Using Our Personal Platform to Spread the Good News (282)
At a time when professional athletes are known as much for their massive egos and outrageous salaries as their ability, rookie NFL quarterback and former Ohio State Buckeye C.J. Stroud is a breath of fresh air. In his first year with the Houston Texans, he has guided his team into the playoffs, where they will face the Browns on Saturday.
Football will be front and center, but it won’t be Stroud’s top priority. He is an anomaly among the athletes he competes with and against. Despite his success and his passion for football, he has shown uncommon humility and deep faith, which he is committed to sharing with whomever will listen. With symbols of faith on his headband, wristband, and even his face, Stroud says that his football experience is a vehicle for his primary purpose — “to spread the Gospel and the life of Jesus Christ.”
Clearly, Stroud has a platform that most others don’t — a weekly audience of millions of viewers. Our exposure is not nearly as far-reaching, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be just as effective. To the contrary, our one-on-one opportunities to share our faith can arguably have a comparable or even greater impact.
Stroud says that he is blessed “to walk, to talk, to interact with people…to do his best to thank the Lord, who laid his life on the cross for us.” Indeed, Stroud’s faith trumps everything else in his life. In that sense we are just like him. Even though we don’t have the same athletic skills or the same platform, we are called upon to share our faith whenever and wherever we can with the same passion as this talented young quarterback.