{"id":6193,"date":"2018-03-03T12:36:35","date_gmt":"2018-03-03T18:36:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tampaseo.expert\/focus\/?p=6193"},"modified":"2018-03-03T12:36:35","modified_gmt":"2018-03-03T18:36:35","slug":"game-changer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tampaseo.expert\/focus\/2018\/03\/03\/game-changer\/","title":{"rendered":"Game Changer"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Chad Brinker<\/strong>
\nA few days before I played my first college football\u00a0game, my life changed forever.\u00a0I was an 18-year-old freshman, on my own for the first time, boarding a chartered flight to Raleigh, North Carolina, with my football teammates. We had just finished training camp and were getting ready to play the Wolfpack of North Carolina State.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>
\nAs we boarded,\u00a0I was reminded of my first flight. I was\u00a08 years old and it was a flight to West Palm Beach. I went to visit my grandmother over the\u00a0Christmas holiday with my parents.\u00a0We were never a religious family,\u00a0except for an occasional holiday, and much\u00a0of my childhood was centered on\u00a0sports.\u00a0As I settled into my assigned seat and looked out the window,\u00a0my mind drifted\u00a0home.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>
\nI grew up in a blue-collar\u00a0town\u00a0on\u00a0the riverbanks of the Ohio\u00a0about an hour southwest of Pittsburgh. What was once a booming community\u00a0for coal and steel workers\u00a0had become another\u00a0sad depiction of a\u00a0dying population\u00a0in the middle of the Rust Belt. Old vacant mills lined\u00a0the\u00a0Ohio River\u00a0as some sort of shrine. It was a constant reminder of how\u00a0times have changed and how difficult life can be. This was a tough\u00a0place with\u00a0hard-working men.\u00a0The principles of hard work, discipline, and sacrifice for the greater good was ingrained in\u00a0all of us\u00a0at an early age.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>
\nDespite\u00a0economic struggles\u00a0and hardships, hope was kept alive every autumn on Friday nights.\u00a0High school football reigns\u00a0and always has in this small\u00a0industrial\u00a0town, more than\u00a0100 years and counting. My athletic\u00a0prowess\u00a0earned me a\u00a0full\u00a0scholarship to\u00a0play college football and continue my education at Ohio University.\u00a0I was the first in my\u00a0family to do so. During my time at Martins Ferry High School,\u00a0I learned the qualities that\u00a0shaped my character. Little\u00a0did I know that those\u00a0were the same qualities that would one day prepare me for the conversation I was about to have with my teammate\u00a0Chip Pugh on that\u00a0flight to Raleigh.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>
\nAlthough I had faith in God, it was a superficial faith and had no real substance.\u00a0For most of my life,\u00a0football had been my god.\u00a0I never opened a Bible until I got to college. And when I did, I tried to shape\u00a0Jesus\u00a0to my own image. I wanted God to be there when I needed\u00a0Him and\u00a0be left alone otherwise. My faith was a sad depiction of what many today consider\u00a0to be\u00a0Christianity.\u00a0I did not know it at the time, but my life was about to change when I sat next to Chip Pugh on that\u00a0airplane.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>
\nI had been thinking a lot about my purpose in life. A college football training camp tends to do that, especially late at night.\u00a0Two-a-days, as we called them, tests your manhood.\u00a0I remember\u00a0having trouble falling asleep. I missed home and my family. I missed the comfort of a familiar place and faces. Back home,\u00a0everybody knew my name. I was the star athlete. I was the guy who\u00a0was going to make it far in\u00a0life\u2013\u2013the NFL, maybe\u2013\u2013but for sure I would find success. There was so much pressure on me to succeed, and all I wanted to do was go home. I started to question life and what it had in store for me. Essentially, I was lost. My soul was empty and searching for meaning.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>
\nI looked over at Chip and noticed he was wearing a WWJD\u00a0bracelet. I had no idea what it meant, so I asked. I couldn\u2019t have given Chip a better opportunity\u00a0to preach the\u00a0Gospel. My soul was yearning for the\u00a0Truth\u00a0although he did not know it at the time. Just as Phillip\u00a0preached the good news about Jesus to the\u00a0Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8, so did Chip\u00a0to\u00a0me.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>
\nMy life was\u00a0forever changed from that moment\u00a0on. Chip and I built a strong friendship. We would study the Scriptures on every road trip thereafter.\u00a0We also set up Bible studies at our dormitory.\u00a0Later that season, I obeyed the\u00a0Gospel and put on Christ in baptism for the remission of my sins (Acts 2:38). We have stayed close friends to this day and study often together, challenging one another to dig deeper into the truth of the Scriptures. As the old\u00a0proverb says, \u201cIron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another\u201d (Proverbs 27:17,\u00a0ESV).\u00a0<\/span>
