Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Nick Foles preached the gospel during a press conference on Wednesday, telling reporters that he has been able to have joy in his life despite the injury that has sidelined him this season because of his relationship with Jesus.
Foles, who won the Super Bowl as the Philadelphia Eagles’ starting quarterback in 2018, suffered a broken left clavicle in the first quarter of his first game as the Jaguars’ quarterback.
“Right when I felt this thing break and I was going into the locker room, I just realized that this wasn’t exactly what I was thinking when I came to Jacksonville,” Foles told reporters on Wednesday. “Obviously, you come here and you want to create a culture and impact people.”
“But at the end of the day, I said, ‘God, if this is the journey that you want me to go on, I am going to glorify you in every action good or bad,'” Foles continued. “I can still have joy in an injury. People can hear that and say ‘That is crazy,’ but when you believe in Jesus and you go out there and you play, that changes your heart. You only understand it when [you have] that purpose in your life, just like when I hoisted the Lombardi Trophy. The reason I am smiling is because my faith is in Christ. In that moment, I realized I didn’t need that trophy to define who I was because [who I was] was already in Christ.”
“That’s my message when I play. Same thing happens when I get injured,” Foles said. “We tend to make this so much about us as human beings and we tend to make it about us as athletes. It’s not about us. It really isn’t. If you make it about yourself, you are probably going to go home at night, lay your head on your pillow and be very alone and very sad. Hopefully someday, you can find that purpose in your life because our purpose isn’t football. It’s impacting people.”
“My ministry happens to be the locker room and I have been able to get to know people and get to know these guys through an injury,” Foles explained. “Though I might not be playing, that is difficult from a fleshly perspective. But from a spiritual perspective, from my heart, I have been able to grow as a human being to where I feel like I am at a better situation here as a person than I was before because of the trial I just went under.”
“It’s not always about prosperity, I don’t believe in the prosperity gospel,” Foles stated. “I believe that if you read the word of God and you understand it, there [are] trials along the way. But, they equip your heart to be who you are.”
WATCH:
“I don’t believe in the prosperity Gospel. I believe if you read the word of God and you understand it, there’s trials along the way but they equip your heart to be who you are.”
Watch @NickFoles preach the Gospel at his press conference today. pic.twitter.com/8vQaWXwpfL
— Sports Spectrum (@Sports_Spectrum) November 13, 2019
Foles is reportedly planning on becoming a pastor after his career in the NFL and has already started taking online courses.
“I want[ed] to be a pastor in a high school,” Foles said last year. “It’s on my heart. I took a leap of faith last year and signed up to take classes at seminary. I wanted to continue to learn and challenge my faith. It’s a challenge because you are writing papers that are biblically correct. You want to impact people’s hearts.”
“When I speak to (students), that’s such a time of young men and young women’s lives that there’s a lot of things that are thrown at them. So much temptation in this world, so much going on with social media and the internet that you want to talk to them and address it and share all the weaknesses I have because I’ve fallen many times,” Foles continued. “It’s something I want to do. I can’t play football forever. I’ve been blessed with an amazing platform and it’s just a door God has opened, but I still have a lot of school left and a long journey.”