A PAINFUL BLESSING. Pt. 2

Following is a transcript of a speech the former quarterback delivered during a commencement exercise at Liberty University, and which has much the same flavor as that recent radio monologue.

“I said, ‘Tonight, your life is about to change, Joe,’” Theismann recalled. “Little did I realize I was into prophecy. My world was about to change like I could never imagine.”

“The Lord gave me athletic skills. He gave me the ability to throw a football. He moved me to the highest perch I could be at,” Theismann said. “But when I was there, the only thing that mattered to me was what I could get for me.”

Theismann said that he now realizes that he is merely a vehicle for God’s work.

“God noticed that I used those skills and was abusing those skills and it was time for me to not do that anymore, but to talk about the great graciousness of our loving Lord and the opportunities that He presents every day,” he said.  


“The man who stands before you today, I hope and pray, is significantly different than the man that played professional football. You cannot, will not, nor ever hope to be a true success in life if you think you do it by yourself because the Lord is present in our lives. You cannot and will not survive in life if you don’t have a foundation and a belief. You can build the greatest monuments, but they will all crumble at the foot of the Lord because He is almighty.”

I would like to have had a recording device with me as I listened to the Elvis Radio broadcast, but the following paraphrase provides a bit more insight into the life of a changed man.

“Yes, the injury ended my hard-won career, but I had developed an ego a mile high and just as wide. I was the best of the best, and I knew it. I had a career going on that wouldn’t quit. And then, …this. Suddenly, I was facing an uncertain future and there would be no coming back to everything which had become all too familiar to me. 

As strange as it may seem to your listening audience, George, I think my injury was a blessing in disguise. Whereas it had been all about yours truly, money and my adoring fans, and what I could get out of life, it caused me to look up, and it rearranged my priorities. I embraced a vertical relationship with God and a horizontal one with man. Life simply was not all about me. 

I could empathize with those who hurt, I could give to those in need. I experienced a humility and a concern for my fellow man which had, prior to my injury, been absolutely foreign to me. I was a changed man. And for that I am thankful. 

That injury sharpened my spiritual eyesight a thousand fold, and literally turned my life around.”

What more can I possibly add?

By William McDonald, PhD. Excerpt from "(Mc)Donald's Daily Diary" Vol. 48. Copyright pending

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