\nOnce I became a Christian,\u00a0I quickly learned that my relationship with Jesus was something that was going to need work. Like any other relationship, one with my Lord needed my time, energy, and focus.\u00a0It was no different than training for the arena.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>
\nHowever, I didn\u2019t always give my relationship with Christ first priority. With school, football, and social\u00a0life on campus,\u00a0sometimes Jesus was left at\u00a0the\u00a0church\u00a0building.\u00a0The Bible teaches that Satan\u00a0\u201cprowls around like a roaring lion,\u00a0seeking\u00a0someone to devour\u201d (1 Peter 5:8). And he sure was after me. I had grown into a star athlete at Ohio, which gave me influence on campus. That influence could have been used to \u201crenounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the\u00a0present age\u201d (Titus 2:12).\u00a0I have to admit that was not always the case for me.\u00a0My studies in the sciences had me challenging the\u00a0One who created me. I had questions\u00a0about God that my friends struggled to answer.\u00a0The temptations on campus for\u00a0a young Christian\u00a0were\u00a0very real and\u00a0powerful.\u00a0I had never been the partying type, but\u00a0like most colleges, Ohio offered\u00a0more than just a solid education. Girls flocked campus with hardly enough clothes to cover their skin, and for whatever reason,\u00a0girls are attracted to star athletes. It became hard to ignore all the attention.\u00a0It was sometimes\u00a0easier for me to dodge 300-pound\u00a0defensive lineman\u00a0than to elude the\u00a0schemes of\u00a0the devil.\u00a0My faith stood on shaky ground,\u00a0and I couldn\u2019t get out of my own way.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>
\nAll of this changed in the fall of 2001. I was diagnosed with an arachnoid cyst\u00a0a week before we played our archrival Miami\u00a0(Ohio). Doctors informed me that\u00a0I would need brain surgery and\u00a0it was unlikely for me to step foot on the gridiron again.\u00a0The news rocked me and my family. Our head football coach later said the news shocked our football team\u00a0because\u00a0I was seen as some invincible warrior by my teammates. I was the strongest, fastest, and hardest-working\u00a0individual on the team.\u00a0Toughness permeated\u00a0every fiber of my being, and I started to belief that I was bulletproof. When you play in the arena\u00a0that I came from,\u00a0you are almost conditioned to think this way.\u00a0<\/span>
\nI quickly found out that through this ailment\u00a0that I was no match for the\u00a0Divine.\u00a0Our security cannot be wrapped up in the fragility of ourselves or this world.\u00a0From that moment I\u00a0seriously\u00a0began to\u00a0put Jesus first in all things.\u00a0God eventually restored my health and I returned to the gridiron less than a year removed from brain surgery. I had a stellar senior season and fulfilled my dream of putting on an NFL uniform. During this time,\u00a0God brought\u00a0into my life a wonderful\u00a0Christian\u00a0woman Rachelle who would become my wife. Through many ups and downs, highs and lows,\u00a0my Lord has always stuck with me and I continue to learn that conversion to Christ is not only a one-time event,\u00a0but\u00a0a lifelong\u00a0relationship.\u00a0<\/span>
\nWe all have a story to tell, and\u00a0I have so much more to say.\u00a0But\u00a0I did not use this space to delve into\u00a0Biblical theology or some sort of insightful psychology.\u00a0I wanted it to be real and from the heart.\u00a0True evangelism is just that. Christ lives in\u00a0all of us who are faithful members of His body; therefore, \u201clet your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in\u00a0Heaven\u201d (Matthew 5:16).\u00a0How you live your\u00a0life will be the greatest sermon you could ever preach. Amen.\u00a0<\/span>
\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Chad Brinker A few days before I played my first college football\u00a0game, my life changed forever.\u00a0I was an 18-year-old freshman, on my own for the first time, boarding a chartered flight to Raleigh, North Carolina, with my football teammates. We had just finished training camp and were getting ready to play the Wolfpack of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[1405,329,1408,168,1051],"class_list":["post-6193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-think-excerpts","tag-august-2013","tag-bible-study-2","tag-chad-brinker","tag-conversion","tag-feature","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\nGame Changer - Focus Press<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tampaseo.expert\/focus\/2018\/03\/03\/game-changer\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Game Changer - Focus Press\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Chad Brinker A few days before I played my first college football\u00a0game, my life changed forever.\u00a0I was an 18-year-old freshman, on my own for the first time, boarding a chartered flight to Raleigh, North Carolina, with my football teammates. 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