West Cocoa Chat

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Neal Jeffrey was a quarterback at Baylor University from 1972 – 1974. (http://www.nealjeffrey.com/index.htm) He went on from Baylor to play a couple of years in the NFL. Now, you might be thinking that this is just another “ex-jock” who found the Lord and is now parlaying his faith into money. They thing you need to know about Neal Jeffrey, a D1 quarterback, NFL quarterback, and now the “Prayer Minister” of the Prestonwood Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas is this-
Neal has a severe stuttering problem or at least he did.

The first video we watched it was somewhat distracting but as you get to know his story you notice it less and less. Neal told about playing quarterback as a stutter. At that time his stuttering was so severe that he couldn’t call out signals at the line. He joked about how in each game, he would walk up to the line, smile, and enjoy the disbelief in the defense’s face as the Center called the play and the signals.

Another highlight for me was a lesson on “lids.” Neal states that we all have “lids” holding us back that are either self-imposed or imposed on us by others. Obviously for him his stuttering was a lid. He stated that he always wanted to preach but knew that would be impossible with his stuttering. Then Neal has a “lid-lifting” experience while in college which you can only attribute to the working of the Holy Spirit in his life as his stuttering begins to diminish and he starts out on his desire to preach. Of course it’s not hard to look in the Bible to find people like Moses who God touches and uses to His Glory and in the process lifts their lids.

Last night Neal told the story of “the hug” using Eph. 1:6. He said that being “in the Beloved” is like being in a big bear hug by God. To illustrate this Neal told of 2 incidents in his life.

The first occurred in his senior year when he quarterbacked Baylor to a victory over Texas. Neal stated that it had been years since Baylor beat Texas. Neal comes out of that great victory the hero. Baylor never beats Texas and when they do it’s largely due to his efforts. He said after the game, his father, a big man with broad shoulders, big hands, waits for him outside the Locker Room and gives Neal a huge “man-hug.”

Neal tells that a year earlier, Baylor was playing TCU for homecoming. Again Neal is the quarterback and as the 4th quarter starts Baylor is down by 20 points. Neal quickly engineers 2 touchdown drives and as the 4th quarter is coming to an end, Baylor gets the ball back with a minute and a half to go in the game. Neal states that he drives the team down to the 12-yard line of TCU with time running out. He throws a pass out in the flat to a back but instead of running up the sideline (later the film shows the back could have scored untouched if he had gone up the sideline) he chooses to run into the middle of the field and is tackled at the 6-yard line.

Back in the 70’s a quarterback had to throw the ball out of bounds to stop the clock. Neal states that he knew he would have enough time for one more stab at the endzone if he just gets the ball out of bounds. The ball is snapped and Neal throws the ball out of bounds with just seconds on the clock. The trouble is it’s 4th down!

Neal had lost track of the downs and in essence threw the game away. You have to appreciate Neal’s sense of humor when he states, “You haven’t lived until you’ve had 40,000 sets of eyes on you when you pull the biggest bone-head play of your life.

After the game Neal said that he was inconsolable. He went into the Locker Room, showered and walked outside. Guess who was waiting, that’s right, his father and, just like a year later when he would give his son “the hero” a big man hug and tell him he loved him, Neal’s father grabs him, hugs him close, and tells him he loves him.

As Neal said, so it is with God. Our “beloved-ness” isn’t based on our performance. We’re in the “hug” of God because The Creator loves His creation.

I’ll leave with Eph. 1:3 – 6. 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,1:4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. 4 In love1:5 He 5 predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind 6 intention of His will,1:6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.

// posted by cwinwc @ 7:02 AM