First, is about our parenting and relationship, but is written from each of our perspectives.  We go through different aspects of our life and we each tell our side of the story.

For so many years I would walk away from those experiences and wonder how in the world this could happen so often.  How did I marry someone so different from myself, and not even notice?  But, over the course of time I believe that I have come to understand why this can happen and why it can happen so often. 

Yes, a great deal of the time it occurs because we are different.  One of us is male, the other female.  One of us is tall, the other short.  One of us is athletic, the other not so much.  One of us eats a lot, one of us doesn’t.  One of us would workout every day; the other would rather never workout.  One of us doesn’t sleep much, the other can fall asleep standing up.  One of us isn’t big on veggies; the other could be a vegetarian if not for me.  One of us organized, the other more into orderly chaos.  One of us passive, the other you could call aggressive.  I could probably write another five pages, but surely you get the point, and you have probably already started your own list in your head.

But, the other factor that is much more difficult for us to put our finger on is the emotional or cognitive state of the other.  I never know what my wife is feeling like when we are watching a particular movie together.  Or I may not know a particular past experience that may be shaping her viewpoint about the person’s story that we may be listening to.  I never know if she is applying an interaction to her own life or simply using the moment for pure entertainment.  Her mind may be on the stress in her life or something that happened between her and a child that day or even a past memory of one of her parents.

Our perspectives are already different and then they change daily based on how we are looking at things.  We all have numerous different glasses (emotions, experiences, beliefs, faith, etc…) that we could put on at any given moment of our lives and each one changes the way we see things.

This brings me back to our experience at the Vatican.  We spent the day with a tour guide that pointed out just about every nook and cranny of the place.  She told us the background stories, history, and uses of many of the pieces located there.  She told us about the lives of different popes, artists, and the country itself.  We saw so much stuff and received so much information in the three hours we spent together that B and I had very little time to talk in the midst of the experience.

Upon going back to our hotel that evening we sat down for a drink to relax and recover from the barrage of information we received.  We began to discuss the day and what gripped us most about the Vatican experience.

Although I was raised Catholic, I no longer practice in that religion and have some distinct feelings about both the positive and negative experiences I had as part of it.  So knowing what I did about the Catholic religion, or at least how I experienced it, I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect.  I was afraid that much of the experience was going to center around the saints and Mary instead of, on Jesus, where I thought it should.

But, I have to say, even with my reservations, I was pleasantly surprised.  I spent the afternoon seeing Jesus in a unique and powerful way.  I couldn’t stop thinking about the Sistine chapel and it’s great display of the whole of creation and the life of Jesus, in particular.  Seeing the Pieta, Michelangelo’s sculpture of Mother Mary holding the broken body of Jesus, I was flooded with emotions.  To travel around for hours looking at the mosaics, tapestries, paintings, etc… depicting the character and person of Jesus, to me, was extremely impactful.

Of the many hundreds of things that I saw that day, from the busts of animals, bathtubs of emperors, and shrines of various people, to the marble columns, bronze ornamentation, and embalmed bodies of past popes, the primary memory I had in leaving was completely centered on Jesus.

Yet, as I shared my viewpoint of the experience, my wife sat on the same couch, holding my hand, giving me THAT look (the one I mentioned earlier questioning if we were even in the same place all day)!

She then began to share with me the impression that was left on her.  She left the Vatican with a feeling very similar to my concerns before entering.  She left feeling as if the whole place was more dedicated to the papal (Pope) history, than to the faith they represented.  She pointed out the contrast of the numerous busts and shrines and statues dedicated to these past officials, in comparison to the few dedicated to Jesus.  She went looking to see Jesus and left seeing much more religion.

Please, I pray that no one takes this as a knock or attack on the Catholic Church in any way.  Although we both definitely have our reservations about organized religions, this letter today is not about those, but about perspective.

The point I am trying to make in regards to our shared experience at the Vatican is that two people can see one thing so drastically different, based on their perspective.  I went into the experience expecting to see little about Jesus, so in my surprise, I was impacted more by Him.  On the other hand, my wife went into the experience expecting to see a lot of Jesus, and in her surprise, she was impacted by the focus on the church.

Two people took the same tour, with the same guide, heard the same words, and saw the same images, yet were indelible impacted in different ways.  Why, because their perspective was different.  They were looking at an experience from two totally different standpoints.  They were looking at an experience with their own prejudices and biases and it dramatically affected the outcome.

I don’t share this example as a right versus wrong equation.  It isn’t one of those, “I saw more Jesus, she saw more man”, moments where I am trying to show myself spiritually superior (I have done that before, but this is not one of those times!) to her.  This is merely an example to impress upon all of you that our experiences are almost always shaped by the glasses we are wearing and the perspectives that we have.

Let me share with you one of my favorite portions of scripture.  It comes from the book of Numbers 13:1-2; 17-20; 27-33:

“The Lord said to Moses, ‘Send some of my men to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites (v.1-2).’ 

When Moses sent them to explore Canaan, he said, ‘Go up through the Negev and on into the hill country.  See what the land is like and whether or the people who live there are strong or weak, few or many.  What kind of land do they live in?  Are they unwalled or fortified?  How is the soil?  Is it fertile or poor?  Are there trees on it or not?  Do your best to bring back some of the fruit of the land (v. 17-20).’ 

After coming back, they gave Moses this account: ‘We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey!  Here is its fruit.  But the people who live there are very powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large.  We even saw descendants of Anak there.  The Amalekites live in the Negev; the Jebusites and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan.’

Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, ‘We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.’

But, the men who had gone up with him said, ‘We CAN’T attack those people; they are stronger than we are.’  And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored.  They said, ‘The land we explored devours those living in it.  All the people we saw there are great in size.  We saw the Nephilim there.  We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them (v. 27-33).”

What I love about this particular portion of scripture is that the 12 men were sent all had the same physical viewpoint.  They all saw the same land, the same fruit, and the same opponents, yet there were two very different reports.  Sound familiar?

The simple difference in my opinion is where their eyesight was coming from.  What pair of glasses they were wearing!

Notice in the very first verse of this passage it says that the Lord told Moses to send some men to explore ‘the land He was giving the Israelites’.  In other words, God already told them He was giving them the land.  He had already told them that He would go before them and defeat all of their enemies, because this is the land that He had promised to His people (thus the term ‘Promised Land’).  So in actuality, He wasn’t asking them to go and decide if they wanted it or could overcome those that inhabited it, He was simply telling them to go look and see what He was going to do for them.

So here go these 12 men to scout out the Promised Land.  The problem was 10 of the men had on their man made glasses and two of the men had no their God made glasses.  Ten of the men were looking at the situation based on their own strength and two of the men were looking at the situation based on God’s strength.

Just looking at the last verse of the passage pretty much sums up the whole scenario, ‘we seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.’

It is easy to look at these types of situations in the Bible and come to the conclusion that if we were one of the 12 we would definitely be on the side of the good report.  We would definitely, knowing God, have trusted Him to do what He said He was going to do and deliver us into the Promised Land.  Easy, Easy, lemon squeezy!  No doubt in us!

Really, you think so?

It is funny how many times I have thought to myself, “How could the apostles, after walking with Jesus, go back to their old lives when He died?  How could any of them, after spending so much time with Him, deny Him?  If I was one of them, I would have never turned back!”

Then I quickly come back to reality and realize I do the exact same thing every day!  I know Jesus and what He promises and what He has already done for me, yet every day I struggle with doubt in my life.  I have seen the Promised Land, who am I kidding, I live in the Promised Land, yet I still look at so much of my life from a human perspective.  I am still intimidated by the challenges of life, because I, like the Israelites, am looking at the giants, instead of at God.   I see my opponents instead of my Ally!

Just like these Israelites, I have seen the way God has sustained me over the years when I was wondering through the desert.  I even have the luxury of knowing what it is like to live in the Promise Land, a perspective they didn’t have at this point (and if you read further, you will realize that the 10 who came back with the bad report and all those who believed it, never made it to the Promised Land, only the men of good report, Josh and Caleb did), and I still see myself like a grasshopper way to often.

