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How The Vikings Lead Me To Jesus12/27/2022 January 17th, 1999. A day that will live on in infamy if you’re a Minnesota Vikings fan. I was in 3rd grade and enjoying my first season as a fan. And what a year to begin my fandom! The franchise had just drafted Randy Moss and paired him with Cris Carter and Jake Reed to form the “3 Deep” trio of receivers. Veteran quarterback Randall Cunningham was inserted as starter after Brad Johnson went down with an ankle injury, Robert Smith lead the ground attack and a solid offensive line lead to the most explosive, highest-scoring offense in NFL history up to that point. We finished the year 15-1 and 8 year-old Terry was pumped to see what playoff football was all about. I remember watching the Divisional Game against the Arizona Cardinals with my dad. My mom had just gotten home from shopping and bought my dad and I matching Randy Moss shirts. We put them on and witnessed a blowout that afternoon, as we beat the Cardinals 41-21. Advancing onto the NFC Championship game-1 game away from the Super Bowl-I was STOKED. I remember being fixed to the TV screen on the 17th of January. We were heavy favorites to beat the Atlanta Falcons and got off a great start but, in true Vikings fashion, we allowed the Falcons to get back in the game and tie it up. With about 4 minutes to go, we sent out our perfect kicker, Gary Anderson, to kick a 38-yard field goal and go ahead by 3 points-all but assuring us victory and a trip to the Super Bowl.
Notice I used the word “perfect” to describe Gary Anderson. That’s because he had been perfect on field goals ALL. YEAR. He hadn’t missed a single kick for 5 months! Every single person watching this game believed this was a chip shot for ol’ Gary-a piece of cake! But when the ball was snapped, and Gary kicked it, shock enveloped us all as his kick sailed wide left. It was a devastating blow and we ended up losing in overtime. I fell to my knees and had a few tears well up in my eyes-thus beginning my painful and disappointing journey as a Vikings fan! Throughout the rest of my childhood and into my teenage years, I remained a diehard Vikings fan. If I’m being honest, the word “obsessed” is probably more accurate to describe my fandom. I would wear some piece of Vikings clothing every day to school. I would stay up late at night looking at statistics from the games. I would even forego hanging out with friends after summer-league softball in August to go home and watch the pre-season games (which I recorded on VHS) and write columns on Facebook giving my thoughts on the game (face palm). After graduating high school, I actually got the Vikings horn tattooed on my arm! The Vikings were my life. Everything seemed to revolve around them. If they won, my mood was great and the week went well. But if they lost, I was crabby and counting down the days until they played again to avenge their loss. Fast forward to August 18th 2009. A surge of excitement was shot into the arms of every Vikings fan when it was announced that Brett Favre was coming out retirement to play for us. Once a mortal enemy on the Green Bay Packers, he was now seen as a “savior” of sorts to rescue us from quarterback “hell” and brings us to the Super Bowl. And you best believe, I was there for Favre’s very first game in purple-a preseason game against the Kansas City Chiefs. I remember him taking the field and thousands of flashes from cameras going off in the stadium. Everyone was believing that “this was our year.” An exciting offense lead by Favre, Adrian Peterson, Sidney Rice and Percy Harvin, combined with a smothering defense lead by Jared Allen, the Williams Wall, Antoine Winfield and Chad Greenway lead us to an 11-3 record. It hadn’t been this exciting to be a Vikings fan since that magical yet heartbreaking 1998-1999 season. Just like 1999, we made it to the NFC Championship game and were favored to win. A lot of experts were even looking ahead of this game and predicting we would demolish the Indianapolis Colts to win the Super Bowl. But, we HAD to win this game against the New Orleans Saints first in order to make that a reality. It was January 24th 2010. I had gotten together with a few of my high school buddies to watch the game and I was confident we would come out victorious. It was a close game throughout but a series of untimely turnovers, poor coaching and the scandal known as “Bounty-gate” seemed to thwart every ounce of momentum needed to put the game away. Just like 1999, we lost in overtime, and 19 year-old Terry was once again heartbroken and devastated. To the point where I was willing to break my own moral code. I had taken pride up until this point in being one of the few in my group of friends to have never tasted alcohol. I had never had a desire to drink and I didn’t really see the appeal in getting hammered drunk. But on this night, I didn’t see any other way to deal with my disappointment. I turned to my buddies and said, “Let’s get me drunk.” Initially shocked by my request, they were all too happy to oblige. We drove to one of their dorms where they began to give me a variety of different drinks, none of which tasted good! But I was set on drowning my sorrows away and continued drinking until I was drunk. It was a stupid decision but not as stupid as the next decision I made… I drove home that night. Drunk. I vaguely remember trying to keep my car in my lane and driving with my hands white-knuckle tight on the steering wheel, afraid I would get pulled over. I made it home that night, dealt with “the spins” before falling asleep and woke up the next morning feeling…great! Not having a hangover and reflecting on the rebellious “fun” I had, I suddenly found myself excited to drink again. So it became a weekend habit to get together with my buddies at the notorious party-house next to campus and get wasted. And every