Sports Illustrated columnist Rick Reilly called it the “Play of the Year.” A local newspaper called it “the touchdown heard around the world.”
Jake Porter, 17, a member of the Northwest High football team in McDermott, Ohio, was born with chromosomal fragile X syndrome, a common cause of mental retardation. He couldn’t read. He could barely write his name. But he loved football, and he faithfully attended every practice.
Northwest coach Dave Frantz wanted to do something special for Jake in his senior year. So, several days before a game against Waverly High in the fall of 2002, Frantz called his friend Derek Dewitt, the head coach at Waverly. Frantz suggested that both teams allow Jake to run one play at the end of the game, assuming the game wasn’t on the line. Jake would get the ball and take a knee, and the game would end.
Rick Reilly’s story in Sports Illustrated told the story …
With Waverly leading 42-0 and five seconds left in the game, Frantz called a timeout. Jake trotted out to the huddle, and the two coaches met at midfield. Jake’s coach Frantz reminded the other coach of the plan, that Jake would simply take a knee. But the opposing coach wasn’t satisfied. He said, “No, we want him to score.” Frantz objected, but Dewitt insisted.
Coach Dewitt went back to the sideline and called his defense together. “They’re going to give the ball to number 45. Do not touch him! Open up a hole and let him score! Understand?”
The teams lined up and Jake got the ball. His teammates told him to run, but Jake started going in the wrong direction. The back judge rerouted him toward the line of scrimmage.
Suddenly, the Waverly defense parted like peasants for the king and urged him to go on his grinning sprint to the end zone. Imagine having 21 teammates on the field. In the stands mothers cried and fathers roared. Players on both sidelines held their helmets to the sky and whooped.
And amid the stadium-wide uproar, Jake kept running and running … all the way to the end zone. Touchdown! The moment of a lifetime!
Two thousand years ago, God had a plan. And regardless of all the obstacles and unlikeliness of how things were going to happen, God made it work. He told his plan to two surprised people, Mary and Joseph. He prepared the way, parted the opposition, and into the world was born a humble child, yet the person at the center of history.
You and I also have a destiny. Aspects of it are going to seem unlikely to us. But God will show us the way. He will part the opposition. People will be there to point us in the right direction. And God will get us all the way to the goal line. For us … well, we just keep running.
Let this be a Christmas of renewal for you. Believe in God and his plan to fulfill his promises and his destiny in your life.
Merry Christmas!
Chaplain Mark
Prayer for the Day:
Lord, thank you for this Christmas time of year, and for people like Joseph and Mary, who believed in your plan and were willing to embrace your destiny for them. I know that you have a plan for me and that I am part of something bigger than myself. Thank you for the destiny you have placed on my life. Whenever I am unsure, remind me that you are making a way. Thank you for the many times you have pointed me in the right direction, including those things I felt you doing for me, and also the ones I didn’t even know about. Keep me smiling … and help me keep running. I love you, Lord. Amen.