By Beverly Lomosad
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters. – Colossians 3:23, NIV
Almost as soon as he found out that he made the University of Southern California football team, Ben Malcolmson said he felt a sense of a divine assignment. He prayed and asked God, “What am I here for?” As his attempt at discovering his purpose, he launched a Bible study and invited his teammates to attend. No one came. Next, he started a prayer group. No one came to that either. Then he had yet another idea: he would anonymously give a Bible to each one on the team. The idea arose from reading Isaiah 55:11, “So is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire.” (NIV)
So, on Christmas Eve 2006, Malcolmson sneaked Bibles into the team’s locker room. Inserted into each Bible was a red paper with a note that read, “The greatest present you will ever receive, Jesus Christ.”
The team reconvened after Christmas, and he was devastated to see ripped-up pages of the Bible as he walked into the locker room. Disheartened, he gave up the thought of pressing into finding his purpose on the team. Eleven days later, a shocker rocked the team: one of the players had suddenly died. At the funeral, Malcolmson saw one of the Bibles, with the red paper sticking out of it, being laid on top of the casket.
Fast forward four years. Malcolmson was told about how the Bible had sparked conversations in the locker room about God between two teammates: the deceased and another, a Christian who had “a little drift” from the faith during college. The deceased teammate ended up receiving Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. Those conversations also marked a turning point for the Christian teammate, who made a decision to get serious in his spiritual walk. “God had seen me through all these ways that I was trying to find my purpose, and God’s hand was on me the whole time,” Malcolmson told The Christian Post in an interview for his book, Walk On. “God does have a purpose for us whether we can see it or not at the moment.”
CALL TO ACTION
A life with God starts with a relationship with Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.
- PRAY OUT LOUD: “Father in heaven, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. I believe that he died on the cross for my sins. I ask you to forgive me of all of my sins. I believe in my heart that God raised Jesus from the dead and confess with my mouth that Jesus is my Savior and Lord. Amen.”
- WHAT’S NEXT: Be part of a good, Bible-based church.