I sit here right now facing new challenges due to retirement.  Over the last decade or so God had prepared me and showed me the new lands that He wanted me to possess when football was over.  He has continually sustained me, time and time again, when I was in over my head and out of my league.  I have been privy to His ability to use the ordinary to accomplish the extraordinary. 

I have walked with Jesus, I have seen His amazing works, and I have heard Him tell me that ‘He has already given me’ certain things (now I just need to claim them), but still I doubt.  I still allow myself to be intimidated by the giant situations around me.  I still, often, have nothing to bring back but a bad report.

But, what I am continually realizing is that it all hinges on my perspective. 

The moment I begin to worry about myself is the moment I always miss God! 

The moment I start comparing myself to the giant, is the moment I am defeated!

We all face giants every day.  Some face the giant of being great at our careers.  Some face the giant of trying to raise children in a crazy world.  Some face the giant of fighting for our marriage when the easy thing to do is give up.  Some face the giant of stepping out from a comfortable situation to follow their dreams.  Some face the giant of wondering where your next meal may come from or how you are going to pay next months rent. 

And we ALL face the giant of having to go toe-to-toe, mono-y-mono with our own Goliath (could use any of the names in the above passage, but thought you might all recognize this one!).  The question is, are we looking at them through God’s glasses or our own?

The Bible is full of stories about ordinary men, like these 12 sent out by Moses, who were able to overcome extraordinary odds because they saw their giants from the position of a GIANT GOD!  They realized that life changes, situations change, and challenges change when you are looking down on them, instead of looking up at them.

God is calling us to fix our eyes on Him and to see life from His perspective.  He is asking us to trust our lives with Him, so that we can experience the blessings of the Promised Land that He has prepared for us.  But, you have to make the choice to see things as He does.  You have to make the commitment to getting to know Him well enough that you recognize Him in every situation.

Hebrews 12:1-2 says, “Therefore, since you are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses (Josh, Caleb, David, and the many other ordinary who were used for the extraordinary), let us throw off everything that hinders (intimidates, elicits fear and doubt) and the sin that so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race marked out for us.  Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning it’s shame, and sat down at the right hand of God.  Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”

There is much in life that steams up our glasses and clouds our vision of Jesus.  There are people’s attitudes. There are people’s words.  There are people’s actions.  There is poverty, tragedies, and crime.  There is selfishness and sin.  There are pains and scars of past experiences.  There are religions.  There are hypocrites.  There are our own prejudices.  There is the busyness of life.  There are pressures of jobs.  There are the cries of our children.  There is the fatigue of our bodies.  There is the pursuit of hobbies.  There is laziness.  There is fear.  There is comfort. There is lack of knowledge.

The list is long and we have probably all fallen prey to each of them at least once.  The great thing is that were not alone.  The Bible is full of great people whose vision was clouded from time to time.

Jonah’s glasses were clouded by intimidation and it led him to be (in the words of my 4yr old) ‘eated by a whale’.  Elijah’s glasses were clouded by the fear of evil and it led him to a place where he wanted to die.  Peter’s glasses were clouded by selfishness and it led him to deny Jesus three times.  Moses glasses were clouded by prejudice and it led to his killing of a man. 

But, the one great thing about all of these men is they realized what the problem was.  They realized that their glasses were clouded because of their perspectives and that a simple adjustment made all the difference.  That adjustment was getting their eyes off of their giant and placing them back on God.

My prayer for you today comes from the book of Ephesians (1:17+) and from the mouth of Paul:

“I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.  I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and His incomparably great power for us who believe.”

Before I go (my battery is about to die), I want to go back to my original example of the Vatican, because I think that it develops this point in two ways.

First, the obvious, Brenda and I saw the same thing in two different ways.  We were looking at the same buildings, the same pictures, the same country, but due to our focus was drew two very different conclusions.  Brenda was looking at man from God’s perspective.  She was looking at all of the things man had done to place the focus on himself, instead of on God.  She was looking from a similar perspective to Jesus when He started flipping tables outside the temple, because people were making it about them instead of God.

On the other hand, I was looking at the buildings, pictures, and country from an opposite perspective.  I was looking at God from man’s perspective.  I was focusing on those things man created to show God and was consumed by seeing their story within them.

As you can see, neither was right or wrong, in and of itself, but both have led to many problems in the human race.  The first, man playing God (so to speak), has become the means of so much hatred, judgment, and self-righteousness.  By coming up with our own conclusions of what God thinks of others, we have misrepresented Him.  It has been the reason many have run away from God, instead of towards Him.

The second, using man’s ideas to find God, is the root of all religion.  Religion has become man’s way of setting up rules and parameters to try and reach or find God.  This too, has pushed many away from the true God, because they can’t or don’t want to have to live up to this ideal.  Life is all about perspective and it is important that we don’t allow our OWN, to prevent us from seeing God’s.

Think, for a second, about these two ideas: God’s perspective of looking at man and man’s attempt to find God.  Where do these two ideals meet together?  Yep, in the person of Jesus!  Where we have attempted and failed, Jesus has tried and succeeded.  He has shown us, through His life and words, God’s perspective of mankind.  He has shown us a God who looks upon us with love and forgiveness, not with condemnation and judgment. As a man, Jesus has given us the perfect depiction or perception of God.

At the same time, Jesus has also given us an example of how man is to view God.  He has shown us what kind of perspective we are to have towards our Heavenly Father and what a life, through these eyes, is supposed to look like.  It is a life built on love and reverence toward the Father, which overflows into the way we approach one another.

Jesus is the perfect representation of where these two ideas converge and, when in proper perspective, work for the betterment of the whole.

Secondly, it shows us that the perspective by which we do anything can have great consequences on those around us.  As Christians, we have a tremendous responsibility in our lives to represent Jesus the way He deserves to be represented.  Every word that we speak and every action that we take is being watched and a misguided perspective (motive), no matter how small, can have damaging results.

Thus, the great importance of keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus.  In doing so, our knowledge and wisdom are increased and our direction is more focused.  We will not only be able to decipher what God is trying to show us, but we will also be able to act in a way that is righteous.

It’s all about perspective.  So my encouragement to all of you is to spend time getting to know our Father better.  Spend time studying His word and His actions.  Spend time praying to be enlightened by His Spirit.  For knowing Him is the only way to develop the proper, Christian, perspective.

My hope is that, the next time you see a difference in another person, you will celebrate it instead of criticize it.  The next time you are drawn to the sin of another person, you will pray for them instead of condemn them.  The next time you argue with another, you will check your own motives first, instead of blaming the other.  The next time you are face to face with your giant, you will look over them to your GIANT GOD instead of running the other direction.  The next time you are incited by an enemy, you will shower them with love, instead of hate.  The next time that you are faced with temptation, you will reach out to God (like Jesus did), instead of try to overcome it on your own.

As I wrap this up, let’s take one last look at the model in Phil. 2:1-8:

“If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like minded, having the same love, and being one in spirit and purpose.  Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves… Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:

Who, being in the very nature God,

Did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,

But made himself nothing,

Taking on the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness,

And being found in appearance as a man,

He humbled himself and became obedient to death,

Even death on a cross!”

If the world could only have this kind of perspective, what might it look like?

They always say, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”!  Did you catch that; it’s in the EYE of the beholder.  It’s in the perspective of the one who is looking. 

I can honestly say I am thankful that my beholder is God!  Because what I know is that when He sees you and me, He sees the beauty of Jesus.  When He looks upon us, He sees the righteousness of Jesus.  When He gazes upon His children, He sees them perfect and without blemish.  Through the eye of God and the lens of Jesus (and what He did for us on the cross) we are the greatest masterpiece ever created.

I am also thankful that we have gotten the chance to see through the ‘eye’ of Jesus as well.  We have been fortunate to see His perspective on the world around us.  To Jesus, beauty isn’t measured by attractiveness or weight.  It isn’t measured by bank account or job title.  Beauty isn’t measured by the kind of car you drive or the house you live in. Jesus isn’t looking at a checklist of rules or a lack of sin.  He doesn’t look at the color of skin or the church that you attend. 

To Jesus, beauty comes from within.  To Jesus, beauty is rooted in the heart.  Jesus sees beauty, when He sees us loving His Father and loving one another.

