There’s nothing in life that gets me charged like witnessing young men (all teenagers still) scramble, scrap, laugh, sweat, eat and love life. It was pure privilege to join the senior boys football team this year on their biennial trip to play and challenge themselves in California. It’s hard to summarize what it’s like to be a part of 38 boys fully enjoying Disneyland, “all-you-can-eat buffets” and a substantially challenging football game. It’s a dynamic tension between the laughter of the children they still are and the bold, strong young men they are becoming. I could tell you about the 250 lb. linebacker squealing his way through the “House of Horrors” or the scary 20 minutes for all of us when Brett went down in the 1st quarter and was taken to hospital on a spine board or I could tell you about the 45 minutes we were stuck in the elevator with 15 football players, one woman from Saskatchew and and temperatures hitting +40oC with 100% humidity and how we had to be extracted by the Orange County fire department.

Those are all stories, landmarks on the journey. Relational memories. But what I really want to tell you is what these young men did for my heart, for the hearts of their coaches and their school. They fought hard. They learned lessons. They represented. They showed compassion. They led by example. They hurt. They rallied. And, I know, they came back stronger young men.

Through it all, I was thankful to witness the strong hearts of their coaches and trainers and the love they have for them. As we struggle and suffer and reach heights of success, so much of our reaction to our journey, is based on interpretation. We need good people around us who offer that interpretation. What do you do with a 51-0 loss? As a young man, giving it his all on the field, facing down a team much faster and more experienced? How do you interpret that? Do you just unplug? “Oh well. Nothing I can do.” Or do you blame yourself? When you have coaches who love you and know you, they give you the interpretation you need. They tell you what you did right. They tell you what to do different. They hold you up. They tell you that you have what it takes, regardless the score. They love you through it.

This trip was an exceptional quest, after something deeper than a football game. It was a fantastic leg of the journey from boy to man.

“The journey of a boy becoming a man is not a spectator sport. It is something that must be entered into. It is one part instruction and nine parts experience.”

(from “Fathered by God” by John Eldredge)