“In
the fall of 2008, there was an unusual high school football game played in
Grapevine, Texas. The game was between Grapevine Faith Academy and the
Gainesville State School. Faith is a
Christian school and Gainesville State School is located within a maximum-security
correction facility.
Gainesville
State School has 14 players. They play every game on the road. Its record was
0-8. They've only scored twice. Their 14 players are teenagers who have been
convicted of crimes ranging from drugs to assault to robbery. Most had families who had disowned them. They
wore outdated, used shoulder pads and helmets
Faith Academy was 7-2. It had 70 players, 11 coaches, and the latest
equipment. Chris Hogan, the head coach at Faith Academy, knew the Gainesville
team would have no fans and it would be no contest, so he thought, "What
if half of our fans and half of our cheerleaders, for one night only, cheered
for the other team?"
He
sent out an email to the faithful asking them to do just that. "Here's the
message I want you to send," Hogan wrote. "You're just as valuable as
any other person on the planet."
Some folks were confused and thought he was nuts. One player said,
"Coach, why are we doing this?" Hogan said, "Imagine you don't
have a home life, no one to love you, no one pulling for you. Imagine that
everyone pretty much had given up on you. Now, imagine what it would feel like
and mean to you for hundreds of people to suddenly believe in you."
The
idea took root. On the night of the game, imagine the surprise of those 14
players when they took the field and there was a banner the cheerleaders had
made for them to crash through. The visitors' stands were full. The
cheerleaders were leading cheers for them. The fans were calling them by their
names. Isaiah, the quarterback-middle linebacker said, "I never in my life
thought I would hear parents cheering to tackle and hit their kid. Most of the
time, when we come out, people are afraid of us. You can see it in their eyes,
but these people are yelling for us. They knew our names."
Faith
won the game, and after the game the teams gathered at the 50-yard line to
pray. That's when Isaiah, the teenage convict-quarterback surprised everybody
and asked if he could pray and he prayed, "Lord, I don't know what just
happened so I don't know how or who to say thank you to, but I never knew there
were so many people in the world who cared about us."
On
the way back to the bus, under guard, each one of the players was handed a
burger, fries, a coke, candy, a Bible, and an encouraging letter from the
players from Faith Academy. What an incredible act of Christian witness and
kindness and goodness that was. Be kind to someone this week. Be kind to every
person you meet. You might be amazed at what God will do with a simple act of
kindness. Proverbs 11:17 says, "Your
own soul is nourished when you are kind." and Proverbs 3:27 says, "Do not withhold good when it is
in your power to act."
This
act of kindness and generosity of love from must be the model every believer
lives by.
Be
kind. Be gentle. Be Jesus!
Everyone needs to see the best side of us all.
FAITH
DOES NOT BELIEVE THAT GOD CAN.... IT
KNOWS THAT HE WILL!
Remember, Be God Controlled!
Brian
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