So now I throw that old cliché at all of you! If ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder’, what is beautiful to you?  What is your perspective on beauty?  I am pretty sure it will depend on where your eyes are fixed or maybe more accurately, what your heart is fixed on!

My challenge to all of us is to work at changing our perspective.  Let’s get away from using man’s idea of beauty and let’s stop playing ‘God’ and projecting our own ideas on others.  What do you say we put on the lens of Jesus and start looking at life from His perspective?

YBIC KW

 The best part for me was obviously NOT the amount of money we spent in a short period of time, or even the size or number of prizes we had to stuff in our bags for the flight home.  The best part for me was watching my kids engage in the variety of different games in which we participated. 

 We played the basketball shoot and the baseball throw games.  We played the games where you have to shoot water into a hole racing to be the first to pop a balloon.  We played the game where you used bean bags to try and knock the three weighted (that’s my story and I’m sticking to it) wooden canisters off  a table (it happened to be the only game we didn’t win and it drove me crazy, but was smart enough not to let pride get the best of me by dropping a couple hundred dollars for a $2 prize, but man did I want too!).  We played the game where you have to toss softballs and get them to stay inside a bucket mounted on its side.  The boys even tried a game where you had to balance and walk up a 10 rung rope ladder that was secured on both ends and suspended in the air (this one was hilarious to watch as my boys were flipped, time and time again).

 The reason why I enjoyed this part of the trip so much was because each game had a different strategy involved with it.  You couldn’t just blinded go up to any of the games and expect to win without trying to figure out why they set the game up like they did and what was the best means of defeating it.  So it became much more than just a physical exercise, but a mental problem solving one as well.

 Some of the games came down to brawn and having to muscle the game to win.  Some came down to accuracy and picking out the easiest target to hit, since it didn’t matter how hard you threw the ball or bean bag.  One came down to finesse, having the ability to softly toss a softball so it didn’t come out of the bucket.  The list could go on and on.  Each game was designed in a specific way so the fair owners could take home more money than they gave away prizes, and the best way they do this is by making a person approach each one differently if they want to win.

 The benefit this has for the owners is that most people don’t want to think when they go to the county fair.  They want to drop $5 and then go up and throw the ball really hard and win that BIG stuffed animal for their lady or kids and feel really good about themselves (We also love carrying around the BIG stuffed animal, like putting it on display, so everyone else at the fair can see it, it’s a nice ego builder for us!).  The problem for us BIG strong guys is that we don’t normally win due to our muscle.  So once we lose and our pride is hurt we just keep dropping money until we do win or we are willing to take a big hit to our pride, and we all know which one is likely to come first.

 It is funny, if you watch people who play these games, they never want to stay at the same game for very long.  Even though they are good at one of the booths and could stay there and win all night long, they inevitable move from one to the next after just a couple tries.  Why, because the prizes are different and the challenge is greater! 

 We love to prove that we can win ALL the different games.  We want to show everyone how versatile we are, because it’s more impressive than just sitting around and doing the same thing over and over again.  The problem is… most of us are one trick ponies.  We are really good at one thing, but struggle when having to change our approach.  We feel as if we have perfected a certain way of doing things and we want to bring same approach to everything we do.  But, unfortunately it doesn’t take us long to realize that it’s hard to very many of these games using the same approach.

 OK, I know you all are thinking, what in the world does this have to do with my spiritual life?  You just spent a page and a half talking about carnival games, what does this have to do with my life, especially since I don’t live anywhere near a place where I can play these games?

 What I realized during my time playing these games with my boys is that the world around us, or more specifically the people around us, is set up in a very similar manner.  No two people are exactly alike and no two people can be approached in a relationship in exactly the same way.  Strategy must be used within every relationship to make it a successful one and to make sure each one produces the BIGGEST prize.

 I need look no further than my own household to see this principal on display.  As most of you know, I love sports and specifically the game of football.  This works great when it comes to relating with my two middle boys.  They love sports like I do and it speaks to them and draws us closer when I choose to go outside and play with them.  But, if I try to get my girls to hang with me by offering to play a game of football with them the chances are I will probably be throwing the ball to myself in the backyard.

 So to have an effective relationship with my girls I have to figure out what speaks to them and choose to join them in it.  So often times I am spending my days putting together fashion shows, watching interpretive dance (using the word interpretive loosely), and playing with dolls.  Not necessarily the way I would like to spend the better portion of my days, but if I want to connect with my girls, it’s how it’s gotta be.

 Then there is my 21 yr old son who simply loves to pick up trash and listen to music.  So a day of enjoyment for Zack is just the two of us (he hates it when ‘all the little ones’ have to come) taking a ride around the neighborhood looking for trash.  Last week, on the way to a movie we saw two broken limbs lying on the road and we pulled over so Zack could jump out and throw them in the back of the truck.  Zack never stopped smiling the rest of the night.  Mission accomplished: Connection made!

The list goes on with the kids and keeps on going as I get to my wife.  She loves a good ole’ foot massage, a evening lying in bed together watching all HER favorite shows, a corny love note that reminds her of all the reasons I love her, or even a simple gesture of letting her go up to sleep early while I put the kids to bed.  These are all things I have spent time figuring out over the years so that we stay connected.  For I have come to realize there is no way to truly impact another without being connected to them.  And the greatest knowledge I have gained over the years is: the best way to connect with someone is by meeting them right where they are and not trying to get them to where you are!

 This whole experience reminded me of something the Apostle Paul said in the book of 1 Cor. 9:19+:

 “Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible.  To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews.  To those under the law I became like one under the law (thought I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law.  To those not having the law I become like one not having the law (though I an not free from God’s law but under Christ’s law), so as to win those no having the law.  To the weak I became weak, to win the weak.  I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some.  I do all this for the sake of the gospel that I may share in it’s blessings.”

 How exactly did playing games on the pier remind me of this scripture?

 Well, to me this statement by Paul is simply restating what I mentioned earlier about the different games we played on the pier.  Each person, like each game, is designed differently, with a unique approach needed to connect with them (win the prize).  Our job as representatives of Jesus is to figure out how God can use us to impact each and every person we come in contact with.  Our calling is to figure out which strategy will open up another’s heart to us and allow us to share with them the person of Jesus (this is when God hands us the biggest stuffed animal in the booth and whispers, “Well Done!”).

 I love how Paul says it, “… To the ________ I became like a ___________, to win the _________!”

 Great advice, now it’s up to us to fill in the blanks.  The blanks could be family members, friends, acquaintances, neighbors, teammates, employees, employers, enemies, and even tweeps!  It doesn’t matter whom you are trying to reach, the key, in Paul’s opinion (and mine), is to meet them right where they are.  In each relationship, we must find a common ground in which to meet.  Then we have to make the proper adjustments in our game.  We have to change our strategies.  And where needed, we must develop the skills that allow us to hang with others in THEIR place.

 OK, so now we have the basic premise figured out: Be willing to reach out to others where they are comfortable.  Now, we just have to figure out how we do this.  It sounds easy to just meet someone at their house, instead of ours, but the key isn’t always just location, it’s approach.

What does it mean when Paul says, “… he becomes like a Jew or one under the law or one not having the law”?  How can Paul possibly be all of these things?  Because if he becomes all of these things, doesn’t that mean he must be compromising his beliefs to some degree?

 I would have to argue, NO.  I believe that all Paul is saying is you have to meet people in the places where they are comfortable.  We must be willing to do certain things (i.e. go to a denominational church that we don’t subscribe to) or give up certain things (i.e. don’t watch particular shows that may offend/effect another in a negative way) to put our love for another on display. (Please note, that Paul never implies compromising those hard line issues laid out in God’s word, but only the importance of being more lax on issues of personal preference – key issue, so let me know if this doesn’t make sense)

 Let me share a little of how this has worked in my life.  As many of you know, since arriving in the NFL I have been very open when it comes to my love for Jesus.  I have never been shy about sharing the place that faith has in my life and my career.  I am often times looking for ways to share this passion of mine with any and all that will listen.

 Due to my outspoken nature and how I have been portrayed in the national media, many have developed, let us just say, a unique perspective of what I must be like.  Most people assume that if they were to sit down with me all we would talk about is Jesus.  Many of my teammates have told me that they expected me to walk around the locker room with Bible in hand quoting scriptures any chance I got.  And still others were afraid to hang out in near vicinity of me, at lunch or in the weight room, because they believed it would drastically alter the conversations they wanted to have. 

