STORY: The Day We Met Tim Tebow

This post is inspired by my cyber friend Lisa-Jo, who, every Friday hosts a link-up between bloggers called "Five Minute Friday." 

The idea is to write for FIVE minutes on a writing prompt that she gives--no editing, no correcting, no over analyzing.  This week, because I'm working on two articles for submission elsewhere, I don't have loads of writing time AND my brain seems to have stopped working.  SO, I'm joining in the FUN. 

This week's prompt is STORY.  Herein begins my 5 minutes. 

GO.

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Sometimes it's on us to take the helm of our STORY.  At least that's what I've come to believe.   

On Father's Day my son {Pumpkin}, husband, and father-in-law traveled to San Diego to meet one of Pumpkin's heroes, Tim Tebow.  Three generations of Yates men drove the 75 miles to Qualcomm Stadium and joined 26,000 people for a Father's Day extravaganza put on by Shadow Mountain Community Church and our friend (and Yates & Yates client) Dr. David Jeremiah.

We were invited to a private reception for Tebow after the service, along with a few hundred others.  I'm ashamed to say my husband and I thought it would be a wasted day.  We would be one of the masses, we thought.  At best we would shake his hand for a minute.  Should we give up a whole day to drive all the way there and all the way back, to sit in the squelching sun, to hassle with crowds, for one handshake? 

But our son wanted to.  Badly. 

Before the event, we sat him down and minimized his expectations. 

"Now, you realize we might drive all the way down there and only get 10 seconds with him?  We're going to a church service--there's going to be a sermon and we'll be sitting in a stadium with thousands of other people.  Afterwards at the reception, there will probably be a lot of standing around," Bookguy warned.

"Yes." Pumpkin replied.

"And you still want to go?" Bookguy asked.

"Yes.  I still want to go."  Pumpkin firmly replied.

So the next day they lugged their gear and headed out.  And all the while we're thinking, I hope this is worth it.  

Two hours later my phone pings and Bookguy texts this picture:

Not only did they meet Tim Tebow, but Pumpkin joined hands with him and prayed with him before the service--for God to do His work that day.    

It was a day nobody will forget.  Not my husband.  Not my father-in-law.  Not my 8 year old son.

Tim Tebow was phenomenal.  But the bigger joy was the three generations of Yates men linking arms in prayer and sharing this experience, together.  It was the drive down and back.  It was the star-struck chuckling.  It was raising their hands in worship together.  It was love of a game, love of a God, love of family.    

We almost missed it.

In front of us are opportunities to enhance our Story.  To experience something we wouldn't have and to set memories in place that bond us, fashion us to one another. 

It's on us to try.  It may not be worth it.  But what if it is? 

“No, life cannot be understood flat on a page. It has to be lived; a person has to get out of his head, has to fall in love, has to memorize poems, has to jump off bridges into rivers, has to stand in an empty desert and whisper sonnets under his breath... We get one story, you and I, and one story alone. God has established the elements, the setting and the climax and resolution. It would be a crime not to venture out, wouldn't it?"  Donald Miller