(Photo Credit: PennLive.com)
This past week, SEC Media Day took place in Hoover, Alabama. As we get closer and closer to the start of the college football season, the talk of the town has centered around Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel. The redshirt freshman won the Heisman Trophy and led an upset of two-time national champion Alabama in Tuscaloosa last season.
This year, the talk about Manziel has been what he has done off the field. The 20-year-old has hung out with LeBron, played golf at Pebble Beach, and had courtside seats to the NBA Finals. Now, Manziel is in the news for oversleeping at the Manning passing academy and for his tweets last month about how he couldn’t wait to leave Texas A&M.
The one tweet I want to focus on is the one where Manziel said back on June 16th:
“Don’t ever forget that I love A&M with all of my heart, but please please walk a day in my shoes.”
Now, I am 20 years old just like Manziel. He’s right that he’s not your normal 20 year old. I wouldn’t know how he lives in a world where everybody knows who he is. As I was thinking about it, I thought about how at times we wonder if we can find anyone who can truly say, “I understand what you are going through.”
The only One who knows our problems is Jesus. When Jesus was on this Earth, he became fully human. He was tempted by Satan in the wilderness, He was thirsty, He wept, and He was tired. In order to become the propitiation for our sins, He had to make himself low, to the point of dieing on a cross, so that we can have Salvation.
When we go to the Lord with our problems, He is always there to listen and He knows what we are going through.
The author of Hebrews talks about how Jesus is our High Priest. In the Old Testament, the high priest would go into the Holy of Holies and offer up one giant sacrifice for the sins of Israel. Now that Christ redeemed us from our sins by being the ultimate sacrifice, we have a High Priest that does not look down on us in a lowly manner.
“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” (Hebrews 4:14-16)
Today, I exhort you to think about this next time you pray. Remember that Jesus cares about you and always listens to your problems, no matter how big or small they are. Once Jesus died on the cross, the curtain in the temple was torn in two. That meant there was no longer separation between God and man. Jesus took a walk in our shoes on this Earth. However, we must remember that we could never have walk in His shoes and pay the price for our sins like Jesus did for us on that cross. Now, we can go to God in any situation to receive mercy for our sins and confidence in our daily walk with Him.
Jesus N Sports 