KEEPING
THE DREAM ALIVE

Topics: Hardship; Humility; Perseverance; Persistence; Testimony; Trials

References: Romans 5:3–5; 11:36

While at the University of Northern Iowa, Kurt Warner was a second-string player on the football team. During college he met a single mom who had two kids, one of whom was blind. Warner married the woman and adopted both kids.

He wasn’t drafted by the NFL after college, so he went to work stocking groceries. But he kept his dream alive by playing in the Arena Football League and eventually for the Amsterdam Admirals in the European NFL. In 1998, he was signed by the St. Louis Rams but barely played. In 1999, his opportunities didn’t look much better. The Rams had signed quarterback Trent Green to a multimillion-dollar contract. Kurt got the league minimum for a second-year player, $250,000.

In a preseason game, Green got hurt, which allowed Warner to prove himself as a starting quarterback. And he did. Kurt Warner was named the NFL’s most valuable player for 1999 and the MVP of the Super Bowl.

Warner keeps success in perspective. During the Billy Graham crusade on October 15, 1999, at the TWA Dome in St. Louis, where the Rams play their home games, Warner announced to more than 40,000 cheering fans, “People often ask the secret to my success as a football player. It has nothing to do with how I work out in the off-season or my diet. The secret to my success is Jesus Christ.”

Warner says his faith, as well as the hardships and tragedies his family has faced, has helped him understand what truly is important in life. In turn, this helps him on the football field, particularly in pressure situations.

—Greg Asimakoupoulos, Mercer Island, Washington

PART 31: SUFFERING