For real, my high school didn’t even have a football team. As a Shreveport native, I attended Caddo Magnet High School. Shout out to all the Mustangs in the house! Throw in my dad’s lifetime career in sports media, and I made up my mind early in life – football players are not for me. So you can imagine my surprise when the quarterback swept me off my feet.
You may have seen him on the sideline of a New Orleans’ Saints game scheming with Drew Brees. Or you may remember him from a commercial last year where he petitioned for all backups to have a shot at the “regular rotation.” I met him in summer school on the campus of Louisiana Tech University.
We took our unofficial first date to a Bible study that just so happened to be about dating and marriage. Hint, hint. On the way home he let me drive his truck, and the rest – as they say – is history.
A few years later, I left my job as a news reporter at KNOE TV8 in Monroe, to join my husband, Luke McCown, on an adventure in the National Football League. We packed up our lives, made room for the dog, and headed north where Luke and I spent our rookie year with the Cleveland Browns. It had all the makings of a fairytale. Right up until one year later, when without warning, the Browns traded Luke to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
We exchanged a blizzard for palm trees, which I cannot complain about, but did I mention I was 8 months pregnant? Yep!
We scrambled to find a new place to live before welcoming our first son. I remember asking my doctor if I could fly back to Ohio and finish packing. She obliged, reluctantly, so long as I promised to prop my feet up after the trip. So, that’s exactly what I did. I must have watched Father of the Bride Part II a million times. I cried every time her husband busted through the elevator door while the doctors rolled her into the delivery room!
That was more than a decade ago. Since then we’ve moved over a dozen times, and the mess in my van proves it. I’m an expert packer but a really terrible unpacker. We’ve covered 5 teams and added a few more kids along the way. We have 6 now, ranging in age from preschooler to double-digits. {Insert yawn}
And as if that doesn’t sound crazy enough – we homeschool. I know, I know. Seriously, I NEVER imagined my life this way. It all just sounds ridiculous.
But through all of the surprises and uncertainties, I’ve learned a few things about living sure even when the future is not. Because even when God’s path seemed to sideline our plans, it didn’t sideline our purpose.
Since high school, before every football game, Luke has written the same Scripture on his wrist tape. The verse says, “A man’s heart plans his way, but the LORD determines his steps” (Proverbs 16:9). One translations says, “the Lord directs his steps and makes them sure.”That has been my lifeline. On the mornings when I open my eyes to a day I have no idea how to do the Lord directs and makes my steps sure. One step at a time.
I rode a rollercoaster tonight for the first time in years and it reminded me, unexpected can be fun when you trust the one at the controls. Let’s raise our hands and enjoy the ride!