Putting on my Christ Jersey - Insight on Imitating Jesus
For seventeen years, I coached soccer, aka football. For seventeen years, kids of virtually all ages would show up at soccer practices or soccer camps wearing a jersey of their favorite player, Messi, Ronaldo, Donovan, Howard, etc., etc. And while I am not presently coaching, I bet if I were to head onto the field today I would see young men wearing the jerseys of Christian Pulisic, and young women wearing Julie Johnston Ertz jerseys. And the identification of the young people to the player on the jersey did not end with wearing the same jersey. Rather, when these young men and women showed up at practice or camp, you can see that they want to be that player. They would practice their moves and try to replicate the many ways that the player handled the ball. This effort to imitate your heroes is not limited to soccer. When I was a young man learning to play baseball in the Ohio Valley, my heroes were Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, Tony Perez, Joe Morgan, Cesar Geronimo, Danny Driessen...