A Sign Among Us - Chapter 12 - Our Mission

Long Term Goals - Our Mission

Short-term goals were right now, today, ourselves and spreads out to those loved ones in our household. Mid-term goals, those around us, just outside that circle, who we touch. Long-term goals, what does the Lord have planned for you? What is your purpose? What would your mission statement be?

'I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name. Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee. Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.' Revelation 3:8-11

Obituary

A teacher once asked us to write our own obituary. Before we put pen to paper the teacher prefaced it and stated, 'Now, keep in mind this is your obituary, someone else is writing it about how they see your life, not what you want it to be or how you think they see it. What would others say about you right now?'

Ouch. That was a quiet class for about 30 minutes. 'O.K. Turn your paper over, now I want you to write down how you want your obituary to read. The sky is the limit. It is your life; you lived it, so write about it. What is holding you back?' Wow, I want that obituary. What is holding us back?

Some wise advice I was given before, was to write your goals in concrete and your plans in sand. That is a problem for me. I either set myself an unrealistic goal that I am doomed to fail. Or I am so fearful of failing that I do not set a goal at all. Can you relate to that?

Here is a third thing I also found myself doing. Setting a goal and not doing anything about it. I had all kinds of goals. I would set a goal to be out of debt in a year. Then a year would go by, I would look at the finances again and still be just as far in debt as I was 365 days earlier. Why would I get out of debt? I didn't have any plan set up. I still went out to lunch as often as I did before. I was only making the minimum payments on the credit cards and when I was late the late charge would get heaped on. Then there I was, getting mad at myself for not hitting my goals. Well let me tell you something. A Goal without a plan is called a wish.

White your goals in concrete and your plans in sand. If your goal is a good goal, a real goal, a goal the Lord gave you, which is in concrete that should not change. Your plan, how you are going to get there may need to be modified. I pray you can be encouraged today. I also pray you can remember what your goal was. I want to help you remember what your dream was. What has the Lord previously revealed to you? Was there something he wanted you to do with your wife or family? Was there something he wanted you to do for a neighbor or co-worker? Was there something the Lord wanted you to do in the church? I am not challenging you. I am trying to help you. I know I am miserable when the Lord tells me to do something and I go in the other direction. Just like Jonah, it would be easier to listen to God the first time than have to wait, have Him chasten us and do it smelling like the belly of a great fish with seaweed hanging off of us.

Rudy

Rudy Ruttiger grew up his whole life watching Notre Dame football. His father, his friends, they all followed it, watched it and talked about it. He always said, 'After High School I'm gonna play football for Notre Dame.' It was his dream. To others it was his fantasy, but to him, it was his reality. As a child his dream was cute. He told everyone he could. As he got older and he told everyone else his dream, it became just that a dream, and people were probably getting a little tired of hearing it.

As Rudy was growing up he heard words of discouragement like, 'The problem with dreamers are that they are not usually doers. Their achievements are grand but not grand where they count.' On one class trip to Notre Dame he was told he couldn't go. He was told, 'This field trip is for students who are interested in attending the University. This is not a sight seeing trip. You barely have the grades for a community college, let alone a University like Notre Dame.' He said, 'Maybe I can go there some day.' He was told, 'Rudy, be thankful for the gifts that have been bestowed upon you.'

Years of being told you could not go after your dream. Years of being laughed at for your goal. Even his own father and brothers would say, 'You are going to get hurt if you keep talking about all this Notre Dame stuff.'

Life as an adult had to go on. Rudy had hidden his dream. He had gotten in a rut and hadn't thought on his dream in years.

One afternoon there was an accident. There was an explosion in the plant and Rudy's best friend, Pete, was killed. The one person who believed in him had died. With all the negative words he heard, Pete would still say, 'You are going to play for Notre Dame someday.' It hit him. It hit him hard. His friend, his best friend, the friend he thought he would have forever, was gone. The only one who believed in him. How much time does he have? It seemed like yesterday when they were young kids with all these hopes and dreams. He was no closer to his dream at age seven as he was now at twenty-two.

He let his fiance, and his family know that he was going to follow his dreams. He said, 'If I don't go now, I'll never be any good for you, for me, for anyone.'

