Ignore opinions but treasure facts

I have been fortunate to participate in the Senior Game whereby around 40 of the best Seniors in our state practice together for several days and for most of them play one last game. These are the last teammates they will ever line up next to.

This year I will stand before them as the AD of the game (not as a Coach) and watch the clock hit zero, the lights go dark, and for almost every single one of them, the pads come off forever. No more Fridays. No more film on Monday. No more locker-room smell that somehow still feels like home.

This is it. Their last 48 minutes of organized football.That truth will hit hard. Some of them have already felt it in the quiet moments this week. And the world outside these walls is already shouting its opinions:

“He peaked in high school.”

“He wasn’t good enough for the next level.”

“Football was just a phase.”

My counsel is to let to every one of those voices choke on the turf during the game this week. Because Scripture doesn’t measure your worth by scholarships or future rosters.

Proverbs 29:25 – “The fear of human opinion lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe.”

The game is not about proving the doubters wrong. It’s about walking off this field knowing you left every ounce of who you are between the lines—because you played for an Audience of One who never cuts anybody from the team. John 8:32 – “You shall know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

So here are the facts I will tell them to carry onto that field one final time—facts that outlive the scoreboard:

1. They were good enough to be chosen for this game. Out of thousands of seniors in this state, your name was called. Fact.

2. They’ve already done what 99.9 % of people who ever laced them up will never do—played in an all-star game under these lights with the best in the state. Fact.

3. Most important fact of all: Their identity is not “former football player.” Their identity is “child of God, redeemed, called, and loved with an everlasting love.” That never gets cut, never gets injured, never ends at midnight tonight.

   
   

So when the final whistle blows and the helmets come off for good, they won’t be walking away empty. They will be walking away free—free from the need to prove anything else with a football in their hands, because the One who matters most already said, “Well done."

God, thank You for every bruise, every practice, every bus ride, every moment that brought these young men to this night. Quiet every voice that tries to steal their joy. Remind them that this isn’t the end of their story—it’s just the end of one glorious chapter. Let them play with reckless joy and ferocious love, because they are already accepted, already approved, already Yours forever. Protect them, unite them, and let them taste the freedom of knowing the truth tonight. In the name of Jesus—Amen.