Personal Narrative On College Football

Gazing across the lush field I lay my eyes on an enthusiastic crowd. Emotional chants rise from their voices but are immediately silenced from my hearing as the referee whistles the ball into play. I bend down to get into my stance, one hand down with my middle fingers balancing me into a running back stance. I feel the sweat dripping down my face and into my eyes causing a sizzling pain that brings my head back into the game. I knew it was only a matter of time, despite that it was only halfway through the third quarter. I had to make the most of the time I had left. Billy, our team’s center, bends down and laces his fingers around the brown leather of the ball and snaps it back. Immediately in response I burst forward running past my defender
into the open field. The wind blows in my face giving me a cooling sensation that is soon cut short by a surge of pain that erupts from my inner thigh. I topple to the ground and feel my flesh rip against the turf leaving myself a sleeve of burns. I lay on the ground grabbing at my thigh only to be met with more searing pain in both of my calves. I struggle to massage my leg but at no use. I collapse on my back and lay helpless.

That was merely the third game of our my junior football season at SFC.
The cramps had never been a significant limiting factor in my athletic career until my junior football season. The first game of the season it was at halftime that the cramps hit me, and I was unable to participate in the second half. The second game my body managed to power through half of the third quarter before it collapsed. Now, here in the third game I had almost made it to the fourth quarter before my legs gave out and I couldn’t participate in the rest of the game once again. This was a massive problem because this was the first sport that I had felt a severe passion for in my life, and I wasn’t able to fully participate in it because of my leg issues.
It tore at me emotionally. I had never loved a sport so much; however, this had not been the story of my entire life. In fact, prior to this junior season I had hated football. I hated football so much my freshman year that I choose to quit sophomore year and was barely convinced to come back junior year. It wasn’t until the first day of practice, however, that I realized what a mistake had been to quit. I missed one year’s worth of my favorite activity in the entire world. And now, because of my legs, I was basically missing a second
year.
After multiple talks with my football coaches and trainer after the game, it was finally time for to head home after the game. My hopelessness started to sink in. I walked out to my car in the pitch black of night and could feel the darkness wrapping around me. I got into my car and dropped my head on my steering wheel. My eyes swelled with tears and deep sobs began to fill my silent solitude. I simply felt empty.
I continued to cry for what seemed like hours but in reality was only a few minutes. It was then that I continued to cry, but my reason for crying completely changed. I was no longer crying out of sorrow for missing the football season, but was instead crying at how petty I was for making football an idol in my life. My sorrow had changed to guilt, and this led me to the one thing I needed most in this situation: it led me to prayer.
In my prayer I asked for forgiveness. I prayed for guidance. I prayed for hope. And I prayed out of gratitude that there was hope that I simply had been to arrogant to look at before: the hope of Jesus Christ. I felt completely overwhelmed in this moment by the Holy Spirit. I could feel God at work in my heart and I knew that my attitude would be changed forever.

Because of this spiritual moment in my life the rest of my football season was changed.
I still continued to have cramps and wouldn’t often make it all the way through a game. But I now had a different mentality. I came in with happy spirits and played the game for fun to enjoy every second that I could spend on the field. Instead of getting down on myself after the game I focused on the good things that happened. I also and most importantly, started to to put more of a focus on God. Every night I started to read two chapters of the Bible no matter how tired I was. And amazingly, Scripture provided answers for my legs. Scripture provided answers for my hunger for competition. Scripture provided meaning to a life of 17 year old- boy who overstressed himself. And this helped keep me focused on my true goals in
life.
In all honesty, cramping was a way that God spoke to me; therefore, I am blessed to have had it as a part of my life. It woke me up to the importance of my relationship with Christ. I learned that the more I work on my relationship with Christ, the more enjoyable life around me would become. This included football. The more I realized how much of a blessing football is and how it can glorify God, the more fun it became. That is why I hope people put God at the center of their lives. The greatest feeling is fulfillment, and only God can fulfill a heart that has been emptied by sin. No sport could ever make me feel as happy as Christ does each day.
And who would’ve ever known that a painful cramping problem would be the thing to teach me that.