When Jesus kicks the football
Not long ago I was walking through a moment of pain in a close friendship. It hurt more than I wanted to admit because I knew the hurt was unintentional, and so I found myself bringing the ache to Jesus. What he showed me after I had poured my heart out, was unexpected — and a little bit cheeky.
From my journal, April 2025
I see a football field — a really big open one with nobody around. Jesus is in the middle kicking the footy. I walk across the field to join him. He’s really good (obviously).
“Why are we here?” I ask him. “Why are you kicking the footy?”
“I’m about to get a goal,” he says. I sense he is referring to breakthrough in some area of my heart.
“I’m really good at getting goals,” he goes on. I smile, knowing that to be true.
“What do you want to show me here?” I ask him, curiously.
I look down at the ball in his hands, he’s turning it so I can read it. It’s a “SHERYN” footy, haha. He looks down, with a stealthy look, and then back up again with a smirk.
“Watch this…” he says.
He holds the ball, perfectly positioned, and takes a big run up, kicking the ball so high into the sky it looks like it’s going to go into space. He’s half way down the football field, not even close to the goals. And yet the ball flies through the air, and through the top of the goal posts scoring the perfect goal.
“Tada!” he says, turning around to me with his hands open at his sides. He’s very happy with himself.
“That’s what I can do with a yielded heart,” he says. “Will you yield?”
“Of course” I say, my heart really meaning it.
“Will you yield to the process?”
I am getting his drift. It’s not so much yielding to him getting the goal, but the pain associated along the way. The pain of the friend hurting me. That he’s weaving into his purposes. Not seeking the comfort, but valuing the process he’s taking me on. The suffering, him “kicking” me, allowing this painful moment – ouch. But it’s for the goal. Not to hurt me. So I can fly through the air and land right between the goals of His Kingdom.
“I will yield” I say. He comes over and puts his arms around me and holds me. I feel his nurture. I feel his compassion, his love and tenderness. I feel warm and safe.
“I love you” he says. “Even when I’m kicking you”
We both laugh.
“I know. I love you too”
It took me a while to realise what the “goal” was that he was referring to… but as I stepped back I started to see what he was doing. He wanted me to value his voice and his opinion more than the one of my friend. People don’t always see things the way he does but he wanted me to remember that I could still go forward in what he’d put on my heart, even if I didn’t feel understood or championed the way I was used to. I felt him say, “Will you go with me even if nobody else comes?” And the goal - the breakthrough, was that my answer became, “yes.”
This encounter reminded me that Jesus isn’t just after the outcome of what we accomplish with him — he’s forming us in the process. