Understanding brokenness

We know (or should know) that our strength comes from God. God wants us to depend on Him, and sometimes He will drive us to brokenness in order to get His point across.

On page 106 of One Yard Short, Les Steckel writes about a woman in church who told him about brokenness after he was fired by the Minnesota Vikings after the miserable 3-13 season:

Back when the Vikings had just fired me, a woman in a church crowd had used the term (brokenness). After I finished speaking, she came up to me and said, 'I believe God removed you from that position to put you through brokenness.'

Brokenness? What's that? I told the woman I had no idea what she was talking about. And I was being honest, for even after the Vikings fiasco, I still didn't get it.

Steckel eventually understood brokenness in 1990, when he was fired by the New England Patriots.

I understand brokenness. I felt extremely broken during my childhood -- my parents divorced when I was 4, and my stepdad didn't treat me very well. I have been working to deal with my parents' divorce and the treatment by my stepdad my entire life. But I know that God was with me during that entire time and ensured that I made my way through it. It's a paradox: when we are weakest we are at our strongest, because at that point we are relying on God.

To coach the Vikings or the Gophers?

When Les Steckel was a coach for the Minnesota Vikings, he lived in my neighborhood in Bloomington. Many Minnesotans remember Les Steckel, although possibly not very fondly. He was the head coach of the Minnesota Vikings in 1984, when the team had a 3-13 season. Before being head coach, Steckel coached the receivers, tight ends and special teams.

Steckel was obsessed with being a head coach, and the University of Minnesota approached him about their head coaching position in 1983. On page 77-78 of One Yard Short, Steckel recounts how he consulted God as to whether to stay with the Vikings or go to the Gophers:

I rose from bed, walked into my study, and dropped to my knees beside the window. A huge harvest moon looked down on me from the night sky.

I prayed, 'Lord, I'm scared to death. This head coaching thing is all I can talk about, all I can think about, everything I've dreamed about. You know what's inside me, Lord; you know me better that I know myself. Tomorrow they're going to make the offer. I want it, but I don't know if you want it for me.'

I paused and had a crazy thought. 'Lord,' I said, 'let something fall out of the sky. I just need a clear answer. Please, let something fall out of the sky to tell me what to do.'

A few hours later I left for work. And at the end of the day, Bud Grant materialized in my doorway -- something that didn't happen too often with assistants. He said, 'Les, can I see you for five minutes?'

The word was out about the college job. Reporters knew, players were asking me if I was leaving, and I figured Bud had the same question. I was in for a shocker.

He said, 'Les, I understand you're going to be offered the job at the university. We respect you a great deal as a coach and as a person, and I want you to know one thing. I'm going to retire at the end of the season, and I want you to be my successor. The general manager and the owner agree with me. We want you to be the next head coach of the Minnesota Vikings.'

So Steckel became the Vikings' head coach, and Lou Holtz ended up taking the head coaching job for the Gopher football team.

God opens the door for the Spanish voice of Minnesota sports

Alfonso Fernandez is the Spanish radio voice of the Minnesota Twins. And the Minnesota Vikings. And the Minnesota Timberwolves.

According to a July 23, 2007, story in the Star Tribune, God guided him to his trio of jobs in 2005. "He opened the door," Fernandez said in the story.

First, a little background on Fernandez. He grew up in Mexico, but was a radio broadcaster in his '20s in California. According to the Star Tribune story:

"He called Lakers, Clippers and Rams games on Spanish-language radio. He moved to North Carolina to pursue his radio career, and then the Lord came calling. Fernandez listened to preachers -- on the radio, of course -- and learned about missionary work.

He said to himself, 'God has blessed my family and myself, so why not share that blessing?'

It came in a dream

He and his wife, Rosalia, sold their home and moved back to Guadalajara, sharing food, clothing and Bibles with the people of his hometown. After a year in Mexico, he said God called him to Minnesota to continue his missionary work.

Even now, Fernandez says he walks through parts of the Twin Cities where he knows he will find the homeless. He looks under bridges and freeway ramps, where he shares water as well as the good news. But he never dreamed of becoming a Minnesota sportscaster, until one night in a dream: 'Call the Vikings' was what he heard.

As it turned out, the person who was doing Spanish broadcasts of Vikings home games had just quit. Fernandez found some old tapes of his and there he was, like a proverbial bolt from the blue, back behind the microphone in September 2005.

Soon after, he was calling Twins and Timberwolves games. He and radio partner Tony Oliva -- a former Twins star and native of Cuba -- broadcast all the Twins' Sunday home games on KBGY 107.5 FM, a Spanish-language station also known as La Mera Buena. KBGY also carried 12 Timberwolves home games last season. All Vikings home games are broadcast in Spanish on KFXN 690 AM."

According to the story, the Twins hope to carry every home game in Spanish someday.