I am currently deeply immersed in the football season. I spend much more time than I should reading every article that sparks my interest, whether it be about the Packers (repeats, me thinks!), a team by team outlook of the lowly NFC West, how the Bills are going to play the Lions in the Super Bowl (as one NFL writer put it, 'One of them has to win, right?'), how Vince Young's Dream Team has become a nightmare, or how Cam Newton is the most impressive rookie quarterback ever (but let's face it. He isn't really a rookie. He played pro football for Auburn).
I have always loved football.The fall has always been a favorite time of the year for me. The Packers have been one of the most successful teams since 1992, the Badgers have emerged again as a powerful program, St. Norbert fought the fifth ranked Tommies tooth and nail, and BYU is doing it's darndest to to succeed as an independent, no thanks to Utah (for anyone who was humiliated by the defeat, take some time to read D&C 54:10, the final score of the game). I grab a ball, and just toss it up and down to myself as I fall asleep, and try and get anyone I can to play a pickup game of tackle, and played on four different SNC intramural flag football teams last year. I dream of working out to the point where I ripple with muscle, run a 4.5 forty yard dash, and can catch a ball one handed with my eyes closed while eating a pizza standing on my head. But instead, I am still a guy people look at and say that I weigh 106 pounds.
I ran. I still run at my leisure. I want to run a 50 mile race when I get back from my mission, and follow that up with a 100 mile race before I'm 30. I want to qualify for Boston in my first marathon. I want to run in the Scottish Highlands, along the sea, and do the Mountain Marathon in Alaska. I want to get a sponsor for a credit card Gump my way across the US. And I want to do it all while wearing TOMs shoes. I will never excel as a football player, and it tears me apart inside. Every fall finds me cheering my heart heart for whichever of my teams is playing at the time, and feeling sorry for myself that I have never known what it was like to be out on the field. But God gave me the willingness to zone myself out, and plod mile after mile.
People always ask me how I can run. They think of it as boring. I make it a game... literally. Hang out with me for a while, and you will find that I am still very child like. When I run, my favorite games are that I am a Scottish warrior running from an English patrol, or a Roman soldier that needs to desperately find reinforcements. I still, at 22 years of age, pretend I am riding a horse as a Mongolian archer, or piloting an X-wing while biking to work. Wanna run 20 miles, or bike to Green Bay and back? Give yourself a reason to do it. Or even better; give yourself a reason to WANT to go the distance.
I found myself wanting to serve a mission when I found a reason to go. I had lived my life just going through the steps. I had never truly thought about a life path. I had never made a five year plan. I was a senior in high school and thought 'oh yeah, I am supposed to go to college.' But my Junior year of college found me thinking, pondering, and trying to figure out what I really wanted.I found that I was not actually happy. The mission hung over my head every time I came and mothers would ask 'so have you decided to go on a mission yet?' And I had finally started telling people I wasn't going, when I found myself finding out just what a mission could do for me.
Days after I told A that we should prepare to serve a mission together, I began to delve into why I made this choice, and I discovered the reason why. I realized that I would never be as happy without a mission as I would be with having served. The blessings would be without count, but even the temporal lessons would be enough. I would learn time management, how to break out of my comfort zone, financial management, how to interact with a plethora of different personality types, a willingness to sacrifice instant gratification for a belief that what I give up now will be far better in the future. These things alone are well worth the money and time I will invest in a mission.
I may not ever wow thousands of spectators with a tremendous touchdown, but if I can help touch the heart of a single individual and bring them true, everlasting happiness by putting myself in the hands of God for two years, then I have done a great thing. I have found my gridiron, and I intend to do everything I can to be fully prepared when the time comes, and I take the field.
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