Does God know your story? Of course, God knows your story. God is all-knowing. However, have you told God your story? Have you told other people your story? When I wrote my true story, the results were amazing. If you don’t want to share your story, you can write it just for yourself and see what happens.
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Your story doesn’t have to be your entire life history. Pick an event that has troubled you or that you have always wondered about. Perhaps it bothers you that a close friend moved to another city. Perhaps your story is about an unexpected promotion or job change. You are still surprised that it happened.
You can be assured that God was involved in your story, even though you were not aware of it at the time. God is still active. You see, God is involved in our lives so that we will recognize our need for divine help and guidance. In the case of a lost friendship, it would be helpful to pray about the situation and to be alert for a resolution. In the case of an unexpected job improvement, it would be beneficial to thank God and ask how you could help others.
You might be unsure about whether God will answer you. You can be assured by this:
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” (Matthew 7:7-8 NIV)
For some people, it may take a while to receive God’s answer. When we ask, our request is on God’s time, which is not the same as our time. We must be patient. The end result will be much better than we could have imagined. If you already have a relationship with God, that helps. If you don’t have a relationship, telling God your story might be a place to start.
“You can be assured that God was involved in your story, even though you were not aware of it at the time. God is still active. You see, God is involved in our lives so that we will recognize our need for divine help and guidance.”
My Story
Here is my story that I wrote in my early 40s. I had wondered for years whether it has meaning for my life. It is a true story.
Here Am I
“Eckhart, where are you?” I was surprised to hear Coach Haines say my name, especially now. After Friday’s season-opening loss, he had started his Monday talk praising our Junior quarterback. So what did he now want with me? I raised my hand slowly from my back-row seat.
“You did a ‘helluva’ job.” That’s all he said to me. However, it sounded as though he was pleased. I had heard him sound that way before, during the winter wrestling season. When I kept losing every match, he praised me for not getting pinned. Yet I also remembered what he did just a few weeks earlier during a scrimmage game after I had a holding penalty. He kicked me square in the rear when I lined up for the next play. Somehow, despite the shock and the pain, I heard him yell, “Don’t ever do that again!” The words became etched in my mind and my muscles.
As the team left the school building on our way to the practice field, Frank Fogt, one of the line coaches, explained more. Over the weekend, the coaches watched the film of Friday’s game with St. Marys, and they discovered that my blocking performance at offensive guard was outstanding. I thought that I had done well, but this was unexpected. After all, I had sat the bench all last season, until the final play of the final game – one play for the entire year.
Actually, I hadn’t been a starter since the seventh grade, when Coach Carpenter said that if I continued to play as well as I did at quarterback, I would surely get a college scholarship. But he left town after that season, and I had struggled through my football days ever since. What seemed to keep me going until my Senior year was some strange combination of unexplainable dogged perseverance and an unexpressed fear of what others would think of me if I quit. Before games in our Sophomore and Junior years, Tim and I used to hang out with other nonstarters. It seemed that we hoped we could play, knew we wouldn’t, but feared even the possibility.
My friend Dave was a great inspiration. As we worked during the hot summer before our Junior year, making countless bales of hay, he told me that he was going to make the team that year – that he would make the team, and he did. So if Dave could make it, why couldn’t I? As our Senior season approached, I was determined to be a starter – that was my goal.
“As we worked during the hot summer before our Junior year, making countless bales of hay, he told me that he was going to make the team that year – that he would make the team, and he did. So if Dave could make it, why couldn’t I?”
Halftime Commentary
At 160 pounds, Don was the smallest player on the Sidney High School offensive line. Therefore, he had to make adjustments in his role as a starter. The coaches gave him a high efficiency rating, and he had no penalties for the season.
During the course of the season, Don was assigned to block linebackers, tackles, and outside defenders. He also double-teamed with the center to move nose guards out of the way for a run up the middle. For Don, inside linebackers were the most difficult to block because of their size and quickness. His blocking assignments included two exceptional linebackers—Piqua’s Craig Clemons, who later played for the University of Iowa and the Chicago Bears, and Bellefontaine’s Gail Clark, who later played for Michigan State University and the Chicago Bears and New England Patriots.
Don blocked big tackles using a custom-made technique—hit them as low as possible so they would fall on him. Then he pressed up (like a push-up), without holding, so the tackle couldn’t move away. Against outside defenders, he pulled down the line to block the end or outside linebacker. He ran directly toward the defender and threw himself on the opposing player. They were both still on the ground when the Sidney halfback cut inside or ran outside for a gain.
Looking back on his senior season, Don felt blessed to be part of a group endeavor to achieve. He was keenly aware that another player’s injury provided the opportunity for him to become a starter. Due to the way Don blocked, he had scrapes on his face and a small cut above one eye. Stitches closed the cut, and his eyebrow covered the spot. Don made his maximum effort on every play. He had no lasting injuries.
