10.12.24

I don’t like talking when I’m at the gym. I don’t think I’ve had a single conversation in months while working out. I turn on the noise cancelling feature of my headphones, blast the music, and tune out the world. 

Last week I was interrupted when a guy who seemed about my age approached me, “Hey this is random, but the other day I saw you were wearing an Ohio State shirt that said Jesus Won and I was curious what that was all about, so I looked it up.” I kind of laughed because I knew where our conversation was heading. “Oh yeah? What’d you find?” As he shared, the inflection in his voice shifted from modest to animated.

This Fall, a handful of Ohio State Football players, like TreVeyon Henderson and Emeka Egbuka, held an event on campus where they shared their faith stories and led baptisms and worship. Incredibly inspiring and powerful. They wore shirts which said Jesus Won. When I saw they were for sale, I had to have one. 

The root of the message Jesus Won is you can either live in the victory of Jesus, or you can spend your life chasing your own. Those Buckeye Football players wanted the world to know there is a God who loves them so much he sent his son to claim victory over the brokenness of this world and the sin in our hearts. This God, who likens himself to a Father, pursues us as his children and loves us so.

After my new friend told me about the story of the Ohio State football event, I asked him to share his own. He told me he comes from a broken home and was bullied heavily as a kid. He didn’t know Jesus growing up, and he developed insecurities and had struggled mentally for a long time. He said, “A few years ago, I reached a point where I had spent so long struggling to fit into the world that I decided I was going to remove myself from it.” He shared his pain with confidence, but his next line had a tenderness to it, “I was in tears the night before and told God if he wanted me here, then give me a reason to stay. And in that moment, I heard God telling me to stop trying to fit into the world and to focus on me, and I’ll show you your place and purpose.” 

In his pain, the first thing God wanted my new friend to know was this battle he has been fighting for so long has already been won. Jesus took my friend’s brokenness, and mine, and paid for it on the cross, and he has been in pursuit of our hearts ever since, offering a purpose, identity, and grace for our wandering hearts.

Thank you God for saving my new friend. Thank you to those Ohio State Football players for the boldness to share the victory of Jesus. God is continuing to carry the Jesus Won message and using it to connect and encourage the children whom he loves. I don’t like when my routine is interrupted, but God reminded me that day he works by interrupting my own little world to open my eyes to a much better one. A world of victory.

I have told you these things, so that in me you have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. – John 16:33