From Kevin Funk…

I believe God has a purpose for every moment, with every person, that He gives us here on earth. I’d love to share a story of how God has changed my view on this perspective.

This past weekend my family and I were invited to hang out with some good friends of ours at the state wrestling meet in Dekalb. Wrestling has become one of my favorite sports to watch as these athletes try to give their absolute best effort every time on the mat. It’s a battle of skill, technique, strength, and determination. One of the wrestlers from Eureka we were rooting for had a chance to place anywhere from 1st to 6th place in state depending on the final couple of matches. This young man displays an incredible amount of grace and humbleness with every match. I love watching him reach his hand out and pick up the other opponent with every victory he earns.

During these matches I am the camcorder guy. I know as a parent it’s hard to film and watch your child. That’s why I don’t mind taking over the camera duties for this one family. I try not to shake to much as I get nervous too and watch him try to pin the other wrestlers.

Things didn’t go as planned for this young man on Saturday as he lost the match that would have put him into the championship match. Then he lost another match. Now he is on the brink of either getting 5th with a win or 6th with a loss. Again, he lost another tough battle. At this point I was feeling really sad for him as I wrapped up my filming duties for the final time that day. I was feeling a little frustrated for him because I knew how much work and effort he put into this season to get so close to at least 1st or 2nd at state but to walk away in 6th. Don’t get me wrong here, 6th in state is AWESOME! It’s a great accomplishment! But sometimes expectations and results don’t always line up the way we have planned.

Here comes the perfect plan of God……

As I was heading back to my normal seat, I had to wait in the walkway for my wife to walk back to our seats with her. She was watching the match from another seat that was higher up. One thing I have to explain here is that the security in this place was MORE than a nuisance when it came to filming the matches. You couldn’t stand for more than 30 seconds without being told to move. The only areas to film were on the ends of this huge arena we were at.

So at this point in the day I felt so bad for this young man I myself didn’t really feel like smiling if you catch my drift. Here I am waiting in the walkway, camera in hand, looking for my wife when I see a security guard out of the corner of my eye walking towards me. Oh great! For the 15th time today I’m going to be told to move. I really had the notion to get snippy and tell him to relax because at this point there weren’t near the amount of people as most of them went home by now. He comes over and says “if you’re going to film you have to move to either end”. I bit my tongue and told him I’m just waiting on my wife for a couple of seconds (in a nice respectable tone). He then asked me if I was filming the 119 match. Which that means the wrestlers who weigh 119lbs that were wrestling just a moment ago. “Yep” I said. He replied, “are you Asher’s dad?” “No just a family friend” I returned. This security guy then tells me that Asher shared the Gospel with him earlier in the day! I was speechless! Not that Asher had shared the Gospel, but that my heart went from anything but loving to repentant in about 2 seconds. I have never experienced a reversal (wrestling term) so quickly in my life. This security guy said that Asher shared John 10:10 with him which says, “The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life”(NLT). The security guy said we had to keep walking so as we walked together he said he felt the power of God come over him as Asher shared the Gospel!! I don’t know where this man stood with Jesus but after that I feel like he caught a glimpse of the power of the Gospel. He agreed with me that he wants to teach young men to put their faith first, then wrestling second.

What if I would have given this guy a hard time for telling me to move again? What if I would have just walked the other way because I was feeling frustrated at that moment in time? I would have missed out on one of the best conversations that I have had in a long time! That gave me so much encouragement to just to hold my tongue when I’m feeling down because you never know what God has in store for you at that very moment! In the midst of the biggest tournament of the year, Asher wasn’t thinking about himself, he was thinking of another. A security guard that needed to hear of Jesus. Well done young man!