The team included two seniors who did not become starters. Don saw them later in life at class reunions. Although their football careers may not have turned out as they had hoped, Steve and Jim were effective and inspiring in their lives.
“When my friend Pete called to congratulate me for making “all-league,” I thought he was kidding as he liked to do. But he insisted it was true.”
Dave became the team captain that year, and all during the pre-season, he and Bill were the starting offensive guards. Then my break came when Bill was injured just before the first game. My goal would be met – at least temporarily. I would be a starter! And so was Tim. Dave was injured for the second game, and Bill and I were the offensive guards. Joe and I were named co-captains for that game: an honor that I approached with mixed emotions because of Dave’s injury. However, Dave returned as captain the next week, and he and I were the starting guards for the remainder of the season.
Bill started at outside linebacker, and he took my place for the Greenville game. On the day before that game came the early morning call. From my bed, I heard my mother on the phone before she and my dad drove off. I knew why. That day I said nothing about it at school. I went to football practice as usual. But full realization hit when Coach Tackas and Coach Fogt asked if my parents were coming to Parents’ Night. I had no answer to their question. I choked out the only response I could make, “my grandpa…died.” For me, Parents’ (and Grandparents’) Night was at the funeral home, not the football stadium.
Our season ended with a mediocre 4-6 record, much less “sting” than anticipated from the 1967 Yellow Jackets. Yet I relished victory. I was a starter, playing beside two of my good friends – John at tackle and Ken at center. The biggest surprises for me, however, came later.
When my friend Pete called to congratulate me for making “all-league,” I thought he was kidding as he liked to do. But he insisted it was true. I wanted to see for myself; I had to see for myself. So I drove into Sidney to buy a newspaper, since ours wouldn’t come in the country until the next day. It was still hard to believe, but, yes indeed, it was true!
At the banquet, Joe was awarded “Most Valuable Player” – an honor that was probably unanimous among coaches and players. But I was thrilled again when my name was called to receive the offensive lineman award. The awards continued after the banquet, almost to the point of overextended embarrassment. The “most improved player” trophy made sense, but being named to the 2nd team “all-district” was something I wouldn’t even have dreamed of.
P.S. Four players from the Miami Valley League made it as high as 2nd Team on the All-District team: Gail Clark as linebacker, Craig Clemons and Jesse Williams as offensive backs, and me.
“Don was inspired when he recalled the miraculous way in which he became a starter and received so many awards. He knew that God was instrumental in his football success. So, he used it as background to ask questions that would provide more insights into his life.”
Don Elijah Eckhart and Sue Ellen Eckhart
Don was inspired when he recalled the miraculous way in which he became a starter and received so many awards. He knew that God was instrumental in his football success. So, he used it as background to ask questions that would provide more insights into his life.
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As an adult, I have often reflected on that season. Does it have special meaning, illustrating God’s working in my life? Is God using it to show me something?
How can I follow and be closer to life’s team leader Jesus, as my Lord and friend forever? How do I obey the calls Jesus makes upon my life, and carry them out fully?
Where does the desire to be a starter come from? Where does the faith to be a spiritual starter come from? How does it develop? Could it be that our Heavenly Father, the Creator of the universe, has also started me with a certain infinite hope and then builds my God-given qualities by patiently coaching me? And doesn’t the loving God both discipline and encourage me, bringing me into greater service for Christ’s team? How do I respond to God’s direction?
My change from quarterback to guard allowed me eventually to perform up to and even beyond my football potential. Is it a parallel to my life change from making my own calls to listening and responding to the Holy Spirit – producing the thoughts, words, and deeds in me that immeasurably surpass the best that I alone could ever strive for, or ever be?
Why “offensive guard”? Those two concepts (OFFENSIVE + GUARD) don’t go together, do they? If they do, when am I to be offensive and when am I to guard? What am I to be offensive about, and what do I guard? Am I being called to: confront the strong, protect the weak? In what situations? How am I to be offensive without being judgmental? How do I guard boldly without blocking truth from my own thinking? In my position, how do I follow the Way, reflect the Truth, and express the Life of Christ-like devotion for God’s goals? How do I interrelate with other team members, the fellowship of believers, as the Body of Christ? No longer blocked or blocking, how do I love everyone, whether on the same team or not?
It’s hard – no impossible – to answer these questions on my own. Still, the Lord prepares me to answer His call, “Don, where are you?” With trust in God, I will respond, “here am I”.
By Don Elijah Eckhart
You can email me at Eckhart819@yahoo.com
Dr. Don Elijah Eckhart was a guest writer for this article on The National Digest. Moumita Basuroychowdhury is a Contributing Reporter at The National Digest, and edited this article.
