A number of years ago, I made a really bad decision with three cheetahs.
While traveling in South Africa with some college students on a mission trip, we took a 2 day detour for some much needed R and R. A part of our rest was to visit a Zulu cultural site so we could get to know the people we were reaching with the Gospel. Its main attraction was a cheetah enclosure. This cheetah enclosure was one where you could literally walk into it to take some pictures of these big cats basking in the sunshine.
Good idea or bad idea? What I found out that day was the cheetah’s true identity…
LaMorris Crawford, the AIA chaplain for the Bengals football team, texted me last week, “Hey Mark, can you do me a favor and lead the Bengals chapel service on Sunday morning?” LaMorris has spoken with our students in the past, so it was really cool for me to step into his world.
“Can I see your driver’s license?” said the security guard as I approached the bowels of the stadium. One of the players met me at that office, escorted me down the hall past the dining area, where many players were grabbing their breakfast before day four of the preseason training camp, and smack through the middle of the locker room. Finally, we reached a theatre-like room, which was going to be the venue for our chapel. It was fun to meet their head coach and several of the players as the rest of the group arrived.
“Good morning, gentlemen! Today we are going to look at our true identity. Are you professional football players who happen to be Christians or followers of Jesus, who happen to play football?” For the next 20 minutes we looked at God’s Word to uncover a ravishing view of Jesus and God’s sovereign care for us. You see for many of us, our performance and the opinion of others are the only factors that determine our identity, but the focus of my chapel was that our true identity is what God’s Word says is true about us as a follower of Jesus. We are deeply loved, totally forgiven and complete in Christ. That is our TRUE identity. When we can live more consistently with those truths governing our lives, it helps us to swim through the turbulent waters of roller-coaster performance and the opinion of others. The players were shaking their heads as they had never considered this perspective before. It is wonderful to know, but extremely difficult to apply on a daily basis. What I have found in my own life and for the many student athletes we collectively influence is that when we can live this way it totally frees us up to enjoy our work and sport. Who knows how the Lord may use this to impact those players.
That day in South Africa, two of our students got attacked by the cheetahs. One was knocked down and bit in the arm and the other student was clawed on his back. It was a life-altering day for me. I was expecting the cheetahs to be nice little kitties and sit still while I took their pictures, (I did get some great photos) but they showed their TRUE identity as predators and we were their prey. I learned a valuable lesson that day from the cheetahs, that I need to live out my true identity in Jesus as explained in His Word and not to settle for the world’s formula to determine my identity which is based on simply my performance and the opinion of others.
Please pray for us as we walk into other enclosures (campuses) where instead of cheetahs there are students. Please pray that these students find true freedom and forgiveness through the perfect work of Jesus’ death and resurrection.
