A Farewell to Football

Today we said goodbye. 
Goodbye to a sport that has brought us ministry, victory, heartache, and family. My heart swells with pride and heartache that comes with letting go. Beautifully put, I have a hundred sons I never gave birth too. I daily and boldly bring them, their choices, their pain before the throne of God. Knowing and having faith that His presence and His love will meet them and save them. That He will usher them into a life they could never see for themselves, but a life planned and prepared by their almighty Heavenly Father. 

I love the way we have done football. We have gone at it together, as a family, with passionate hearts, not only for the game but more importantly for the players who play it and for the coaches along side us who coach it. We have never approached the game, like it was just a game. 

We dig in. We press. We go all in & don’t waste time with the players God has set before us. I can’t explain why it is this way for us, maybe its because our own imperfections have been touched and mended by the grace of God, we are so drawn to see the players experience that same healing and redemption. 

I am so proud of my husband. I have love, love, loved watching him build a team. God drew him out of the boat 4 years ago, onto unknown waters, and he said “Walk.” Walk Brian has done. To watch him lead, coach, and set course to MNU football has blessed my heart and been a dream come true to experience along side of him.  Watching someone do what they are called to do has an unbelievable beauty to it.  And watching him address his team after a game or practice, watching him cover the sideline, hearing him defend his boys after a bad call, or watching him play basketball coaches against players it just perfectly him.  

The 7 of us know nothing different than Jesus and football. So, I speak for us all when I say, we may feel a little rudderless for a bit without football. We all have hearts that are learning to walk forward in blind faith, full in hope, and a good dose of fear on the side. 

I don’t want my life to be explainable. I don’t want it to ever make sense. I want to look back at my life & see one huge, unusual, mighty, beautiful mess made good. Made good by God. I don’t believe in a normal God who does normal things, and so I want my life to reek with the unusual & I pray my life has way more of his fingerprints all over it, than it does mine.

Thank you God for football 🏈, & entrusting us with so many men.

❤️, mama willmer