 I was stereotyped based on the limited knowledge people had of me.  So every time I entered a new locker room or met a new teammate I had to figure out what was the best strategy to share my love of Jesus with each of them.  Yes, I was equipped to talk about Jesus in every conversation or to stand on the stool at my locker and holler out scriptures to all who would listen, but that wasn’t what God needed me to do.  God needed me to figure out how to connect with each and every person in those locker rooms and he quickly showed me that I couldn’t approach any two the same.

 As I began to get to know my teammates and, probably more importantly, they got to know me, I came to understand what Paul was talking about in the previous passage.  I came to realize that to some the greatest way I could share Jesus with them was to continually be a daily example from afar.  To others the best way was to show them my passion for football and share that with them.  To another it was to show my imperfections and show how similar my life was to theirs.  And another it was to make my door always available when they had an issue.  Others needed to see me as a loving husband devoted to my wife or a loving father committed to my children.  And in all honesty there were some that simply needed me to dance to some rap music or have a conversation with them about sex!

 These are just a few of the ways I dealt with the different folks I have spent time with over the years.  The list could go on and on, but the key was always showing people that I was more like them than they could imagine and that one of the only differences (even though it might be a BIG one) was that even with all the junk and normalcy in my life, my greatest love was Jesus.

 But, what always amazed me was how God was able to use each and every one of these ways to open the heart of the person on the other side.  I saw walls crushed by becoming like them (even though it wasn’t all that much of a stretch)… I saw hearts soften by becoming like them… I saw lives changed by becoming like them…

 I have had many people over the years and even recently via social networking ask me how I was able to witness to people who were so different than me.  I have had many people asking my opinion on how to reach someone in their life that believes so differently from them or who just shuts down any time God is brought into the conversation.

 My response is always, it isn’t in the differences that I have had my greatest impact on others, it’s in the similarities.  It is through the connections I have made with others that opportunities were presented to share something deeper.  And in most of the cases, it wasn’t me that started the conversation toward Jesus, it was them!  I believe this is exactly the principle Paul is trying to share with us through his life.

 Yes, there is a time to throw scripture at someone, but there is also a time to simply be a shoulder.  Yes, there is a time to stand up in defense of Christian principles and there are others where a quite rebuke is necessary.  Yes, there is a time when inviting (or dragging) someone to church is the correct means of action, but there are others when meeting someone in a bar is most effective.

 God’s call on our life is to share His love with the world.  But, God’s challenge to us is to use any means necessary to do just that.  God wants to touch the heart of every person on this earth, but He knows that many are going to have to be reached outside of a Christian building or event if His plan is to be accomplished.  This is where our sensitivity to His Spirit is so vital.

 We can’t just start knocking on doors and throwing scriptures at every person we meet, that may work on some, but will probably drive more away.  We can’t just spend our relationships with people pointing out all the ungodly things they are doing and expect that to draw them closer to God, again it may work on a few, but probably many more will be turned away.

 Our challenge is the same challenged that faced my boys and I as we moved from one booth to the next during our trip to the pier.  The challenge lies in our ability to figure out what needed to be done with EACH game to achieve the ultimate prize.  In life, the challenge lies in figuring out how to ‘become like_______’ in EACH relationship we are fortunate to form with another.

The words that we read above from 1 Cor were obviously written by Paul’s pen, but just like everything else written in the Bible, they come from Jesus’ example.  For those of you familiar with Jesus’ life, take a moment and think about how these exact words were played out time and time again in His life.

 There were the times that Jesus joined sinners in their sin.  He was criticized by the Pharisees for joining with the sinners at their homes, yet it was these sinners who would eventually make a place for Jesus in their hearts.

 There were times where He went to the synagogues and read scripture and spoke eloquently of it’s meaning to those who came to hear God’s word.  And it was there also that many made a place for Jesus in their hearts.

 There were times that Jesus met the multitudes where they were, at their wedding or without food, and performed miraculous acts as their hearts were open for His message.  It was here also that many gave their hearts to Him and began to follow.

 There was a time outside of the temple Jesus began yelling and flipping over tables of those that were making a mockery of the temple.  I believe it was here that He also opened a place in the hearts of those that had come to this sacred place to witness all that was right, instead of wrong.

 There were times that He met people in the midst of a storm.  There were times that He met people in the midst of their grief.  There were times that He met people in the midst of their pain.  There were times that He met people at their work place.  There were times that He met people in the fields, in their homes, and at a well.

 Jesus met people wherever they were.  Jesus met people however they were.  Jesus met people whatever they were.

 Jesus ‘became like’ or it might be better worded ‘came to’, people in their place and shared His love with them there.  Jesus knew that His love needed to be displayed in different places, to different individuals, in different ways if He was going to reach them.  And His life was committed to doing just that.

 My challenge to all of you is:  Are you willing to commit your life to meeting and becoming like others, wherever and however you can, to show them the love of Jesus?

 There is no greater example of this principle than what Jesus did for us on the cross. 

 Romans 5:8 says, “But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners Christ died for us.”

 And it may be even better stated here in 2 Cor 5:21:

 “God made Him who knew no sin to sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

 Wow, that puts a whole new meaning on the “I became like_______” statement we mentioned earlier.

 Jesus loves us so much that He was willing to meet us at the cross, to become like us at the cross (even though it went against His nature), and to make the ultimate sacrifice for us, in hopes that it would lead us back into the arms of His Father.

 So when you ask me what you should do when you can’t get your spouse to go to church with you or your friends to talk with you about faith.  Or when you ask me what you should do with your friends who seem to be stuck in their sin and can only be reached there.  Or when you make comments to me about how I could say something on twitter or watch a particular moving or take part in a particular event or hang out with a particular kind of person…

 … my answer to you is simply, “become like ___________, so that you might save __________!”

 My goal in life is to reach the world for Jesus.  My goal in life is to reach the lost for Jesus.  In my experience, very few of the lost are found in church, they are found in the world.  So our mission, our challenge, and our purpose is to meet them in the world, in the hopes of introducing them to someone who can take them out of it.

 I do what I do… I share what I share… I live like I live… in an attempt to show the world that I AM just like them, but with one little difference: I LOVE JESUS!

 Our world is like one BIG county fair.  Everywhere you look there is a new and different game (heart) staring you in the face.  The game (heart) is begging for you to make a commitment to it, to lay down your money (sacrifice), in hopes of taking home the biggest stuffed animal (introducing them to Jesus) you have ever seen.  The key as you place your bet is knowing what this game needs (where you must meet them) from you if you are going to be effective.

 You have an opportunity (or many) to walk away with the biggest prize and be the praise of ALL of Heaven.  All you have to do is bet on a heart, meet them where they are, and shower them with the love of Jesus.  When that happens, the outcome is inevitable, because God takes over.

 We are told in the Bible that God’s word ‘NEVER returns void’! NEVER!

 The end of the verse (24-27)we mentioned above says this:

 “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize.  Run in such a way as to get the prize.  Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training.  They do it to get the crown that will not last; but we do it to get crown that will last forever.  Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air.  No, I beat my body and make it my slave (‘I become like________) so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.”

 Friends, run this race to get the prize.  Place the bet of Jesus down on the hearts of those around you and do all you can to win the prize of ‘salvation’ for them.

 I have been encouraged to do more and become more of who Jesus needs me to be, I hope you have been encouraged as well.

YBIC, KW

For those of you who may not be familiar with my story, or Zack’s, I will share a few tidbits to make this all fit together.  Zack was born healthy, but at the age of four months he suffered an injury to the occipital lobe of the brain.  From that moment forward he would be limited both physically and mentally.  Not only does daily have to overcome the challenges of legal blindness and movement limitations, but he also has severe brain damage.

His mother was told while sitting in the hospital bed 21 yrs ago that Zack would be fortunate to live and if he did, that he would be lucky to sit up.  But, let me just say then that we were way more than fortunate and must be the luckiest people in the world.  Because not only did Zack survive, but he has thrived in numerous different ways over the last 21 years of his life.  He has overcome and accomplished things that most of us will never dream of and he has done it continually with a smile on his face.