His fiance stated, 'If you have to go you will be going alone.' Even his father told him again, 'Chasing your stupid dream causes nothing but pain for you and those around you. Notre Dame is not for you. You have a future here at the plant. Why don't you be like your brothers?'

I Don't Want To Be Like My Brothers

Rudy decided for his friend Pete, he was going to Notre Dame. The coach at that college accepted walk-ons. They handed out scholarships, however the coach did keep a few spots available on the team for open try-outs. For those students who were not good enough to get a scholarship, but may be good enough to try out and possibly be on the team. They had a chance to fight their way on the team if they could prove themselves.

Rudy went to Notre Dame. He was unable to get into the college that semester. He spoke with a counselor, 'Ever sisce I was a kid I wanted to go to school here and ever since I was a kid people told me it couldn't be done. My whole life people always told me what I could do and what I couldn't do. I always listened to them and believed what they said. I don't want to do that any more.'

The advice Rudy got from this counselor, 'Here's the deal. There is a junior college near by. I can get you one semester there, you make good grades, you get another semester, then maybe with a high enough GPA you might have a chance of getting into Notre Dame.' So he started school at that Junior College.

Rudy went to the Notre Dame field a short distance away and was unable to even be a towel boy for the team. He then went to the greens-keeper at the Notre Dame field. He said he would work for free. 'If I'm going to play on this field some day, I better get a lay of the land.'

'You must be nuts.'
'Yeah, I know, I've been hearing that a lot lately.'
'OK, I'll give you a chance...'
The greens-keeper's name was 'Fortune.' Rudy asked, 'Fortune, have you ever watched a game from in here?'
'No.'
'I tell you what, your first game is the first game I play in.'

End of the first semester, Rudy's grades were an A and the rest were B's, the best grades he ever got in his life. At the end of his first semester, he applied to Notre Dame and he did not get in. On his free time he would work out and do the drills that were expected of him as if he were on the team. He would often fall asleep in the library while studying.

End of his second semester, Rudy still did not get in. More training, on his own. More studying, on his own. End of the third semester, Notre Dame replies, 'We are sorry.' Study, Train, Study, Train...

His counselor said, Well you did a good job of chasing down your dream kid.'

'I don't care what kind of job I did. If it doesn't produce results, it doesn't mean anything.'

His counselor responds back, 'I think you will discover that it will. We pray in our time the answers come in God's time.' Two facts the counselor learned, 'There is a God and I am not Him.'

Study, Pray, Train. End of his fourth semester, Rudy gets in. Two years of hard work. Two years of running after his dream. Two years of training and studying alone. Two years of sleeping in a locker room. Two years of being away from his family, who didn't support him, and he is accepted into the college he always knew he could go to and he was trying out for the team.

At the tryouts the coach gave the warm up speach, '60 players dress for each game. 35 of which are given scholarships and do not dress up each week. You are to be tackling dummies; I don't care if you get hurt. One maybe two of you might make it through today.'

Try-outs begin. Two years of what he has been training for. Years of being told, 'You can't do it.' Coach saying, 'You can't do it,' and this afternoon Rudy has to prove otherwise. Sweaty, bloody, bruised, tired, exhausted, the shadows are getting long. One out of three coaches wanted to give him a chance and he was allowed to be part of the team.

He ran to Fortune, 'Remember you promise, you will see your first game if I ever dress.'
'Kid, if you ever dress, I'll be there.'

Day in and day out, tackling dummy. Getting beat up, over, and over, and over...and why? Week, after week, after week to not wear a uniform with his team. Friends and even family say, 'Rudy, if you are part of the team how come we don't see you on TV? How come you aren't down there on the side lines?

Rudy goes in to see the head coach, 'Coach, no matter how hard I try, I am never going to be more than part of the prep team, I realize that. Next year, I would love to give my father the gift of seeing his son be part of this team. If I could suit up, it would mean a lot to him.'

'Rudy, is this for him?'

'No. It's for the people that told me I could never do it. It's for my brothers, it's for the people at high school, it's for the people at the mill who don't think I am part of this team, they can't see me at practice like you do.'

