“A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.” — Proverbs 16:9
Rely On God’s Will
Football has always been a major part of my life, and something I have always had to fight to keep from becoming an idol. Throughout my career, I was looked at by schools who didn’t take me and I tried out with teams that cut me.
Despite believing the door to football was not completely shut, I felt disappointed and depressed with every rejection. Competing on the football field was a desire that burned in my heart. So, when the opportunity to play was not given to me, I often became frustrated and I would ask God why He would not allow me to do what I loved.
It was during these times I turned to Proverbs 16:9 to remind myself that my heart does indeed plan my way, but ultimately God’s purposes and plans for my life will come to fruition. He will guide my steps along the way. Some of the steps will be fun and easy, others will be hard and disappointing.
Regardless of what step in life I am taking, I must always remember that God is in control and blessed be His name. Psalm 37:23 tells us, “The Lord makes firm the steps of the one who delights in Him.” We must always find our delight in Him and walk according to His will.
Do not be discouraged. Get up and run the race for Christ, because He is in control and will not lead you astray.
— Brian Payne
If you would like to submit a reader devotional, please email all submissions to jason@sportsspectrum.com.
Justin Buzzard saw a video of a man in his 60s playing football and sent it to his sons as a way to encourage them as athletes. The juxtaposition of an older man on a field with a bunch of guys in their prime served as an example to never give up and know it’s never too late to do something.
His oldest son wrote back and suggested he — Dad — could do what that man in the video was doing.
“I just thought, ‘That’s so stupid. So no way,’” Buzzard told Sports Spectrum this week. “But within 30 seconds, I’m like, ‘Wait. Maybe. What if I did that? Maybe I could do that. What if I tried?’
“And my heart was just kind of leaping in me.”
Buzzard is 47 years old, soon to be 48. He’s the founder and lead pastor of Garden City Church in San Jose, California. He’s a husband, a dad and an author. He’s also now a defensive end for the San Jose City College football team. It’s a reality that even he’s still trying to wrap his head around as it quickly becomes one of the most talked-about stories early on in the 2026 college football season.
Initially, still not fully convinced of his own conviction, he jokingly messaged the team’s defensive coordinator with a link to the 60-year-old’s video and suggested he — in his mid-40s — should play for SJCC. Buzzard expected a humorous reply, but instead the coach wanted to talk. For real.
“And so two days later, I was meeting with them at the school, he was showing me around, and basically said we would hold you to the standards of every other person, and if you really want to come out here, we’ll give you an opportunity,” Buzzard said. “And so I took two weeks to think about it and to pray about it and decided to go for it.”
He talked with his wife, family and friends and made a list of pros and cons. Aside from balancing his work and life with playing a college sport, the most glaring concern was injury. He started his bachelor’s degree at Whitworth University in Spokane, Washington, and redshirted on the football team for one season before a finger injury cut short his initial foray into college football. And even though he trains regularly now and does CrossFit, his body at 47 isn’t quite the same as it was at 18 or 19.
But aside from injuries, everything else pointed Buzzard toward saying yes. Videos of him getting action in last week’s game have now been posted all over social media. He’s been on SportsCenter, and the New York Times is writing a story about him. In the last couple of weeks, he’s received about three-to-five media requests every day.
He wasn’t expecting this kind of media blitz, and the attention isn’t why he said yes in the first place. But his journey has become an inspiration to many and it’s given him a platform to talk about Jesus, though he insists that his main goal was just to play football and see if he could do it. He didn’t want to force his way into a locker room just to be some sort of missionary.
“Jesus calls us to be in the world, but not of the world,” Buzzard told Sports Spectrum. “That’s very much how I’m looking at this. I’m in the field, in the locker room. I’m not going around telling people I’m a pastor. People found that out over time. I’m not just walking around preaching the Gospel. I’m walking around very much just being myself and trusting that guys are seeing, ‘There’s something unique about this guy. God’s at work in his life.'”