He currently holds two jobs, one cleaning at a local theatre and the other running the soundboard (and occasionally speaking) for a local radio station.  We are continually told what a blessing he is to both organizations and how much of impact he has on all those to whom he comes in contact.

The reason I share all of this about my son, is because it just so happened that this morning I was reading a story in the Bible and one of the characters reminded me of Zack.

The story comes from the book of 2Sam 9, but let me take a few moments to set it up.

It all began the day that David was anointed to be the next king of Israel.  You see, when King Saul (Jonathan’s father) found out David had been anointed the next king of Israel he became very jealous.  From that moment on Saul’s jealousy drove him to try and kill David at every opportunity.

The only problem was that during the time David was fighting battles for King Saul he had come to befriend his son Jonathan.  They had grown very close to one another throughout the battles and time they shared, to the point they became the best of friends.

There is a moment in 1 Sam 20:17 where it says Jonathan “loved David as much as himself”.  We come to understand exactly how much that was when Jonathan vowed to protect David from his father, at all cost, even if it meant his death.  And in return for this protection he simply asked one little request from his friend David.  1 Sam. 20:15-16:

“You must never stop showing kindness to my family, even when the Lord has destroyed all of your enemies from the earth.  So Jonathan made an agreement with David.”

It is in remembrance of these happenings that we pick up our story in 2 Sam 9:1.  David turns to one of his servants and asks, “Is anyone still left in Saul’s family?  I want to show kindness to that person for Jonathan’s sake!” You see recently King Saul and his closest friend, Jonathan, were killed.  So to honor the agreement he had made with Jonathan earlier, David wanted to lift up and bless anyone in the family that he could find living.

The beauty of this portion of the scripture is that David was not pressured or coerced into making this statement.  There was no one who had overheard his agreement with Jonathan that day and was hinting that he should make good on his promise.  We must simply insinuate that David, in his own love and admiration for Jonathan and what he had done for him, wanted to make sure he lived up to his portion of that agreement.

So it was brought to David’s attention that there was a living heir (Mephibosheth) in the in the house of Saul.  And not only was he just an heir, but he was the son of David’s best friend, Jonathan.  BUT, there was only one possible problem, this son was crippled in both feet!  He did not look the part of royalty.  He did not possess the physical presence that was desired of royalty.  He just didn’t seem to measure up in any way to what people expected of the royal family.

We can only imagine what may have been going through David’s head when he heard this.  Are there any other living relatives?  Is there anyone else even remotely related to Saul or Jonathan that may be able to fit the bill of royalty a little bit better?  One that can be of some use to me, while allowing me to live up to the commitment I made to Jonathan?  I just don’t see how this could possibly work have a crippled living in the castle with the likes of me!

But, the scripture speaks of David having absolutely none of these thoughts.  It simply says that after David was told of this heir, and his limitations, he responded matter of factly, saying, “Where is this son?”

Not being an expert, but having heard from many people more knowledgeable than I, if you were crippled in these particular times you were considered an outcast.  You were seen as less than serviceable, as damaged goods, and in many cases as a disgrace to your family.

Yet, David, in full knowledge of his condition, referenced him as a ‘son’!  Not as an outcast.  Not as less than.  Not as a cripple, as he was mentioned each and every time he had been mentioned in the Bible up to this point.  Not as a disgrace in any way, shape, or form.  David gave him the highest possible title, the greatest possible reference, and the most honorable, distinguished salute this great warrior and king could conjure up when he called him by that one simple word: son!

The reason this jumped out at me is because I couldn’t help but be reminded of how often, in this day and age, we make judgments on people simply because of how they look or the limitations we see in them.  We are quick to put disclaimers upon everyone we meet and if we can’t find one right away we stay on alert until we do.  It seems the only ones we allow into our little circles are the ones who look like us, act like us, or believe as we believe.

I think of the people I have been around over the last couple of weeks and the stories I have heard.

Those that were shunned because they had a disease. 

Those that were forgotten because they couldn’t measure up physically.

Those that were ridiculed because they just weren’t pretty or smart enough.

Those that were laughed at because they were ‘retarded’.

Those that were not allowed to join because they couldn’t afford the ‘nice’ clothes.

Those that were the brunt of all the jokes because they were ‘fat, clumsy, and stupid’.

Those that were treated like a circus freak because they had tubes coming out of them, had to be pushed in a wheelchair, or because they had lost their hair during some sort of treatment of their situation.

And the list could go on and on.  We all have stipulations for those that we will allow the privilege of entering our castle. 

As a Christian I am ashamed of the lists that encompass my ‘religion’ everyday.  We push people away because they make an ungodly choice.  We push people away because they are part of different religion.  We push people away because they don’t believe exactly like we do.  We push people away because of the clothes they wear.  We push people away because of the television shows they watch.  We push people away because of the music they listen to. 

Oh, and that’s just the beginning.  We push people away because they move in the Spirit and then we push others away because they don’t move in the Spirit?  Then we push people away because we think they are fake in their moves in the Spirit (hope you follow all that, I know what I am trying to say, just not sure I said it very well!)!  We push people away because they live together out of wedlock.  We push people away because they drink too much.  We push people away because they engage in other inappropriate behavior.

We push people away because they don’t look the part and we push others away because they look ‘too much’ the part.  We push people away because they don’t act Christian enough, then we push people away because they act ‘too’ Christian.  We push them away when they don’t talk about God enough, but then we also push away those that talk about God all the time.

We push away the Jesus freaks and we push away the sinners!  We push away those that don’t look like WE think one should look.  We push away those that don’t talk like WE think one should talk.  We push away those that don’t act like WE think they should act.

We spend so much of our days looking, talking, and thinking about them being ‘crippled’ that we never take the time to truly see who they are: sons (and daughters) of God.

The most beautiful thing about this passage of scripture for me was that David never lost sight of who Mephibosheth was, a son, and he never lost sight of why he was a son.  You see, what David realized is that it didn’t matter what this young man could or couldn’t do.  It didn’t matter what this young man had or didn’t have.  It didn’t matter what this young man could bring or not bring to his table. 

All that mattered to David is that he was Jonathan’s son!  That alone made him worthy.  That alone made him unique.  That alone made him special.  That alone made David want to bless him with all he had.

David sent his messengers to bring Mephibosheth to the palace.  And there upon meeting him, King David, uttered these three words, “Don’t be afraid.”  He wanted to ease the mind of this young man that he had not brought him here to bring anymore shame upon him, but that he had brought him to the palace to restore him to his rightful place as heir to the kingdom of Saul (& Jonathan). 

He had this ‘son’ of Jonathan eat at his table, not once, but four times.  Then he restored all the land of the family to this young man.  He gave him what was rightfully his as a ‘son’.

I love this story not only because it speaks so close to my heart with my ‘crippled’ son Zachary.  And not simply because it shines light upon the many travesties I have witnessed and committed toward those that are ‘crippled’ in my sight.  But, the reason I truly love this story is because it reminds me so much of the way my Savior approached the world.

Take a look at Luke 5:27-31:

“After this, Jesus went out and saw the tax collector my name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. ‘Follow me,’ said Jesus to him, and Levi got up, left everything and followed him.  Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them.  But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, ‘Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?’  Jesus answered them, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  I have not come to call the righteous, but the sinners to repentance.”

In this situation we see all the self-proclaimed religious people of the day passing judgment upon Jesus for his choosing to hang with these people.  While at the same time they were passing judgment upon the ‘sinners’ in attendance because they didn’t live lives that looked like theirs.

Sounds a lot like many of us ‘christians’ today!  We step up on our pedestals, with our pompous attitudes and spend our lives judging what others look like, what they are doing wrong, and pointing out where they are ‘crippled’.  

Yet, Christ, does exactly the opposite.  He steps down from His rightful pedestal and puts away His well-deserved judgment gown and joins hands with the ‘cripples’ for a little prayer before the feast.

He looks at their infirmaries, and instead of shunning them, He embraces them.  He takes the areas of their lives where they don’t measure up and He gives them the ability to overcome them.  He welcomes any and all who would choose to have dinner with Him.  He tells them to come, just as they are!  No need to get dressed up.  No need to cake the makeup on to cover your blemishes.  No need to try and hide your ‘crippleness’!

