The Story of an Athlete

This past Friday I learned about the famous Brazilian football (soccer for you US folks) player, Kaká.  Currently he plays for Madrid's football team, Real (pronounced Ree-al) Madrid.
Some of our colleagues were together in Madrid for a meeting and one of them has connections to Kaká's wife, Caroline. They asked through his wife if he would do an intro for a video our colleague was doing in Milan, Italy.  Being the media guys that they are, Jerry & our team member, Steve got to go along to shoot the video.  Why would they interview a football player?  Kaká is a born again, believer in Jesus Christ!  Take a look at this photo!

How awesome is that?!  Until Friday I had never heard of him.  I better get educated since I'm now living in football country!  So, I did a little internet searching to find out more about this guy.  Wow, am I impressed!  I found his testimony (below) here and bit more here.

My parents always taught me the Bible and its values, and also about Jesus Christ and faith. I did not have a specific conversion experience, but little by little, I stopped simply hearing people talk about the Jesus my parents taught me [about], and there came a time when I wanted to live my own experiences with God. One of these experiences with God was when I was baptized at the age of 12. This was a very important step in my walk with Jesus and soon after many things began to happen in my life where I could experience God in a real way.

I need Jesus every day of my life. Jesus tells me in the Bible that without Him I can't do anything. I have the gift and capacity today to play soccer because God gave it to me. The day He wants me to do something else, I will do that something else and this is why I need Jesus in my life every day. I am successful in my financial life and in my professional life, but all this has come from God and is a gift of grace from Him for my life. All that I have, I thank Him for.

The difference Jesus makes in my life is that I know I will always have victory, I will always have joy, and I will always have success. This is independent of the situations I face or will face. This brings me great peace.

I usually tell the people who ask, that the Bible is like the user's manual that comes when you buy a product. It has everything we need in it. It makes me happy to read the Bible every day, to study it and to be in fellowship with God and learn more and more about Jesus.

I will win many matches and I will lose many matches, but I know that in all of them, God has a plan. This is why I try to understand the plan of God for me in each moment so that I can have peace during times of pressure.

Everyone wants to be a winner, but for me, the true meaning of winning is having Jesus in my life. It is a life of prayer, a life of intimacy and a lifelong friendship, knowing that God is our Father. I can say that I am a winner and I am victorious because Jesus lives in my life. No, I will never stop following Him.

 And I also found this article about how he and his wife saved themselves for marriage!  Just awesome!

Now that I've learned a bit more about him I am quite envious of Jerry. ;)

What an incredible testimony and witness to what the Lord Jesus Christ is to this athlete!