This story appears in FCA Magazine’s November/December 2016 issue. Subscribe today!
While preparing for my final column in this magazine, reflecting upon the nearly 12 years of serving the Lord as president of this great ministry, I felt God calling me to thank and encourage our FCA staff. Each one of you has been chosen by God and followed His calling into an often difficult—yet always important and impactful—vocation. For that, you all deserve to be commended.
I can still remember the moment I felt “chosen” by the Lord. I was a 19-year-old sophomore at the University of Kansas, fresh off a Golden Gloves boxing championship. Accepting Jesus Christ as my Savior was a moment I will never forget. I like to refer to that decision as “fire insurance,” because I knew He would always be there for me when the fires of life inevitably burned.
But it wasn’t until 25 years later, in 1990, that a 13-month period of brokenness pushed me down on my knees, and I finally accepted Jesus as my Lord. It was only then that I truly surrendered my life, everything I had, to Him.
As a former Marine, it’s hard for me to even use the word “surrender.” As a matter of fact, you wouldn’t ever find the word in any Marine Corps manual. Maybe that’s part of why it took so long for me, but to become a sold-out follower of Christ, total surrender is absolutely necessary. When you are totally surrendered, you become totally dependent. When you’re totally dependent upon Jesus, that’s when you totally trust Him. And that’s when you can experience the abundant life Jesus promises in John 10:10: “… I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.” (HCSB)
Since that day in 1990, I’ve felt God’s abundant blessings. He called me into coaching, a profession I never envisioned, and I did my best to serve Him and the athletes entrusted to me. God walked with me as a coach for 32 years as I experienced sports’ highest highs and lowest lows, developing so many deep friendships along the way. Coaching hadn’t been in my plans, but God knew it was right where He wanted me to be.
The Lord then called me into full-time ministry as president of FCA, an organization I had a rich history with since attending my first camp as a coach in 1972. Now, more than 40 years with FCA—12 of them as president—have flown by, but I leave tremendously encouraged to see our faithful, dedicated staff emphasizing the Four Cs—Coaches, Camps, Campus and Communities—with coaches being the top priority. A coach’s platform is so powerful, and it’s a blessing to witness FCA pouring into them as they impact their teams and everyone else around them.
God calls each of us into specific places in this world. When we follow where He leads, we step into the “victory” He promises us through Jesus, as it says in 1 Corinthians 15:57 (HCSB): “But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!”
My wife, Chris, and I look back on our time with FCA and feel so blessed by the experiences and people we’ve come to know through it. We’ve strived to bring unity to FCA, and we thank God every day for choosing us and calling us here to serve Him and to serve all of you. Thank you, all of you, for going on this journey with us.
Model the Master,
Les Steckel
FCA President/CEO
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