For Jesus, the importance is not how much you have to offer.   It’s not a battle of worthiness for those invited to the feast.  There will not be staging of ‘America’s got talent’ or ‘The Gong Show’ during the banquet, to see who gets to stay and who gets booted out. 

For Jesus, the importance is in the fact that YOU came!  You came even though you didn’t have much to offer.  You came even though you weren’t feeling well.  You came even though you couldn’t walk through the door like everyone else.  You came even though you don’t own a ‘Sunday’s best’ outfit to display.  You came because HE invited you!  You came, just as you were, because You wanted to see Him!

And because of that He welcomed you!

My message this evening is two-fold.  First, it begins with us as we step into the shoes of David with Mephibosheth or the shoes of Jesus with the ‘sinners’.  How is it that we are going to respond from this day forward when we come face to face with the opportunity to dine (hangout) with the ‘crippled’ or ‘sinners’? 

Are we going to act like the religious folks of that day and belittle them for the numerous ways they don’t measure up to OUR standards?  Are we going to turn our backs or cast them away because they don’t look like us or believe what we believe?  Are we going to continue to judge them, just as these men did, because of the condition they are stuck in or are we going to do something about it like David and Jesus did?

I am ashamed of all the times I have stood on a pedestal and cast my judgments upon the lives and actions of others.  I am ashamed of having stepped up on that pedestal and casted stones, when the whole time I knew I was no better than those to whom I was casting upon.  I am ashamed of the times I have allowed the looks of another to influence my approached toward them.  I am ashamed of the times that I have allowed the dirt of another to prevent me from touching them in fear that I would get my white-washed clothes dirty.  I am ashamed of the times that I allowed the ‘crippled’ part of another to prevent me from joining hands of another.

Jesus has demonstrated a better way to live.  This word is to encourage all of us to begin to live according to that demonstration.

Which leads me to the second point in this message.  The second point is that so often in life we think of ourselves as the ‘Pharisees’ of our world.  We see ourselves as living the most righteous lives and we believe that because of that we are in position to judge the lives of everyone else.  We are ‘well’ and it is are job to throw out the ‘riff-raff’, the ‘sinners’, the ‘sick’, and the ‘crippled’.

The problem with this scenario is that we, just like Mephibosheth, are ‘crippled’.  We don’t, by any stretch of the imagination, bring a perfect spirit to the King’s table.  We ALL have our sicknesses, our infirmaries, and our sins.  We all deserve to be shunned, outcast, and thrown out of the palace.

But, just as David did for Mephibosheth and just as Jesus did for Levi and the rest of the sinners, we are still invited to dine with the King.  He stills invites us to take our rightful place at the banquet table.  He still wishes to break bread and share His cup with all of us.

He still refers to us by that one, sweet-sounding, all-forgiving, ever-accepting term of endearment: SON (DAUGHTER)!

Which brings me back to my son, Zack.  Over the years I have seen him shunned!  I have seen him cast out of the city.  I have seen him left off the invitation list.  I have seen him laughed at and made fun of.  I have seen him judged based on that way that he looks.

But, recently, through a program called Best Buddies, I have been introduced to his David’s (two special guys).  They have invited him to be a part of their families.  They have invited him to dine and play with them.  They have invited him to go to birthday parties, school dances, and extracurricular activities.

I have seen these David’s look beyond Zack being ‘crippled’ and have heard them call him ‘son’ (friend)!

The funny thing is, I have never heard either one of them claim to be a Christian, but I have seen the Christ-likeness in their lives.

My hope is that, like me, this message makes you want to live a little more like Zack’s buddies.  My hope is that you choose to look beyond the ‘crippled’ label and act a little more inviting like David.  My hope is that you will welcome the chance to dine with ‘sinners’ in the hopes of sharing the righteousness of Jesus with them.

My second point tonight focused on the fact that we all come to the party as ‘crippled’ or as ‘sinners’.  We all have baggage that we would like to leave at the door or hide under our clothing before we enter.  But, just welcomes all of those things, because He no longer wants us to live with them, He wants to take them for us.

So my prayer tonight is that if you have already chosen to live your life for Jesus, this message will encourage you to represent Him in the way He deserves to be represented.

And if you have never chosen to live your life for Jesus, that you would pray this simple prayer and truly believe it in your heart.  If you do, I believe Jesus will take away your sins and enter into a daily, living, breathing relationship with you.  He will open His palace to you daily and will sit down and dine with you.  He will lead you to the Promised Land if you will choose to follow.

Pray this:

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for sending your son Jesus.  Thank you for allowing Him to go all the way to the cross, for me.  I accept His sacrifice on the cross for my ‘sinfulness’, for my ‘crippleness’.  I ask you to fill my heart and my life with your presence.  I ask you to help me to stay focused on you all the days of my life.  I ask you to mold me and shape me into the unique, gifted, talented, world-changing person you called me to be.  I love you and am grateful for you love for me.

In Jesus’ Name… Amen!

Hope you enjoyed…

YBIC  KW

As I was reading my Bible last night, in the book of Haggai, it became more clear why I made the decision that I did.  In the first chapter of the book, starting in verse 2 it says:

“This is what the Lord Almighty says, ‘There people say, ‘The time has not yet come for the Lord’s house to be built.’  Then the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai, ‘Is it time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains in ruins?’

Now this is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful though to your ways.  You have planted much, but have harvested little.  You eat, but never have enough.  You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn your wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.

This is what the Lord Almighty says, “Give careful thought to your ways.   Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored, “ says the Lord, “You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little.   What you brought home, I blew away.  Why? Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with his own house.  Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth it’s crops.  I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the oil and whatever the ground produces, on men and cattle, and on the labor of your hands.”

I am sure many of you are saying, huh?  What could this have to do with your retirement?

But, as I read it last night, it became clear to me that it had everything to do with it. 

You see for the last, at least, 17 years I have been spending my life building up my house!  I have been living in my paneled house and planting MY seed, so that I could reap my own harvest.  I have been working to make a name for myself, to accomplish great things at my craft and to obtain a fortune for which to take care of my family for years to come.  I have worked diligently to become one of the best at what God had called me to do, but in the process the house of the Lord has been neglected to a large degree.

Now don’t get me wrong… I know that God called me to play the game of football.  He raised me up in a special way for the exact purpose of gaining glory for His name.  He has used that platform in mighty ways for His Kingdom and to touch many lives in the name of Jesus.  And I by no means wish to apply that I was not supposed to be doing any of the things (OK, I won’t say any, because there are plenty of things I shouldn’t have been doing) that I have done over the last 17 years.  My sole contention is that over those last 17 years God’s place in my life has taken a backseat to the place for which God had placed me!

The last 17 years has been more about building up my place than building up the Lord’s.  There has been numerous times where I proceeded to workout at the expense of spending time in prayer or in God’s word.  There has been countless times where I committed acts in the name of Jesus, but found little time to even visit with Him on those days.  So many days where I chose sleep over scripture, basketball over prayer, or gameplanning over talking with God.

I could sit here and justify each of those acts for the bigger calling and say that all of that needed to be done to get me to where I am today or to have reached as many people as I reached for Jesus along the way.  But, come on!  Who am I kidding!  We all know the exploits of God.  We know His powers and abilities, and to think that it had everything to do with my hard work would be just a bit naïve! 

I know that over the last couple of years I had developed a routine within my career that was causing me to sacrifice so much physically – minor physical issues, inability to sleep, losing weight, aging what seemed liked 10 years in just 2 – and it was impossible to take a step back.  Once I had extended myself in a the way that I deemed necessary to bring about success on the field it was hard to pull back in worry that continued success would be hindered. 

Isn’t this so often the case in our lives? 

We set a particular standard within our lives, whether that be with what we do for our kids or our spouses or our jobs, that soon becomes the expectation.  We push ourselves so much that we become exhausted and never really live how God intended for us to live, but we don’t feel like we can pull back or we will be letting someone down.  The only problem is that within this high standard that never is willing to take a step back, we often times sacrifice the most important thing in our lives: JESUS!

