Rosevelt Colvin - New England Patriots

When watching the Super Bowl this coming weekend, here is one of the players to keep an eye on regardless of which team you want to win the game.

Being an NFL football player was never my dream. Actually, my dream was broader than that. I wanted to be successful in whatever I did so I could provide for my family. Those are the values I had been taught. I had such positive role models. My father and mother were and still are teachers. My father is a deacon in the church and my mother was the choir director. My grandfather was also a pastor. With those people and many more as role models, I learned important life lessons early on. And all I wanted was to maintain humility, and be someone my family could be proud of. It could have been as a teacher in a classroom, or using my industrial technology degree. It could have been at almost anything. As it turned out, the NFL is the place that provides for my family, and allows me the opportunity to be successful.

I had been drafted by the Chicago Bears, and my older sister lived on the south side of Chicago. She would invite me to come to church with her, but I would generally find a reason why I couldn't. One day, one of my sister's friends got on the phone with me and asked me a pointed question. She asked me if I was saved. To myself i said, "I'm not sure what you're talking about." She then asked me if I had ever prayed the sinner's prayer, based on Romans 10:9 which says: "...if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved." That day I prayed the prayer, but didn't really understand it until sometime later.

My life is not perfect. I still find myself doing or thinking things that aren't consistent with my faith. But over the last few years, there has been a gradual change. That's what life is about-conforming more and more to the image of Christ-how God wants you to be. all I wanted was to be a successful young man my family could be proud of. But I have even more than that-I have a relationship with Jesus Christ.