single time, I would drive home intoxicated. How I never hurt anybody, myself or got pulled over can only be explained by the grace of God. And at that time in early 2010, I was starting to see God show up in my life. I had met a friend in one of my classes around this time and she had invited me to a Bible Study. At that point, I was Catholic and believed in God, but I had never read the Bible and didn’t have a desire to-as it seemed extremely boring whenever the priest would read from it in mass. But, I agreed to go-mostly because I thought this girl was cute. When I showed up to that first Bible study, I was shocked at how GENUINELY nice people were. I could tell they weren’t being fake and they weren’t being nice just to get something from me. I felt a level of love pouring out from everyone that I had never experienced before. And they all talked about Jesus like they KNEW him, which kinda weirded me out at the time, but at the same time, also created a desire in me to know Him too. So I continued going to the Bible study-no longer just because I thought my friend was cute, but because I wanted to know Jesus for myself! But then a conflict arose-while I was going to Bible study and making new friends, I was still partying on the weekend with my high school friends. I started to feel like I was living a double-life because I didn’t want my “Bible” friends to know I was partying, but my high school friends would mock and ridicule me for attending a Bible study. It all came to a head one morning in March or April of 2010. I had woken up in a panic, scared out of my mind, that I had sent a drunk text to my “cute” friend the night before. This was before everyone had smart phones, so I couldn’t go through a text thread history to see what had been sent. I was so worried that I had dishonored and disrespected her or exposed my double life to her. I knew then and there that I had to make a choice. I had to change. So I gave up drinking. I gave up partying. I faded away from my high school friend group. And I surrounded myself with people that would lead me closer to Jesus, pour into me and genuinely love me. Later that year on November 7th, I gave my life to the Lord. It was the best decision I ever made. See, when the Lord removes something from your life, He always replaces it with something of greater value and worth to it. That’s just who He is and what He does. I still look back and am in awe about the goodness of God in that time of my life. To essentially have one friend group swapped out for another so that I didn’t have to be alone was so gracious of Him. He removed the people that, as my pastor says, were “energy suckers” and added people to my life that were “energy givers.” And I’m not saying my high school friends were bad people-they were just headed in a direction that I no longer wanted to go down. When I got saved, I realized that the Vikings were an idol in my life. So I made some deliberate changes-I donated a lot of my Viking clothing and started to wear other clothes, I cut back on the amount of time I watched SportsCenter and read sports news and I didn’t let my mood be decided by a game. I began to find balance in my life-keeping Jesus the center of my worship and also enjoying the Vikings without it consuming me. To this day, I consider myself a diehard Vikings fan and I look forward to getting together with guys I consider my brothers to watch the game every week. And I still get excited and shout for joy when we make a big play or win a close game, but I’m no longer obsessed. I may get disappointed when we play bad or lose but I’m able to just move on with the rest of my day. It doesn’t eat away at me. After all, it’s just a game, and how silly is it to let a game dictate your mood? To be honest, when I’m watching the Vikings or when I go to a game in person at US Bank Stadium, a thought that often comes to mind is-what would it be like if we got THIS excited over someone coming to salvation in Christ? Usually in church, the pastor tells everyone to bow their heads and close their eyes to make it easier/more comfortable for people to raise their hand in wanting to make the decision to come to Christ. But what if we didn’t do that? What if we shouted for joy and fist pumped over the fact that a soul was saved from hell? What if we went over to our new sibling-in-Christ to high-five them and celebrate them? What if at baptisms, we didn’t just clap our hands when the person comes out of the water, but make a thunderous roar to the heavens? That is worth getting jazzed up about! If we can do that for a game but not for the saving grace of Jesus Christ, we really need to rethink our priorities. I’m challenging myself to do my part in changing the culture so that happens. Will you join me? So that’s how the Vikings lead me to Jesus. What started off as the center of my world, lead me to a brief but dangerous partying stint, which lead to me becoming known as a Child of God. It’s proof that God can and does use anything to bring people to Him. Even a team that is filled with one disappointing let-down after another (besides this season-this season has been incredible! Although I feel like I've aged 10+ years due to all the close games!) But praise God that He never lets us down! “It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.” Deuteronomy 31:8 I want to hear from you-have you ever realized you were placing something before God? What changes did you make to put Him first in your life?
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Leave a Reply.Terry SkaggsAs a licensed marriage and family therapist, listening, observing, and asking meaningful questions come naturally to me. But I felt called by the Lord to do more with my life, so I began interviewing people and sharing their incredible stories of transformation with the world. Archives
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