My dad has a way with stories - he’s able to take words and paint a picture with them, to help someone remember the important facts just a little better. He’s done this with Bible stories, family stories, humorous situations, and even life lessons. Recently, Dad and I were talking outside of the church. We were discussing how it’s sometimes very hard to stand in a place of support for someone else. We all want to see our friends and family members make wise decisions and have the time it takes to boldly make the next step in life. Sometimes our job is to get in there and make sure that outside influences don’t get in the way of our loved one making the choices they need to make. And the analogy that Dad made was a football analogy which I’m paraphrasing, and to which I’m adding some of my own thoughts.
In the game of football, it’s the quarterback’s job to advance the ball by passing it or running with it,
depending on the play he calls, or the play the coach determines.
It’s the offensive linemen who give him the time he needs
to execute the call and to get the ball up the field.
The outcome of the game depends on the quarterback having time to do what he needs to do.
Those offensive linemen stand up in front of him to protect him from oncoming hits
and to clear a way for him because they believe in him.
The quarterback doesn’t win a game on his own.
He wins because he was protected and had time to accomplish what he needed to with the team.
He wouldn’t dare tell the linemen that they were unimportant in his victory.
Sometimes we’re the quarterback, other times we’re called to protect the quarterback.
In life, we act as the quarterback of our individual lives. We step out in faith, according to what we believe is God’s will. We have friends and family who stand with us and support us, often in prayer. They storm heaven for us so that we can have the opportunity to do what we believe God is calling us to do.
However, life isn’t just our own. Through friendships, family, and various other relationships, we find ourselves needing to support someone else in their efforts to advance and achieve new goals in their own life.
In those moments, we have the opportunity to say, “No, I’ll stick to advancing my own life,” -or- we have the opportunity to step up, to make a stand and to be the support that someone else needs. If we choose boldly, and I dare say if we choose wisely, we will step in when that person needs us. We will take the opportunity to be the offensive lineman in someone else’s life.
We all know the value of having time and opportunity to make choices in our lives, to advance and to achieve what we set out to do. How foolish it would be to say, “Look what I accomplished,” when, no doubt, we know the sacrifice of many others who stepped in to take the hits for us.
What “hits” am I talking about? Well, have you ever been in a position of support for someone else? Maybe you’ve dealt with a phone call they didn’t want to make, or maybe you’ve done a task that they didn’t have the strength to accomplish. Maybe you’ve taken a meal when a friend was sick, only to fight the flu at your house just a few days later. These are all tough things.
But what I’m really talking about is more along the lines of spiritual warfare. Have you gone to battle in prayer for someone? Have you walked in as the world walked out? Did you stay in and continue to support even when all seemed lost? It’s hard. It gets exhausting. Satan is a strong contender. And doing battle day in and day out, so that someone else can have the time and opportunity to get the help they need, can just about take it out of us.
That’s why it’s so important to remember that we aren’t in this alone. It’s not our place to step in and clear house for a loved one.
Rather, it’s our place to step in, to know the power we have because of our Coach - our Heavenly Father - just as an offensive lineman knows that his coach is trustworthy due to all the time and effort put in to understanding the game of football.
When we step in, when we go to battle to make a way for someone, we are going to get hit.
Consider: you don’t see those big offensive linemen just stand up and shake hands with the defenders, and ask not to get hit, do you? No way! Those guys get in there and they push back with ALL their might. It’s their job to protect the quarterback.
So it is when it’s our turn to step in and support our friends and family. We don’t go in and say, “Um, excuse me, Satan, demons, I’d like for you to go.” You know what would happen if we did that, right? They would laugh! There is no power in those words.
Instead we call out the evil - in Jesus’ name. We declare the power of God in our hearts, in our homes, in our situations, in our loved one’s circumstances. We don’t ask the evil to leave; we get in there and line up against the evil forces and we PUSH BACK with all the power of Jesus behind our words and actions. We push back the darkness with the light of God.
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
-John 1:5
We’re going to get hit, though, just like those linemen. The enemy will keep hitting, maybe even fighting harder since we’re trying to protect a loved one. And that’s where it gets hard to stay in the battle. That’s where our armor had better be strong and fastened properly (Ephesians 6:10-17), because the enemy is strong and he will fight back. If he notices that we start to back down, he will continue to attack us. We will get hit trying to protect our loved one.
The question becomes how much of our support is our loved one worth? Are we willing to stand up again and again for them, to give them the time and support they need? Everyone needs someone’s support; none of us will get anywhere in life without a support system.
These are all important things to consider because sometimes we’ll be the one in need of protection - the quarterback in our own life. Other times, though, we’ll be called on to step in and try to protect a loved one. It will be our turn to protect the quarterback.
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