Offense

Yesterday was our middle school football season opener. The team lost 12 to 8, but it was a decent showing for the first try. My son, Noah, is on the team.

I was on the sidelines, trying to figure out which parents belonged to which players. First of all, with all the padding and helmets, it’s hard to tell which kid is which, but then to pair them with parents I’ve never met is quite a challenge. I have heard my son say some of these player’s names during his tales from school series, and I was eager to meet some of them.

I watched one particular woman who was there with 4 children, ranging in ages from about 15 to 2. The littlest one, a girl, was obviously adopted from China. She was sitting in her stroller so calmly, eating her Cheerios, that during half-time I approached her and leaned over to tell her what a good girl she is. She smiled broadly, and showed me that the Cheerios were all gone.

I then stood up and introduced myself to her mother, a smiling and friendly woman. She told me her name, and I immediately knew who her son was. She told me how the little girl had special needs and was just learning to speak English. I listened to her story – about how she had 4 children of her own and still adopted the sweetheart eating Cheerios – and I instantly liked her. She was open and gracious.

As she continued to talk, however, she started to tell me about the Bible curriculum her husband does with her children. Now, at this point I had only been listening and had not shared that I was a follower of Christ. Telling me about curriculum was fine, but as she continued about a plethora of other biblical activities, pausing to watch my face instead of the game, I realized that she was sort of “fishing” with me, wanting to see how I would react.

All at once I knew I was an outreach project on the sidelines. She was going to either invite me to church or tell me about Jesus.

I know I could of told her about myself right away, but I wanted to see what she was going to do, how she planned to close the deal. I was curious. And even though she was a completely lovely person, all the overwhelming Bible talk was hindering my ability to yell, “Go defense!”

Here’s the thing, dear Christians, I was already so impressed with her mothering and her choices and her open smile, that I was naturally drawn to her from the beginning. It was only the first game, and she has plenty more chances to get to know me. Our exchange ended up being so forced and overwhelming, that we both were uncomfortable and I felt like I needed padding and a helmet.

I never did tell her that I used to teach an Evangelism class. I’ll save that for when I get to know her a little better.