Hello friends. If you've been noticing the excessive amount of National Football League games that Mary and I have been attending of late and you've been wondering: "what in the world?" Then this post is for you. If not...well this post probably still is for you.
It's true. Mary and I have been going to a lot of football games this year. Almost as many football games as one can physically go to in a season. You may be thinking: "Have they lost their minds?" And to that I would answer: "I don't think so."
If I were to sum the whole situation up in one sentence I would say: you never know where the Lord will take you if you let him direct your steps.
Those of you who have known Mary and I long term will know that the loving of football isn't something new to us. Some of you may remember the Tim Tebow era, where we decided to throw our allegiance behind one player rather than one team. Whatever team ol' Timmy played for would be the team we rooted for.
Insert photo of my first NFL game where we watched Tim Tebow and the Jets lose to the Seahawks in 2012.
Good times.
Unfortunately for us and for Tim, Tebow's NFL career was short lived. After two years, Mary and I were back to being football fans without a team.
Fast forward to the year 2020. As you may recall, the world shut down a little bit. Going out was frowned upon. Staying home was encouraged. So Mary and I found ourselves watching a lot more football. Fed up with how much garbage was in current movies and tv shows we felt like football was a more edifying choice for entertainment.
With the increased viewing of football came increased familiarity with players and teams...and slowly but surely some front runners started to emerge in the race for our fandom. By the end of the 2020 season the contest was won.
This sweet-faced angel with an arm like a cannon had stolen our hearts.
We were bonafide Chargers fans.
The 2021 season kicked things into high gear. Thrilled to finally have a team we felt was our own, we took our role as fans very seriously. We learned about the players and coaches, we watched the press conferences after games, we researched the history of the Chargers organization. Things got real when I sewed us outfits using Chargers fabric I found at JoAnn's. It seemed like a fun silly idea at the time...but one thing usually snowballs into another. I had no idea where my fun silly idea would lead us.
By the end of the 2021 season, we realized we really needed/wanted to watch our team play in the flesh. So our Christmas presents to ourselves and my parents were tickets to the New Years' Day game to kick off 2022. We wanted to go all out and be close enough for the players to hear us cheer and for them to see the clever signs I made. We got seats in the third row in the endzone. The experience did not disappoint.
It was an all around thrill, especially since the Chargers beat the Broncos handedly.
This put the Chargers on the cusp of the playoffs. If they won the next game, they were in. We couldn't imagine missing that game, so we seized the moment and flew to Las Vegas.
In typical Chargers fashion, the game was a nail biter to the bitter end. We cheered on our boys in blue with every ounce we had, but in the end they lost to the Raiders in overtime. At the end of the game, Megan, who runs their social media, came up to us and said, "I love you guys, you're awesome! We could hear you cheering from the sideline the whole time."
We were speechless. They heard us cheering. They knew we were there. Maybe we even encouraged them. Maybe we helped them to keep fighting, even when it felt like hope was lost.
There was a lot to mull over in the ensuing off season. The knowledge that we may have helped this team we loved so much, even in a minuscule way, was something we couldn't shake. We knew we wanted to be there for them. We wanted to be at every game if we could...we started talking about the possibility of getting season tickets.
Naturally this is where the: "i don't knows" kicked in. Football season tickets are a significant financial/time commitment. And attending a whole lot of football games felt like a frivolous and potentially selfish choice. I felt like the answer had to be "no" but I decided to pray and fast about it anyways. Surprisingly, I felt the Lord repeatedly put on my heart that I shouldn't put him in a box. I may have some rigid definition of what a "mission field" looks like, but God doesn't. Even still, I resisted. That age old nagging feeling of "what will people think?" still rattled around in my brain. I'd wanted to go overseas to minister to people in third world countries...that was my plan. Various things over the past couple years had postponed that and now here was this new thing. This new thing that doesn't look like a mission field at all. This new thing that would probably confuse a lot of the people that know us. But as I prayed and journaled and listened, I couldn't deny what God was emphasizing. That I live to please him and no one else. That if he's calling me into some crazy football mission field, then I gotta go.
So now here we are, a year later. And I can't begin to tell you all the ways I've seen God working through this. I do regret not writing this post sooner. I would have loved to have you all praying for us from the start. But I guess I was still shy about it. Shy about this thing that doesn't look like a mission field to the untrained eye. Shy about this thing that may look weird to a whole lot of you.
But let me tell ya, folks. God wants you to bring your loaves and fishes to him and let him use them. He wants your every day, your every moment to be in communion with him...all the who's and where's and what's are secondary.
"Whatever you find to do, do it as for the Lord, and not for men."
-Colossians 3:23
So that, in brief, is what Mary and I have been up to. Maybe after this football season is over I'll write a more detailed post about all the ways God has moved and worked through this crazy football adventure we've been on.
Until then, know that I love you and want the best for you and I'm praying that God blesses you and keeps you and makes his face shine upon you.
your friend,
Heather
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