As a new NFL season kicks off this week I was reminded of this story.
Clint Gresham, all American kid, could have ended up dead. Instead, he became a Super Bowl champion, team captain, a Maximized Man and a CMN ally.
Clint was on the winning side as a member of the Seattle Seahawks. But he was far from winning as a man. Rejected by his stepdad, his youth was a mess of alcohol and mayhem. Even though he attended church as a kid, nothing was real until Jesus captured him through the powerful words of a friend.
A friend’s words can build you up. A friend’s words may hurt you - but what if there's a kernal of truth in them that you needed to hear?
After his friend’s confrontational words about Jesus arrested him, his thought was, “What does a Christian man look like?” He had no role model. Confused but determined he sought an answer to activate his faith every day, not just on Sundays.
Then he found the book Maximized Manhood.
“That’s when I discovered what true manhood looked like,” Clint says today. “I read that book more than once and made notes in it so it would get into my heart. Dr. Cole mentored me. It gave me strength in the good times and the bad.”
Clint’s faith undergirded him as he worked through the grueling seasons when his team didn’t make the playoffs. Then, it all turned around and the Seahawks won Super Bowl XLVIII. The next season, they had a close Super Bowl loss, but Clint embraced his identity, his definition as a man not from wins or losses on the football field, but from Jesus Christ.
Clint says, “So many of my friends felt affirmed when they won and abandoned when they lost. That’s why having my faith in Christ has helped me keep my center. It still hurts to lose, and feels great to win, but that doesn’t define me as a man. I am a follower of Jesus Christ.”
Be a friend to someone today. Point out a better way. Give him a book. Tell him there’s hope.
