Faith that the coma will end

Timothy Robinson, a high school football player in Alabama, suffered a major head injury during a recent football game. In a story on al.com, his parents recall what happened and how they know that Timothy will make it through:

Dr. Bill Admire, one of (the high school) team doctors, helped Robinson and played an instrumental role in getting the teen to the hospital quickly. Evelyn McGhee said she hopes that her son's situation will motivate every high school team to have an emergency room doctor on the sideline every week.

She said Admire's expertise kept her son from dying.

'It had to be God that intervened and had Dr. Admire there,' she said, 'because never had I seen a doctor in the stands or anywhere. And even the trainer said she's never had a doctor trained in emergency medicine' available to help a player on the field.

'It was just fantastic and an amazing thing to me to have him there. I just thank God for him.'

The McGhees also praised the coaching staff, administration and football team for their support...Said Ben McGhee: 'God spoke to me and told me everything would be all right.'

God in the football locker room

Competition for the quarterback position on a high school football team can be pretty fierce. But when the two people vying for the position are devoted to God, the results can be great for the team.

The Rankin Ledger recently ran an article about Joe Barnes and Caleb Jett, the quarterbacks for the Brandon High School football team. The two rivals had not talked until after a Sunday school cookout in April:

'God showed up that day and people were being set free from bondages and sin, and I felt God was pulling at me. I finally broke down in tears and I knew it was time for me to follow God completely,' said Barnes.

'I wasn't supposed to be there that day but I got invited. We were praying for someone else and I kept getting these looks from Thomas, the leader. It was like God was looking at me through him. God spoke to me and it was like I let go of everything,' said Jett.

Following the prayer time, the two rivals were left alone to talk it out.

'We both knew that God put us together that day and we agreed to follow whatever God said. That was the day I met my best friend,' said Barnes.

Jett said the two began praying and ministering at church, at school and in the locker room.

The players have made a difference in the lives of many people by talking about God in the locker room and at school, and their attitude of putting the team first instead of themselves has benefited the team.

God's role in a college choice

Many factors go into choosing which college to attend. . .location, distance from home, excellence in one's area of study, opportunities for fun. . . For Lamarr Houston, his decision about going to Texas for college was heavily based on God:

'I talked and prayed with my family,' said Houston, 'and God spoke to me and told me that I should go there.'

Houston has been very successful at Texas. He plays on the football team, and has started every game at defensive end. (Colorado Springs Gazette)

Seattle's Central District to Edmonds

Yolanda Parker had a very tough life growing up in Seattle's Central District. Her parents died when she was young, she had a baby while in high school, and her older brother was shot and killed when she was 14.

She fell into the traps of marijuana, pills and cocaine. Parker was in a deep hole until God came into the picture, according to The Seattle Times:

God spoke to her and told her to leave the Central District.

'Your blessing is to the north,' He told her.

Parker, who had lived her entire life in the Central District, thought north meant Montlake, Greenlake or Northgate.

'He spoke into my spirit and said, 'Edmonds',' she said. 'Edmonds? That's like sending me to Mongolia!'

God has blessed Parker and her son, Antoinne Wafer, in Edmonds. She works at a school and her son is a star on the Edmonds-Woodway football team.

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.

Miracle in Music City

Les Steckel, currently the national president of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, had a long football coaching career, including 23 years in the NFL. He tells his story, and the role that God played in his ups and downs, in the book One Yard Short.

On January 8, 2000, Steckel was coaching the Tennessee Titans as their offensive coordinator in a playoff game against the Buffalo Bills. It had been a critical season for the Titans; the team was 13-3 with a perfect record at home. It was the first time that Tennessee had big NFL success.

The Bills were ahead 16-15 with 16 seconds left. The Titans had led most of the game, and the possibly of losing the game was almost too much for Steckel, as he writes on page 8 of the book:

'Lord, I never want to coach again,' I had prayed moments earlier. 'I've had it.'

Then I had one of those extraordinary moments: I heard the quiet voice of God.

I heard him ask, 'Do you have faith?'

I know what you're thinking. But listen, this isn't something that happens to me on an everyday basis. I can tell you that when it does, the words, the message, and the source are unmistakable. I answered the question immediately and instinctively.

'Yes, Lord, I have faith.'

And just like that, I had hope. I can't explain it even today, but I was excited even as everyone around me had given up. Sure, I was tense. But I was hopeful that something good was going to happen.

What happened next was the "Music City Miracle" -- a special play involving an improvised handoff and a pass to Kevin Dyson, who scored! The Titans won the game and were on to the next round of the playoffs.