Evangelism

At the start of spring practice last week, Denzel Washington, at the invitation of coach Deion Sanders, addressed the University of Colorado football team via video.

“When you pray for rain, you got to deal with the mud,” he told them. “But good things grow out of the mud.”

The Academy Award winning actor’s virtual visit to the Boulder based team comes on the heels of Coach Sanders being warned to tone down references or conversation about his Christian faith.

Just last year, the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) accused Sanders of engaging in “religious coercion” by having Christian speakers address the team.

“Sanders needs to understand that he was hired to coach football, not to force student-athletes to engage in his preferred religious practices,” wrote Patrick T. O’Rourke of the anti-religion organization. “He must cease infusing the football program with Christianity.”

FFRF was triggered after Coach Sanders invited Pastor E. Dewey Smith to speak with the team. At the time, FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor claimed, “Sanders is showing his brazen disregard for not only the Constitution, but also the rights of all his players when he decides to force his religion upon them.”

Dr. E. Dewey Smith is the senior pastor and teacher of The House of Hope Atlanta, The House of Hope Macon and The House of Hope WestPointe in Georgia.

Coach Sanders isn’t easily intimidated. In extending an invitation to Denzel Washington, he wasn’t only welcoming a popular actor, but also a newly baptized and ordained minister.

“Don’t rely on it [football or athletics] for your happiness,” Pastor Washington told the Colorado players. “Rely on the Almighty. Do not rely on this world for your happiness, because it’ll tell you Tuesday that they love you, and Wednesday that they hate you. Probably said that about your team. It’s not consistent.”

Over the years, Coach Sanders, a former two-sports star in the NFL and Major League Baseball, has historically invited Christians to address his teams. He believes players need to be regularly encouraged. He told those assembled in the player’s meeting room that he was especially excited when Pastor Washington agreed to talk with the time.

Maybe it’s because Denzel’s life, like most everyone else’s, hasn’t been a straight line.

The New York-born actor started college as a pre-med student, switched to pre-law, then switched to journalism. But then came the day that changed every day since.

It was March 27, 1975 – exactly fifty years ago this coming Thursday. Washington was twenty-one years-old and was helping his mother in her beauty shop in Mount Vernon, New York. Here’s how he described what happened.

“There was this older woman who was considered one of the elders in the town. And I didn’t know her personally, but I was looking in a mirror and every time I looked at the mirror, I could see her behind me. And she was staring at me. She just kept looking at me. Every time I looked at it, she kept giving me these strange looks. So she finally took the dryer off her head, and she said something I’ll never forget.

“First of all, she said, ‘Somebody give me a piece of paper. Give me a piece of paper.’ She said, ‘Young boy, I have a prophecy, a spiritual prophecy.’ She said, ‘You are going to travel the world and speak to millions of people.’

Later that summer, while working at a YMCA camp, someone suggested Denzel try acting.

Looking back on his life, Washington has said, “I have traveled the world, and I have spoken to millions of people through my movies.”

Wrapping up in his time with the University of Colorado Buffalo football team, a smiling Washington said,

I’m going to say this now, if y’all don’t send me a ticket to the national championship when you get there, then don’t ever go to none of my movies ever again. I don’t want to know you. Because I know you [are] going to be there. Now you remember that Denzel Washington said it: ‘You are going to the national championship.’

Time will tell how Sanders’ team performs on the field, but the high-profile coach is demonstrating to his players that boldness about one’s Christian belief is empowering and confidence inspiring off of it.

Image from X.

After being marooned for nine months aboard the International Space Station, NASA’s Suni Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore are scheduled to splashdown off the Florida coast on Tuesday evening. 

The two astronauts are joined in the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule by NASA’s Nick Hague and Aleksandr Gorbunov of Russia.

Butch Wilmore’s previous foray into space was as pilot aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis in 2009. He’s a Navy veteran pilot with over 8,000 flight hours and 663 aircraft carrier landings. During Operation Desert Storm, Wilmore completed 21 combat missions.

Prior to beginning his descent to earth earlier this morning, Captain Wilmore, along with his fellow astronauts, were interview by CBS News reporter Mark Strassman. 

“What is your life lesson or takeaway from these nine months in space?” asked Strassman.

“My feeling on all of this goes back to my faith,” he said. “It’s bound in my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He is working out His plan and His purposes for His glory throughout all of humanity and how that plays in our lives is significant and important.”

Many have empathized with the plights of both Captain Wilmore and Captain Williams. Williams is also a retired and decorated Navy pilot. Incidentally, Captain Williams holds the distinction of having run the first marathon in space back in 2017, completing the 26.2 miles on a treadmill in four hours and 24 minutes. She had been planning to run the Boston Marathon with friends. Instead, she ran the distance in space at the same time her running partners completed it in Beantown. 

When navigating outer space, timing is everything. Williams and Wilmore’s eight-day journey turned into a nine-month odyssey for a variety of reasons including helium leaks, thruster failures and scheduled spacewalks.  There have been other allegations and accusations.

Captain Wilmore and his wife, Deanna, have two daughters, Daryn and Logan. Sadly, Butch has missed the majority of Logan’s senior year in high school. 

Daryn, who is in college, has said, “It’s been hard if we’re completely honest.” She shared her frustration is “less the fact that he’s up there’ and ‘more the fact of why … There’s a lot of politics, there’s a lot of things that I’m not at liberty to say, and that I don’t know fully about. There’s been issues. There’s been negligence. And that’s the reason why this has just kept getting delayed. There’s just been issue after issue after issue.”

“It’s been trying at times,” acknowledged Captain Wilmore to The New York Times.

But talking with CBS yesterday, the weary astronaut was reflective and expressed confidence in God’s sovereignty. 

“However that [the delay] plays out, I am content because I understand that He’s at work in all things. Some things are for the good. Go to Hebrews chapter 11, some things look to us to be not so good. But it’s all working out for His good, for those that will believe, and that’s the answer.”

Nevertheless, Captain Wilmore has chosen to see the things out of his control as part of God’s perfect plan. 

For Christians, that’s always a helpful and faith-affirming perspective to hold and employ no matter our endeavor or ordeal.

Let’s continue praying for the returning astronauts and their families.

Image credit: X