It wasn't until I was about 14 years of age that I began to attend a youth group at a local Christian Church in my neighborhood. I didn't grow up in church so I remember it feeling like a whole different world to me. I began to go in the first place because a friend had invited me to go simply because he was afraid to go by himself. He wanted to go to this youth group because he said there were cute girls there. I thought that was a good enough reason to go so I went along with him. Little did I know that attending that youth group would take me on a journey of growing in my faith and better understanding how God fit into my life. I'll keep it short and sweet.
I grew up playing American football since I was a little kid so it was one of the things that I understood quite well at that point in my life. So, one day as I was praying and asking God to give me a better understanding of how this relationship that we had together worked, I felt as of God painted me a picture using football. We tend to be the quarterbacks of our own lives. When we are doing life, or playing the game on the field, we see things from the field level perspective. As we pray and seek guidance from God, the head coach and offensive or defensive coordinator, God will answer our prayers from the perspective of being up in the coaches box in the stadium that's looking down on the field. So, we are both looking at the same defense, or challenges in life, but from a different perspective. When our coach calls a play we trust that what he sees, though different than what we may see, will allow us to run the play successfully.
The cool thing about this analogy is that I know when I pray to God now that even though I may see things and perceive things to be a certain way, God sees it from above and sees things in a way that I don't see things. But because my relationship with him has grown overtime through prayer and reading the Bible, I know that I can trust him to guide me and call plays to help me defeat the challenges in front of me and to help me score in this game of life. Just look at relationships between coaches and quarterbacks like Tom Brady and Bill Belichick. Those types of relationships are not developed overnight and the trust that has been built between those two gentleman has led to multiple championships. On the flip side, look at the relationship between Mark Sanchez and Rex Ryan. Didn't turn out too well, did it?
So I encourage you, talk to God daily, your coach, and read your playbook daily, the Bible, and develop that relationship and that trust so that when you don't always see how things can work out, you can always trust that God has a perspective from higher up that sees a way through for you. Be encouraged! Things aren't always easy, but the best is still yet to come in your life. I trust and believe that God has great plans for all of us and he loves us so much that he will never leave us nor forsake us. Have a wonderful week everyone.