Like any other player, he had to earn his spot on the roster during training camp. And as the defensive coordinator told him, he wouldn’t get any passes just because he’s older and has a full-time job. Buzzard wouldn’t have it any other way.
Still, it’s a grind to get through each week, he said. Practice is hard, especially on Tuesdays and Wednesdays when players are in full pads and practice at full intensity. He’s also taking a full class load, as is necessary to be eligible. It’s a mental and physical battle to balance studying game film and preparing for games while still pastoring his church, writing his sermons, providing counseling, and being a dad and husband at home.
He’s exhausted and sore at the end of each day, but he’s chosen to embrace that this is just a season that will only last for a few months. Practice is at the same time each day Monday through Friday, which helps him create a schedule, and he can adjust accordingly. He’s also an author, with his next book, “Be A Man: The 21 Marks of Biblical Masculinity,” set to release in fall 2027.
His church staff and elders are helping him get through each week logistically, and the football team is off on Sundays, so that doesn’t interfere with his preaching schedule.
“The main thing is I just have to be disciplined,” Buzzard said. “Whatever I’m doing, I’m doing that. So if I’m in football, it’s all football. If I’m writing my sermon, it’s all sermon. I’m giving my full focus to whatever I’m doing and there isn’t extra margin. There isn’t time to fool around.”
He wasn’t expecting this either, but before the first scrimmage and again before the first game, head coach Jim Winkler asked him to pray for the team. Buzzard thinks that will become a regular thing going forward.
“Certainly my hope is that I would have an eternal impact here,” he said. “I hope to have an impact on the team right now in terms of our play and what we actually do on the field. I want to help my team win through my presence on and off the field, but I hope I have an eternal impact on the guys.”
This whole experience has opened the door to plenty of questions and conversations from players and the general public, and he’s receptive to all of it. His motto is “risk or rust,” which basically means if you don’t take risks or challenge yourself, you’ll get complacent. He hopes his story inspires his teammates and others in that way, and the hundreds of private messages he’s received over the last few weeks would suggest that mantra has resonated with a lot of people.
“I hope men are inspired to take a risk, to do something new, to not stand on the sidelines, to not stay stagnant, but to step out in faith and trust God for something new and to take on a new challenge or opportunity,” he said.
As of now, his plan only includes this season. He hopes to get through each practice and each game in one piece. Whether he plays again next season isn’t yet on his mind.
Buzzard sees all the encouraging and sarcastic comments online, and he loves it all. He knows full well there’s a chance he gets hurt or embarrasses himself on the field. And if a poor play gets caught on camera, there’s a high likelihood that a video of a 47-year-old making a fool of himself on a football field could go viral and those sarcastic comments would only intensify. But for him, it’s all worth the risk.
“That’s the risk of vulnerability in all of this,” he said. “Who knows what’s going to happen this week with game No. 2? Who knows what’s going to happen the rest of the season? I think that’s what makes this story, and especially sports, interesting, is that there’s so many different variables, and you never know what is going to happen.
“I hope people get that God wants to use you in the places of your deepest desire or excitement.”
THIS IS THE SPORTS SPECTRUM PODCAST HOSTED BY MATT FORTE, FEATURING EMEKA EGBUKA
Emeka Egbuka is a wide receiver with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, selected in the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft after a stellar college career that saw him lead Ohio State to a national championship in 2024. In his first season with Tampa in 2025, Egbuka had team-leading 63 receptions, 938 receiving yards and six touchdowns.
Today on the podcast, Emeka Egbuka returns to the show to talk with Matt Forte about his recent marriage, draft day memories from 2025, adjusting to life in the NFL, staying strong in his faith, and having Baker Mayfield as a teammate.
Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza celebrates with offensive lineman Jackson Lloyd during the Rose Bowl College Football Playoff quarterfinal game, Jan. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Kyusung Gong)
“So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do.” — Ephesians 5:15-17 (NLT)
During Indiana University’s improbable run to the college football national championship earlier this year, one of the things that was noted about quarterback Fernando Mendoza was his intentionality. Unlike many of his younger generation, Mendoza lives his life extremely deliberately — he is passionate about his faith, he doesn’t have social media, and he treats others with a level of genuine interest that is surprising.
During one of Indiana’s playoff games, a commentator was mentioning how unusual it is that someone of his caliber would grace the college sports scene, and he went on to speak about Mendoza’s thought process when transferring from UC Berkeley to Indiana. Once he knew his transfer was going through, he began studying not only the playbook but also the names of all of his soon-to-be teammates so that, upon arrival, he could address them all individually by name. He also applied the same mentality when he went to the Heisman Trophy presentation, learning the names of all the past winners so he could recognize them personally when he interacted with them.
Obviously, Mendoza has chosen to live his life on purpose. He has put intention and deliberate action behind all that he does because he wants to leave an impact that is bigger than just the Xs and Os of football. He wants to touch lives, and he knows that in order to go that extra distance and create that impact, he needs to build a life that allows for and is reflective of that.
But let me bring this home for you: Are you living on purpose? Are you building a life that is intentional?
You were created with the sole aim of reflecting the image of God. That is your ultimate purpose. And when we look at the life of Jesus, one of the things we notice right away was His intentionality. Of course, Jesus knew everything about everyone because He is the Son of God, but there was a deliberate and purposeful way in which He went about seeing and interacting with others that showed the heart of His Father.
As sons and daughters of the same Father, it’s becoming of us that we do the same. I heard a Messianic Jewish rabbi say a while ago that, because so much of Jesus’s life would’ve been on foot, most of His work would’ve occurred at about 3 miles per hour. And how much of our life is lived at a pace way faster than that, leaving us little time or room to create that sort of purposefulness that He lived with while He was on earth?
So much of the time we’re racing around trying to save time when, in reality, we’re losing out on the most important things because we’ve lost touch with what it means to live as reflectors of the intentional heart of God.
When we pause and listen to someone, when we go out of our way to make them feel noticed and heard and loved, when we look for ways to be all-present and give our undivided attention to other image-bearers of God, we bring a little bit of the Heavenly Kingdom down to earth. Will it take some sacrifice in other areas to make the time or have the energy to live this way? Totally. But will it also be eternally worth it? Every single time.
Bronze medalist Flora Tabanelli of Italy, right, celebrates after the women's freestyle skiing big air final at the 2026 Winter Olympics, Feb. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves. Everyone should look not to his own interests, but rather to the interests of others.” — Philippians 2:3-4 (CSB)
The infamous Ricky Bobby said, “If you ain’t first, you’re last.” An early 2000s songwriter penned, “What does it take to be No. 1? Two is not a winner, and three nobody remembers.”
Neither of these are Biblically based, nor do I believe the Holy Spirit led them to these words. However, I believe God can use these pop references to help us fulfill His Word.
Romans 12:2 declares, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will.” Being No. 1, being the champion, and being the best is certainly the world’s way. I challenge us to renew our mind to God’s way. His way leads us to strive for third place: Jesus (1), others (2), then us (3).
Since 1904, the third-place finishers in Olympic competitions have received a bronze medal. This is an amazing accomplishment, but certainly not anyone’s primary goal. In sports, no one is aiming to be the third-best at their position or be on the third-best team. This applies to athletes, coaches and sports officials. God created us to strive for excellence and to prosper in what He’s called us to. Being No. 1 is not a sin or unrighteous. The challenge is to aspire to excellence with humility, grace and selflessness.
It may seem counterproductive to speak highly of your “competition.” It may not be sensible to think of others’ success more than your own. But Jesus is undefeated and so are His ways. If we serve faithfully on His team, then we will be No. 1 for eternity, and not just on the podium. Live like the gold medalist by serving in third place.