We get drawn into the devil’s scheme that the most important thing for OUR success is meeting the particular standard that we have set for ourselves.  Often times, I have noticed, things in our lives begin with God in the center, but then through the process of expanding and reaching for greater success God gets replaced in the center by Us.  We make the argument that because the effort began with God in the center it is ok now that we have moved into it, because God wanted us here.

And in many cases you are right in that God wanted us in the place that He has us, but the only problem is that He really only wants us there as long as He stays in the center of it.  He never wishes to be the center of your life when He calls you to something only to become secondary once you have arrived!

In the Bible they often use a word that you don’t hear much in everyday conversation nowadays, “YOKE”.  It was a word that described the mechanism that would be placed upon animals of the field as they were working.  It was what was placed on the back of these animals to allow them to get all the work done that was needed.  And in most cases, the more work that needed to be done, the deeper the soil needed to be dug, the heavier the yoke would become.

Although this term isn’t used very often today to describe our everyday lives, I believe it very often could be.  Because we all place a particular ‘yoke’ around our necks everyday in regards to what we believe it will take to do our job in the way that it needs to be done.  Our ‘yoke’ becomes the number of hours we deem necessary to put in at the office or the number of our children’s activities we must volunteer for to be considered a good stay at home mom or dad. 

For me it became the number of hours I needed to spend preparing for Sunday.  It was the getting up at 4:45 three times a week to make sure I got my cardio in so I could perform at this late stage in my career.  It was the many hours of gameplanning I came to expect of myself on my days off.  It was the film study and play designs that would dominate my thoughts not allowing me fully focus on important issues like family and sleep.  All this became the ‘yoke’ that I felt I NEEDED to bare if I was going to be successful!

You notice how I used the word “I” in that last sentence?

What began as an amazing show of God’s power and purpose had become dependent on my power.  What started as a definitive imprint of God’s hand, was now being replaced by my own imprint.  I was slowly pushing God out of the equation that He so obviously developed, believing that somehow the ‘yoke’ had shifted from God to me.

Isn’t this the position that so many of us find ourselves in? 

Those things that we once upon a time left up to God, have now become our ‘yoke’.  Those things that showed us without a shadow of a doubt that God was in control, have now consumed us to the point that we become confused at who is really running our everyday lives, God or us.  And in the process, our ‘yoke’ continually wears us down until all we have the energy to do is focus on our house and our harvest, and God’s house continues to be neglected and remains in ruins.

My message today is to encourage all of you to lay down the ‘yoke’ of your everyday lives and give them back to God.  Re-calculate the equation to the way that God had always intended for it to be.

In Matt 11:28-30 it says, “Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my ‘yoke’ upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

God is asking us to once again ‘call’ upon Him.  To get back to the place in our lives where He is the focal point and not us.  To rid ourselves of the ‘yoke’ that bogs us down and wears us out so we can’t possible accomplish all that He wishes for us to accomplish.

As my life has progressed I have seemed to take more and more upon myself.  My wife likes to use the term ‘martyr’ for those who push themselves and push themselves until they have nothing left to push with.  Those who take up the ‘yoke’ of others who aren’t able or willing to carry their own.  And although this seems commendable at the time, I have come to realize that all it does is place a ‘yoke’ upon your back that you weren’t intended to carry and aren’t able to carry, and it prevents you from accomplishing all you were called to accomplish.

When we were driving home from church last Sunday we asked the kids what they had learned that day and they reminded me of something that I had forgotten over the last couple of years.  They told me that they had learned the verse from Phil 4:13 that says, “I can do all things through CHRIST who strengthens me!”

It reminded me that it was Christ who strengthens me and NOT me who strengthens me.  I need a life that is Christ centered if I want to come anywhere close to accomplishing all that He has set before me to accomplish.  I need to give the ‘yoke’ of my life to God in exchange for His – for His is easy – and thus I will have all the energy I need to be used by Him.

I began this letter with the notion of explaining to you why I chose to retire.  And for me it simply came down to the question, “Whose house are you building?”

The game of football had become all about me building my house.  It had taken on a different focus or ‘yoke’ over the last couple of years that I know God never intended for it to have.  The game was taking away from me everything that my life and career was based on and it caused me to lose sight of the smoldering mess of God’s house that lie inside of me.

Now, please don’t think that I am implying that every one of you whose spiritual life isn’t where they know it needs to be, should quit their job.  That is not my intention at all.  But, for me, it was the only move because the ‘yoke’ of my job had become too much for me to bare.  The only way for me to get out from under that ‘yoke’ was to retire and in doing so my eyes have been opened to how big and shiny and expensive the house is for which I am living, and how old and decimated one in which the Lord resides.

A few years ago we added a guest house on our property.  And as I am writing this letter I saw this analogy in my mind. 

For most of the last 12 years I have been so honored to live in the guest house of God’s mansion.  To simply reside on the same property and be in the daily presence of God was enough to fulfill me everyday.  But, somewhere around the time we built our own guest house (just a couple of years ago), I realized that I had moved into the mansion.  That no longer wanted to live in the guest house, but that I wanted to have my on own guest house.  And what I have come to realize is that if you want to have your own guest house, you have to take on all the responsibilities (‘yoke”) of the owner of the house.  You have to take on all the burdens and bills and repairs that come with it.

And to go along with all of this, it has come to my knowledge that it wasn’t my own mansion that I built or my own guest house, but that I simply took over God’s mansion and shipped Him out to His own guest house.  I began to think that I was the one running the show and took on all the responsibilities that came with that and delegated God’s role to being my guests – instead of vice-versa.

My prayer today is that each of you take a long look at where you reside in your lives.  Have you relegated God to your guest house?  Have you taken on a ‘yoke’ that you were never intended to bare and that is now holding you back from being and doing all that God has purposed for you to do?

If so, I encourage you to stand up and make a statement to the contrary.  I encourage you to ‘retire’ from that type of lifestyle, just as I did from the game of football for the exact same reason.

It’s time we all get back to building God’s house… for we know that if the life of the owner of the mansion is good… then the life of His guest will always be blessed! 

YBIC KW

That exact thing happened to me during this football season.  In the middle of the season, while we were playing in St. Louis, I was hit and suffered a concussion. I was hit and my head was driven into the turf.  I knew right away that something was quite right, I didn’t get knocked out or have a loss of memory, but my mind and eyes just seemed foggy.  I got up from the ground and tried to shake off the hit (because I am a ‘tough’ fb player and that’s just what we do).  I got back into the huddle and proceeded to lead my team down for a TD. 

It would have been easy for me at that time just to disregard the injury and continue to play, knowing that I could still function to some degree and the symptoms weren’t terrible.  But, I know that I wasn’t quite right and was having some distinct vision problems in my eyes.  Knowing that the best thing would be to inform my doctors of what I was feeling, I did exactly that.  They proceeded with caution and we went to the locker room and sat out the remainder of the game.

It was difficult to sit out the remainder of the game, knowing that I could be successful had I played, but at the time we had a 21-0 lead in the game and so it made the ‘right’ decision fairly easy at the time.

But, little did I know the most difficult decisions would lie ahead of me.  I never suspected with the limited effects of the hit that I would continue to have symptoms over the course of the next week.  I assumed that the vision issues I was experiencing would gradually get better and it wouldn’t be a problem moving forward.  But, that is the tricky thing about concussions, you never really know the severity of one until after the fact.  Some come and go quickly and others can have lingering effects for an extended period of time.

So to make a long story short, the symptoms persisted all week and up until the next game.  We would be facing the Tennessee Titans that following week and although we were 3 games up in our division, the implications of a win or loss there could dramatically affect our playoff hopes.  So I was faced with the ultimate dilemma, do I play or do I not play?

Here’s the funny thing, just a couple weeks earlier a friend of mine on the team had suffered a concussion and was having lingering effects from it.  I was pressuring him all week to sit out, for the risks were not worth it, especially at that time in the season.  It seemed all so easy for me at that time to know exactly what should be done when suffering from the effects of the concussion.  In my opinion, it was a no-brainer for my friend to sit out a week and get healthy, both for the good of his long term health and the team down the stretch.

