On the closing night of an Athletes In Action Colorado sports camp, the microphone was opened for the college athletes. Athlete after athlete got up to share how God had worked in their lives over the rigorous two weeks.

A young woman from one of the leading collegiate volleyball teams cried through most of her comments. She shared the tragedies that dominated her home life, the loss of her mother and one of her siblings. She told us how she struggled with jealousy that she did not have a home life that so many of her friends and teammates experienced.

Then she unloaded what she had discovered this week—she had come to realize that God had placed her as the only Christ follower in her extended family, to represent Jesus to them.

God dropped Jeremiah into the midst of a rebellious people who had walked away from God. Though God gave him the words to say, his assignment was a terrible struggle. He was so miserable that he lamented the fact that he had ever been born.

During one of the most difficult seasons that I had as a team chaplain, I struggled to connect with the men in a spiritually cold locker room. A friend offered his lakeside villa to get away for a couple of days in the middle of the season to recharge.

An unexpected snowstorm locked me in for an extra day. As I spent the time in the Book of Jeremiah, God convicted me that if He sent Jeremiah to a rebellious people who did not respond, He had a purpose in putting me in a cold and unresponsive locker room.

That spiritually cold locker room did not change the rest of the season, but God changed my heart as He did with that young volleyball player. We are all on assignment for God.

Today’s devotional is one of five this week on “Wise Advisors” by Tom Petersburg.
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