A Father's Love

It all began on a cool Friday night in the fall of 1998. I had just finished playing a home football game for my high school, the only game we won that year, as a matter of fact, the only game we won in the last two years. I was pretty excited because of our victory. However, what happened next would change the rest of my life.

As I walked around, still in my pads from the game, I saw someone coming towards me, and as I needed glasses and did not have them on at the time I had no clue who it was. It was my old girlfriend, Amy, coming to congratulate me. Amy was in the band and, because of that, was at every game we played so she knew of our past defeats. We had also dated a bit in high school, but things did not work out so we went our different ways a year before. Nevertheless, here we were in our senior year in high school talking after a football game. I did not think much of this encounter until the following Monday at school when our paths crossed once again. She says it was her idea, but I know that it was God’s idea.

That Monday morning we decided to start dating again, and the rest is history. As I am writing this, we are coming up on our ninth wedding anniversary and have been together for almost fourteen years. I share this with you because this is where our story begins, and when I say it changed my life, I mean it changed not only my physical life, but my eternal life as well.

As Amy and I dated in high school, there came a point in our relationship that she wrote me a note (for those of you that do not know what that is, it is a text message written on paper). In the note, she told me she could not be with someone that did not believe what she believed. Amy was a Christian, and I was a football player that had a bit of head knowledge when it came to Jesus, nothing more. As I read this note, I thought, “What do I do now?”

I decided to go to church. I have always told people I was the guy that went to church because his girlfriend went. As I sat in church with Amy for the first time, I struggled to stay awake even though it was a great service. There were many times I never opened my eyes from the time of prayer to the last hymn. Nevertheless, I was there and so was Jesus, working all the while in me without my ever knowing it.

Months passed. Amy and I were talking on the phone one night, and the next thing I knew, I was accepting Christ as my Lord and Savior as Amy talked to me about Him and about my sin. That night at the football game a few months back was part of God’s plan. He was there. He was working even though I did not know it. I did not see Him. I did not know Him. I did not hear Him. Even so, He was working at that point in time to bring me to Him. As the years passed, I did not do much with my relationship with Christ. I thought, as you may now, that by accepting Him as Lord and Savior I had done what needed to be done and could now do what I wanted. So often we think, maybe even are taught, similarly.

There is a cool little story in Acts 5:17-42 which talks about the early church as it is getting started. The story begins with Peter and some of the other apostles preaching Jesus to the people and healing some of the sick. This does not sit well with the religious leaders of the day so we are told the religious leaders had the apostles arrested and thrown in jail. In verses 17-20, we see something that often gets overlooked. The apostles get arrested and thrown in jail for the night, and during the night, an angel comes and set them free, telling them “Go, stand in the temple courts, and tell the people the full message of this new life,” (Acts 5:20, NIV).

As I read that verse, I see us; I see the church. The angel sets the apostles free from their bondage, and in this, we see a picture of what Jesus does for us. When we accept Him as Lord and Savior through confession of sin and repentance, giving our lives to Him, we are set free from the bondage of sin and the results of it, namely death. But look farther, that is not all the angel does. The angel tells them to do something. He gives them a purpose with their freedom. Jesus does the same with us. Jesus sets us free from our sin and does not just let us go, living our lives the way we would like (as I had thought). Instead, He gives us a purpose. Your purpose is not found in the world; it is only found in Jesus Christ. What is your purpose? What has He called you to do? Better yet, is your storm part of the purpose that Jesus has given you? By "storm,” I mean those hardships, trials, and difficulties that so often come up in life.

As you will see later, the storms of our lives can be, and many times are, part of the purpose Jesus has given to us in our lives, but we do not see them that way. Because of that, we do not fully see the purpose Jesus has given to us, nor why He set us free from sin and death. Jesus has called you to do something. He has given you a purpose in life, and it revolves around us living His life because He died our death. Paul tell us in 2 Corinthians 5:15, “And he [Jesus] died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again” (2 Corinthians 5:15, NIV). This is a hard thing to accept and live out in our lives. I am nowhere near living this out, but it is something that I strive to do in my life and in the life of my family. Now, back to our story.

I was making the same mistake that many Christians do. I was doing nothing with my faith in Christ because I did not know He had a purpose for me. After church one Sunday as we were leaving, the pastor asked Amy if she wanted to lead the youth group at the church. She said yes. Since she was my girlfriend, I went with her every week, but I never did anything. As she lead the youth group, God started to put reading the Scriptures on my heart like never before. As I read them, things began to jump off the pages. Later in the week when Amy and I would go out on dates, I would tell her about what I was reading in the Scriptures. I remember once, while we were in the Dollar Store, telling her what Paul had written in Corinthians. I was definitely not the most exciting date I know.

Before I knew it, I was giving the lessons on Sunday night for youth group even though I was very shy and never liked to speak in front of people, and Amy was doing the games. God not only had a sense of humor, but He was working. He was “moving the ball” in my life. He was there. In 2003, about five years after we started dating, the band girl married the football player. Our wedding was wonderful, but the week before was anything but."