The problem is that it was a much easier decision for me when I wasn’t involved!  Ever been in that place?  Ever been the one giving another advice on doing the right thing regardless of what pressures they may be feeling, only to find yourself in that exact position a short time later?  I somehow believe that God often times orchestrates things in exactly this manner because He knows how much we are going to struggle with the decision.  I believe that He wants to plant those seeds in our head so we have a personal reference in regards to what the ‘right’ thing is.

So here I was the Saturday night before the game and still not feeling quite right.  And although no one actually came out and said it, I could feel the pressure of my teammates and my organization weighing on me.  I heard their words ‘you have to do what’s best for you’, but their eyes spoke even louder, ‘we need you out on the field, we need this game’.  The head coach even had a sit down with me, where he said all the right things, but in his words I could feel the pressure of his wanting me to play.

So here I was caught in the middle of what I knew was the right thing to do and the pressure of doing what I know everyone else wanted me to do.  I thought back to the scenario just a few weeks earlier with my friend and now, completely understood why he felt compelled to play that following week.  What seemed like a ‘slam-dunk’ decision for my friend, suddenly became much more complicated now that I was the one in the middle of the dilemma.

So Saturday night I met with the training staff to discuss the options for the following day.  I believe we all came to the conclusion that the ‘best’ thing was to sit out the following day, but because I was struggling so much to ultimately make that decision, they said we would reconvene in the morning and make the decision then.

This is when the agony really began, because I knew the decision would be in my hands from here on out… I know I didn’t pray the exact prayer of Jesus, but I know my intentions were the same, “Lord, take this cup from me, but not my will, but yours be done.”

In other words, I wanted Him to take the decision out of my hands!  I was so torn between the two aspects (right and wrong, so to speak), that I didn’t want to have to make the decision and more importantly I didn’t know if I could actually make the right one, even though I had no question what it was.  I was hoping that I would wake up in the morning completely healed or that one of the trainers would just call me and say ‘we are not letting you play’, thus alleviating me from the burden.  But, somehow, I knew that neither would be the case.  That God had placed me in this spot for a reason and so much of what I had preached (and tried to live) up to this point would be on display.

I woke up the next morning and the first thing I tried to do was convince myself that the issues I was having with my eyes were back to normal.  I did a number of visual tests in my room to try and determine, but I seemed to fail every one of them.  I played out numerous scenarios in my head of how I could play and just monitor things personally so that it wouldn’t get any worse (as if I could dictate when and how I might get hit in an NFL football game – if that were the case I surely would have avoided that hit in the NO game – OUCH!).  I sent out a number of text messages asking for strength to make the right decision.

Then came the moment I was to meet the trainers and make the final decision. I remember walking down the halls to get to their room and I was fully considering lying to the trainers.  I knew that everything was in my hands and whatever it was that I decided to divulge would determine the final decision.  Just telling them that my eyes seemed close to normal would have been enough to convince them I could play (because everyone wanted me to anyways). 

But, every time this idea popped into my head, the Spirit prompted me in another direction.  He continued to impress on me how I have always tried to represent Jesus the best way I knew how and that a big part of the reason I had come this far in my career was because God had given me this platform to do just that.  He impressed upon my how this one decision, at this particular point in my career, could ultimately affect everything else I had done up to this point. 

If anybody found out that I had lied to our trainers and played the game disregarding the rules, everything that I had built my life and career on would take a hit.  And although I am sure many people would be able to understand WHY I did it, there would be many that would chalk me up as just another guy who claims to be a good Christian, but when faced with a tough personal (selfish) decision falls like so many others.

In 1 John 2:3 it says, “We know that we have come to know him if we obey His commands.  The man who says, ‘I know Him’, but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him.  But if anyone obeys my word, God’s love is truly made complete in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk like Jesus did.”

This is the idea that continually arose in my head.  If I wanted to be complete in Jesus, then I need to be willing to stand up for the things He has called me to do.  I need to represent him everyday, with every decision, in the way He deserves to be represented.  Even if that scenario isn’t in my own personal best interests.  Or even when that decision could influence the way my peers viewed me or make them question my devotion to them.

I can promise you that what often times can appear to be an easy decision on the outside looking in, is never that simple and easy when you are actually on the inside.  Once you are placed within the scenario so many more pieces come into play than you every thought of before.  And I believe this is exactly why God puts us in the middle of them, because there is no way our faith could be completed if we didn’t have to stand up under it by making tough decisions throughout our lives.  And it is exact moments like these that set the tone for how our faith will be walked out moving forward.  If we shrink back and make the easy (personal) decision we open ourselves up to making the easy decision the next time.  We take a step back in our outward commitment to Jesus and lean more to  the side of the fence that says, “I will represent Jesus when it coincides with what is best for me”.  If we stand firm in our faith and make decisions based on what the Spirit is saying we move forward and begin to lean more towards the side of the fence that says, “But, not my will be done, but yours Lord.”

Isn’t it amazing, how little things, decisions, like this can carry so much weight in our Christian walk? 

The reason it’s tough is because we fight the notion that no one else will every find out.  No one will ever know for sure whether I was telling the truth in that situation and really if all goes well, no one will even care.  Then I wouldn’t have hindered anything in my representation of Jesus and all will be fine!

Those thoughts crossed my head I guarantee you!  But, I continually came back to two reasons why I didn’t want to stake my claim on that type of logic.  First, just because I don’t think someone will find out, doesn’t mean they won’t.  I can’t bank on the fact that something doesn’t come up where I slip in my representation of how I feel or that I don’t get hurt again and have to come clean.  Don’t we see this happen all the time, everywhere you look people have moved on the assumption that others wouldn’t find out, only to have it blow up in their face (i.e. marital affairs is an idea that comes to mind).

And secondly, I know that once I chose to step in that direction and compromise what I really want to stand for, all bets are off moving forward.  If I tell a lie to play in a football game, will that mean I will have to tell other lies to justify making that decision in the first place.  And since I have already lied once, would I feel like I have to lie again to avoid anybody thinking I did the first time?  The problem is universal and we see it all the time, that once someone has chosen to compromise a situation they must continue to do so and it continually becomes easier and easier to do, not only in that situation, but also in the next one that comes their way.

James 3:5, “Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts.  Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark.  The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body.  It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire and is itself set on fire by hell.”

So after much deliberation and anxiety I chose not to play.  I told the trainers exactly what was going on and left the ramifications in the hands of God.  I knew this wasn’t going to be the last time I would be faced with a situation like this and if I wasn’t willing to choose God over 1 football game, then I had to question what I would be willing to sacrifice for Him (and I would have ventured to say, NOT MUCH!).

I remembered the words in the book of James (2:14-22) that say, “What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds?… faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead… Show me your faith without deeds and I will show you my faith by what I do… You see that his faith (talking of Abraham) and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did.”

This is the kind of Christian I want to be.  I don’t just want to say all of the right things, even if I believe them with all my heart.  I want to walk out my faith everyday.  I want people to know by my life that WHO I represent is always more important than HOW I am perceived.  I want to be a man of action, with those actions always backing up what I say.  I never want there to be any discrepancy between the two.

To finish this story, in the coming weeks I came to understand why God had placed me within that scenario.  I came to realize that God needed an example for all of those who would follow in my footsteps.  He knew how difficult of a decision this would be for me, just like it was for my friend, and just like it would be for all those who would wear our shoes in the future.  But, He needed someone who was respected and had some standing within the NFL to set a precedent by not playing, because it was the right thing to do.  He needed someone to stand up in front of the media and tell both sides of the story and what a difficult dilemma players are in when faced with it.  He needed someone to take a stand in the short term that would have a long standing impact on how this problem would be dealt with for future generations.

And all along I was so simple minded to think that the decision was ALL about me!  It is amazing how God places things in our paths that may appear on the surface to be simply about us, but underneath He has a much bigger picture that is developing.  And what is even more amazing is how that one decision on our part, either right or wrong, can greatly impact that bigger picture in either direction!

My prayer is that somehow this message and my scenario makes it just a little easier the next time you are faced with a decision like this.  I hope that it helps you not only in making the right decision for your personal walk with Jesus, but also in your ability to see the bigger picture and make the right decision for all those that are seeing Jesus through you!

YBIC  KW