This is the original manuscript for an address I gave for the football players and cheerleaders at Southern Academy when St. Paul's was providing dinner for them. My hope is that it will be helpful to anyone who wants to read it.
I've been thinking a lot about Mr. Rogers lately, who you may or may not have seen on television at some point in your lives. One scene in particular sticks out to me. Mr. Rogers is trying to set up a tent, and absolutely failing at it. The footage goes on for, well a really long time. Most people would have cut this footage out from their show. Many more might have burned the film. But it was important to Mr. Rogers for others to see him trying at something he wasn't good at. It was also important to him for children to see that even adults struggle sometimes.
We demand so much of you. I think we demand more of you than was demanded of me in school, and that was a lot. There's such a focus on doing well in academics and in athletics so you can go on and do it all again in college and whatever comes after that. There's so much focus on doing things the right way and succeeding.
That's not to say you shouldn't do well in school. You should. You should try your best at sports too. As Christians, we are also called to be good sports as well. But I spoke about that last topic last time I was here. Again, it's important for me to be here, so I want to give you something new and different. I want to leave you with the most important thing I could say to you.
I don't know what this season is going to be like for you. I don't know how far you will go or how many games you will win. What I do know, is that no matter what happens this season, no matter if you can actually put up the tent, so to speak, God will still love you.
I know this because God isn't tribal. I'm fairly certain He doesn't even have a favorite sports team (shocking, I know!). When God came down to this world in the form of Jesus Christ, He didn't just come for one group of people or another. Yes, He started in Israel and focused His ministry there, but then He told His disciples to go to all nations. He wanted everyone to hear that "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son to the end that all who believe in Him would not perish, but have every lasting life." Jesus didn't love just one or two people. He loves us all.
I know that God will still love you because God shows His loves to all kinds of people in Scripture. He shows His love to the small and weak like David and the strong and powerful like Sampson. He shows His love to the sick and poor who He heals and to the rich like King Solomon. He even loves scoundrels like Jacob, son of Isaac, son of Abraham, so much that he renames Jacob "Israel".
Win or lose, God will love you. No matter what mistakes you make, and you will make mistakes in life as we all do, nothing, as Paul says in Romans, "will be able to separate us from the love of God."
As Mr. Rogers used to say on his program, "you are special" and "I love you just the way you are." Mr. Rogers was a Presbyterian minister, so what I believe he is saying is that you are special because God made you and God loves you.
Go out and enjoy yourselves this season, no matter what happens. Feel the joy in what you do, and feel God's joy in your joy because He does love you, and that is the only thing that ever really matters. Remember that, and show that same love to others as well.