'OK, I promise, you can suit up one game next season.' Rudy tells everyone. Then what does he read, his coach takes a position elsewhere. With one year of practicing under his bealt, respect is growing for him among his other teammates. Each week he reads the list of those who are able to suit up, and each week, his name is not on the list to wear a uniform. He watches the games from the stands like the other spectators.

It is now the last practice before the last game. This time again, Rudy's name is not on the list to suit up. His teammates also knew the coaches promise. He couldn't take it. He runs away. He quits. He visits his friend Fortune, 'So you didn't make the dress list, there are greater tragedy's in this world.'

'I wanted to run out on that field for my dad. I wanted to prove to everybody that I was somebody...'

'Prove what, you are five feet nothing, you weigh one hundred and nothing and you got hardly a speck of athletic ability, and you hung in with the best college football team in the land for two years and you are also going to walk out of here with a degree from the University of Notre Dame. On this earth you don't have to prove nothing to nobody except yourself, and after what you've gone through if you haven't done that by now, it ain't never going to happen.'

'Sorry I never got you in to see your first game here.'

'I've seen too many games in this stadium. I never saw a game from the stands. I rode the bench for two years; I was never played because of my color. I got filled up with a lot of attitude, so I quit, still not a week goes by that I don't regret it, and I gaurantee you, not a week will go by in your life you won't regret walking out and letting them know that they got the best of you. Can you hear me clear enough, no go back there...'

Rudy walks back to practice. Yeah, the first practice he walked in late on in two years. He gets a round of applause from his teammates. His witness is a testimony to them. Coach welcomes him back.

That evening the star player goes in the coach's office and lays down his jersey so Rudy can suit up. Coach takes off his glasses, looks this captain in the eyes and says, 'You're a captain, act like one.'

'I believe I am coach.' He walks out of the office without his game jersey. As he leaves the room another star player walks in. 'Coach, I want Rudy to dress in my place.' The next teammate, 'Coach this is for Rudy.' On and on and on it went.

Rudy gets on the phone, 'Dad, I'm going to be suited up tomorrow, you got to come.' They do, Mom, Dad, his oldre brothers and his younger brothers and sisters.

Coach's warm up speach begins in the locker room, 'You all know what you have to do, no one and I mean no one, comes into our house and pushes us around. This is your game now gentlemen, and for you seniors this is your last game, so make it count, because you will remember it for the rest of your lives...'

'Rudy, we want you to lead us out on the field today, can you do that? Are you ready?'

'I've been ready for this my whole life.'

They ran out onto the field. As the game is being played they remember one more bit of coach's encouraging words, 'This is the most important game of your life. No excuses. Do the work.'

The game goes on, remember you have to be in at least one play of one game to get written down in the record books, and Rudy is on the sidelines. End of the first quarter, Half time, end of the third quarter. It is now the fourth quarter. Notre Dame gets a lead large enough that they are definately going to win. Coach sends in all the seniors...except Rudy. Only minutes left. The team starts a chant down on the field, 'Ru-dy ... Ru-dy ... Ru-dy ...' less than a minute left, the crowd starts to catch the chant, 'Ru-dy ... Ru-dy ... Ru-dy ...' The chant makes it's way to Rudy's family. 'They are cheering for Rudy, they are cheering for our son.'

Caoch hangs his head and waves Rudy in the game. Rudy hears the crowd. He sees the support of his fellow teammates. He runs out on the field the fans erupt. They know who he is. They know how he has fought. They wish they could feel what he is feeling. To fight that hard for something, to do something everyone says you can't do. To have everyone against you, your friends, your family, everyone. And there he is in the game. He achieved his goal. He lived his dream.

His teammates lifted him up on their shoulders and carry him off the field. The movie closes with the words, 'Since 1976 no other Notre Dame player has been carried off the field.' And also, 'Daniel E. 'Rudy' Ruettiger graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1976. Five of Rudy's younger brothers went on to college. All received degrees.'

Once again, what have we gone over these last three chapters? '... my word ... shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it...', and what has the Lord previously revealed to you? '... I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it ...'

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