PRESENT IN THE PASS
by dean krippaehne
Jan. 2005

It was my senior year of high school in the small town of Puyallup, Washington. One of the classes that I was taking - in order to avoid studying too much - was a PE assistant class. I was fairly athletic and playing sports with a bunch of sophomores and juniors sounded to me like about as much fun as could possible be extracted from school.

There was no co-ed PE stuff back when I attended high so I was the assistant for a class of all boys. One afternoon, the class headed down to our schools football stadium, about a half-of-mile jog from the gymnasium. We were to divide into teams and spend the hour playing football. Plenty of the guys wanted to lead our chosen team but being in a position of at least some authority to do more of less whatever I pleased - I appointed myself coach and quarterback. (ego, hormones and immaturity can be a sorry mix at seventeen) When I said that I was fairly athletic that much is true - what I am not is a gifted quarterback. More on that later.

Before I go any further I need to explain to you that we did not have our PE classes on the main Stadium football field - that wasn't allowed - we played our games at the end of the Stadium in an "off field" grass plot that was surrounded by an 8 foot tall sturdy cyclone fence.

I can't remember who was winning or who was losing that day - but what I do remember was one significant play that our team ran. I was to have the ball hiked to me and one of our speedsters, a Junior named Barry, was to run a post pattern toward the end zone where, if all went according to plan, he would softly catch the gently floating ball that I would have perfectly spiraled in his direction. That, at least, was the plan.

The ball was hiked, Sophomore and Junior boys were flying all over the place and the pressure on me to release the ball was intense. Just in the nick of time I threw the ball with all my might in the general direction of Barry who was running as fast and as hard as I'd ever seen him run. With his blind determination and my expertise in quaterbacking - victory, I was convinced - was at hand.

The ball left my fingertips and I could tell I had gotten off one heck of a throw - even for me. It was a perfect spiral. Up, Up, and up some more. In fact it was going a little higher and farther than I had thought I was capable of. Then I saw Berry, run, run, jump, up, up, up..., and then suddenly a voice went off in my brain like an intense clap of thunder at close range. Oh No!. Just as Barry's hands touched the ball, just as he was an easy three feet into the air in full forward and upward motion, reaching for the sky - he quite unfortunately did a full face plant into the cyclone fence. Not only did he hit the fence full throttle - he hit one of the ridged steel poles that connects the fence's wire. To his credit it was a perfect face plant - right between the eyes. He was down and out. There was blood coming from his lips and you could see the swelling of his nose already starting to rise. His forehead too, and everything else was growing and changing color as each second passed.

How could something so noble have gone so awry. I kept saying, I'm sorry, I'm sorry - but it didn't stop the bleeding, the pain or reverse the damage done to him.

Well, Barry was, indeed, in pain for a while but within a couple of weeks he made a full recovery and was fine. Whew!

Sometimes in life we are not so lucky. Well meaning (or malicious intending) "quarterbacks" (or people) can lead us astray and into disastrous decisions and the ramifications can hold lifelong painful consequences. Sometimes we think we are doing the right things in life, our eyes fiercely focused on the ball only to find out later that we have been severely lead astray. We, as children of God and as His sheep, need to stay close to our Shepard. We need to be able to discern His voice from and in all of the other voices in our life. There are a lot of errant or misleading passes that will be thrown for us to catch on our journey. The only sure way to avoid disaster is for us to keep our eyes and ears focused on Jesus for He will never lead us astray.

Matthew 7:15
“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.

John 10:3-5
"The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger's voice."