Last Thursday the city of Philadelphia welcomed home, for the first time ever, their Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles. Somewhere between 700,000 and 2,000,000 people showed up to celebrate the Eagles’ historic upset with a champions’ parade downtown.¹ And a big part of that remarkable win was due to the stellar play of Philly quarterback, Nick Foles. While Tom Brady has dominated football headlines for more than a decade, it was the unlikely back-up quarterback, Foles, who helped his team bring home the Lombardi trophy.

And as it turns out, Foles’ personal story also speaks out about the human quest to find our deepest purpose.

About a year or so prior to his MVP performance in the Super Bowl, Foles was seriously considering leaving the game of football behind. He had been let go by the Rams in 2016 and could no longer see the purpose in playing football anymore. In fact, in one interview he revealed that he had simply lost all joy in playing the game. As he later recounted, “I think as people, we deal with struggles. And that was a moment in my life where I thought about it, and I prayed about it.”²

As a follower of Jesus, Foles knew he had a big decision to make, and he didn’t want to do it without his family and without the leading of the Lord. Ironically, what he prayed about specifically was whether to quit football and whether to become a pastor. He had been taking seminary courses and preparing for the day he would leave football, but the question of whether or not that moment had yet come was unclear. As a Christian, which would be the right call?

Some would answer that only a fool would give up a pro-football career to, of all things, be a pastor. Others might say the more glorifying thing to God would be to quit football and do “God’s work.” But as it turned out, Foles’ theology was, in my opinion, better than many. He saw that it is not so much a matter of which is more important, football or pastoring, but of glorifying God. As it turns out, the answer to how best glorify God was to keep playing football. After praying about it, Foles explained, “It took a lot more faith to come back and play than it would’ve to go in the other direction…Either way would’ve been fine. Either way, I would’ve trusted in God. I would’ve done something else and glorified God in that instance.”³

Foles’ example of understanding the call to glorify God in all of life, wherever we are, in any vocation, is vital to the church’s ability to be “salt and light” to the watching world.

Christianity is not supposed to be a retreat from the world, but an advancement as God’s people into it. As the Apostle Paul said, “And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father” (Colossians 3:17). Any job becomes a calling, when we let Jesus speak and work through us.

As a pastor over the last 10 years, I have watched men and women come alive when it finally clicks with them that their jobs are not less spiritual than my job (or any other “ministry” position for that matter). But rather, when the reality that the place to which God calls you (which for most people will not be church employment) is the most spiritual place you can be, people become reinvigorated about their jobs. And why shouldn’t they, the average person spends more time at work each week than any other place, including sleep!⁴ We need people at work both in the church and in the world in order to fulfill our calling collectively as the body of Christ. It will be crucial in the years to come to see whether Christians in America will, once again, integrate their faith and their work. In addition to a great game of football, Nick Foles’ personal story becomes an illustration about how we can find our deepest purpose by following Jesus wherever He leads, especially to our places of work.

¹ “Eagles’ Parade Crowd Estimate Riles Disbelieving Fans”– The Inquirer
² “Nick Foles Went from Thinking About Retirement to Super Bowl MVP in Just Two Years”– WGN 9
³ “Nick Foles Plans to Become a Pastor After Football”– ABC NEWS
⁴ Weisman, Michael and Beth Jusino, Choosing Higher Ground: Working and Living in the Values Economy, Santa Ana, CA: Nortia, 2016. Print.

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Last Sunday’s game was, by many accounts, either one of the best Super Bowls in recent memory, or perhaps the best ever (hard to argue with the latter if you are an Eagles’ fan). In any case, such an enormous public platform as the Super Bowl (an estimated 103.4 million tuned in for the game) becomes a medium not only for the athletic skills of the various players, but for their respective personal stories as well. Two of the main stories going into the game were the personal stories of New England quarterback Tom Brady and Philadelphia quarterback Nick Foles. As interesting as these stories are in their own right, from a Christian perspective, they are interesting for the ways in which they compare and contrast with a Christian worldview, and for how they might both help God’s people to compete in the arena of life.

Going into the game, the Patriots were the odds makers’ favorite to win the Super Bowl by a 4.5 margin, and the biggest reason for that was New England’s Tom Brady. Brady is without question one of the greatest, if not the greatest quarterback of all time (I did grow up in the San Francisco Bay Area during the Joe Montana era, so I understand the argument for him as well). Under his leadership, New England has established itself as one of the most dominant franchises in NFL history. Tom, himself, is smashing past records left and right. And to add to that, he is playing at 40 years old and still playing at the highest level (he passed for 505 yards, a new Super Bowl record). His commitment to the game, his willingness to learn, to change his diet, to explore alternative training and therapy, are inspiring as we all realize that while age really can slow us down, many times it is because we let it.

As a Christian, and a man who is about the same age as Tom Brady, I have become more and more convinced that our best years could be, and perhaps should be, in front of us.

One of the things that motivates Brady to continue playing and challenging himself is the belief that because he has seen so much more of his opponents’ formation and plays over the years, he ought to be able to respond even better now than ever before. Simply put, he has become much wiser. As Christians, as we grow in the Lord, and we see the many looks or temptations the Devil throws our way, we too ought to be learning, growing and responding better than ever before. Our spiritual life should be thriving, and perhaps, it is in our later years where we are meant to do even more for God than in our younger years. While it is true that we have to take our limits seriously, it is equally true that we must not impose false limitations on ourselves that keep us from pursuing God’s call on our lives.

At the beginning of episode five of his “Tom vs.Time” videos, Brady says, “Spirituality means a lot of different things to different people, for me, it’s your deepest purpose.” While one could critique this statement biblically and theologically, I find it quite useful. For Tom, his deepest purpose is to be the most he can be, not just on the field, but also at home with his family. This is admirable, and I could certainly think of worse purposes. But from a Christian perspective, something is missing. Christianity wants to say, yes, spirituality is your deepest purpose, but it is not something you decide for yourself. And as great as sports or family may be, they are ultimately not our greatest purpose. One of the great fathers of the early church, St. Augustine, summarized the mystery of life’s purpose this way, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you.” Our deepest purpose is to know the only true and living God, and Jesus Christ whom God has sent (John 17:3). So if we are truly finding our purpose, we will be constantly learning, growing and attempting great things for the kingdom. May what was said of Job be true of us, may our latter years be more blessed than the first (Job 42:12).