When I went to Cathedral Prep High School (Erie, Pennsylvania) my sophomore year, I knew nothing about football. I had never even played it. I was too big and overweight. They had a weight limit back then. And so when I went out for the football team, I had a great coach whose name was Tony Zambroski.
Tony could have simply said, “OK, big guy! You just go in there and charge across that line and hit anything you see. If someone has a football throw him down.” If I were to do that, I would never have played the game. I would get blocked every time. I would have gotten very discouraged.
So what he did was he took me off to the side for about an hour. He said, “Mike, here is the proper foundation.” He showed me how to get into a stance, how power comes from your hips and your buttocks area, and not on top. He said if you get down low and come off in a plane, no one's going to stop you. So he taught me the basics, the fundamentals.
And I worked on it very hard when I was at Cathedral Prep, and then at the University of Notre Dame. And when I got in the National Football League, it was still the same fundamental. If I had a bad game, and once in a while I did, I would go back and look at my stance and see what was wrong. And when I corrected that stance, I would have a better game.
You know, I think it's the same with our faith. What are the fundamentals? For a long time in my life I was playing the game of church. You know. Every Sunday, going through the motions. I knew who God was. I knew who Jesus Christ was. I knew who Mary was. But I was just kind of getting in and out as soon as I could. I was playing the game of church and I was trying to please God.
So I went to the University of Notre Dame, took all those philosophy and theology courses, and it was amazing because some of my friends who were Catholic at school were experiencing the same thing. We were just kind of dead on the inside. And I didn’t know why.
Then I went to the Green Bay Packers and met a young man named Carroll Dale. He was a wide receiver for the Packers. Carroll taught me the fundamentals of faith and he encouraged me to go to the chapel program they have in the National Football League.
Every team in the NFL travels with a priest in the chapel on Sunday morning. So when he told me this one particular week I figured, why not? I'll go to church on Saturday night to look good and fulfill my duty and obligation. I'll go the chapel thing on Sunday morning at seven o'clock, because that particular day at one o'clock, we're playing the Chicago Bears. I need all the help I can get, especially against those guys. So I went.
You see, there was a need in my life. Because there was a lot of fear. A lot of insecurity. Just starting out in life. A lot of pressure. I had just got married and had no clue what it was all about. I looked pretty tough on the outside. Well, I was empty on the inside. And what these men basically said to me was that they always wanted to change their behavior, but they couldn't do it. They knew it had to come from the inside. There had to be a heart transplant. So these former players and business people would come in and they would talk about this personal relationship that they had with Jesus Christ.
I never heard of that before, at least put that way. And I listened to what they said and how that influenced their faith, and how that influenced their behavior.
So at the end of that rookie year, during that off season, I opened up my heart and asked Christ to come into my life. Because I knew I was falling short. I knew I didn't deserve or could ever earn or buy God's love. It was unconditional. He loved us so much. He sent His son down upon the cross to become sin for you. And He did pay the penalty for our sin because He had to shed His blood. He came as a lamb. And He's coming back as a lion, by the way.
I never took that step of faith and asked Him into my heart. So I opened up my heart. I found some new friends and got into God's game plan and I became alive. My “had to’s” became my “want to’s” because now I had that relationship. Many years later John Paul II said, “Do not fear, open your heart to Christ.”
Conversion is a personal acceptance of the saving sovereignty of Christ. Becoming His disciple. His follower. It's a choice we make. And when we make that choice, God says the Holy Spirit will come into our life because we accept Him and we're not playing the game anymore, but we're serious and we open our heart to Christ in our life.
And I also grew because I got into God's Word. God's Word is powerful and a “lamp unto our feet.” (Ps. 119:105) St. Jerome said “[i]gnorance of scripture is ignorance of Christ.” When we pray to God He listens to us and he hears us. But when we read God's word, not just Sunday to Sunday, but every day, He will speak to our heart.
I just want to encourage you, if you've never taken that step of faith to open up your heart to Christ. Take that step and see what the Holy Spirit will do.
“Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come."
2 Corinthians 5:17 |
