Grid Iron of Christ

If you know me at all, or have the opportunity to hang out with me you will quickly find that I am a die-hard Steelers fan. I am not a casual fan, but I really LOVE the game, and have come to really love the Steelers organization. As this is all true, it wasn’t true at all a few years ago.

When we first moved here to South Carolina, I co-founded a business, with my good friend Lance. Lance who was not a Christ follower entered into a friendship with me like no-other he had previously had. We both were about to enter a wild ride, and God was driving.

One thing that I quickly learned about Lance was that he was a huge Steelers fan. He was born and raised in Pennsylvania, and came from a long line of Steelers fans in his family. He made it abundantly clear to me that he would work any hours we needed to make our business work, but was adamant that he would not be working during any Steelers games.

"Funny", I thought. So he endured torment from me as I teased him for his devotion to this football team. How silly. I was never a sports-buff in High School, and was more interested in being an EMT, photography and my girlfriend to bother with such things, so the idea of following a team that close was completely foreign to me.

During this time, Lance was seeing a similar aspect in my life, and found it equally as strange. This entire "Christ" devotion in my life was unfamiliar, strange, and made him uncomfortable.

As we continued to work together, Lance became increasingly interested in Christ as he saw us living as Christ Followers…not perfect, but forgiven. I failed in my walk plenty of times and Lance saw those failures. He also saw me get up from those failures, giving God the credit for being able to stand back up, and move forward.

During this time, Lance started talking about the Steelers more often, about this new rookie, Ben Roethlisberger who was playing better than any rookie had before. He started telling me about the history of the Steelers, and about the players, and soon I started getting interested in this game. I began to investigate.

The Steelers organization is family owned. They had a grand history with 4 Super Bowl rings at the time, and this new rookie quarterback was a Christ Follower, as well as a wild Samoan named Troy Polamalu is very open about his love for Christ, and that is just to mention a few of the players that are Christ Followers. They are not a glitz-and-glam team but a blue collar-style, hard hitting football team that stays close to their original roots. Then, I started watching the games and soon became an avid fan. I watch football and see it being very much like the struggles in life as a Christ Follower!

The same thing happened with Lance. Eventually, Lance’s interest in Christ led him to seeking the truth for Himself. He began to look into the claims of Christ, mowing down the weeds of doubt. Eventually he accepted the Savior, and dedicated His life to Him.

When we live for Christ, truly live for Him, others around you will see a difference in your life from theirs. Eventually their curiosity may give way to seeking, and seeking to finding and finding to a life with purpose, love and amazing adventure.

Don’t be afraid to let unbelievers see you fall down and struggle. This is the Grid Iron of Christ! It is when you stand back up they will see the strength of Christ in your life!