| National Football League
Place Kicker
San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Kansas City, Seattle, Arizona
Georgia
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| I grew up playing soccer, baseball, track, and basketball. I had loving parents and a great home. I was a good athlete and a great student. Basically I was the All-American kid - except I had this horrible internal struggle going on. I was terribly insecure. I was fearful of failure.
So early in high school, I decided to make myself secure. I poured myself into sports! There wasn't a day that went by that I didn't practice a sport. I played four sports and excelled in all of them!
However for one reason or another, all of those sports (individually) were ripped out my hands. But that opened a new door in my life - football was now on the scene.
I started to practice football with reckless abandon, and I started to become a pretty decent player. But in my junior year, I missed a kick that could've won a game. I was crushed because my identity was totally wrapped up in how I did (on the field) and in what people thought of me. My whole life was a performance trap.
When I started to read my Bible, I found 1 Corinthians 1:25. It says, "For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength." It summed up my life. I was doing everything to be as strong as I could be and as wise as I could be. I began to wonder if God could make me secure regardless of how I kick, or how cool I was?
Eventually, with the encouragement of a few important people, I decided to go on a retreat. That's where I learned five basic things that changed my life:
- God loves me and has a plan for my life. His plan for my life is much deeper and more significant that I could ever imagine. God has an active daily interest in my life. God loves Todd Peterson (John 3:16).
- Man has a problem - it's called sin. Sin is what separates man from God. And sin isn't just what I've done, it's what I am. Lying and cheating are the consequence of my sin. I was borner a sinner (Romans 3:23).
- The wages of my sinful nature is death. I finally realized that the wages of sin are death and that was a debt I couldn't pay. There was nothing in the world I could do about it! God loves me, yet I'm condemned to die. How can I experience God's love? (Romans 6:23).
- God has a remedy for my problem - the cross of Jesus Christ. God's remedy for my problem was a gift. That's why this had been so tough for me - I couldn't earn it. I had to receive it. My debt was paid by a loving, gracious, forgiving God (Ephesians 2:8-9).
- I have to deal with the first four things. I had to accept the first four things or reject them. I had to respond! (John 1:12).
That weekend I prayed to God, accepting His gift of eternal life. For the first time in my life, I recognized that my self-worth had nothing to do with how I performed - it was the position I had in Jesus Christ. The performance trap was gone!
Reprinted with permission from Sports Spectrum magazine www.sportsspectrum.com
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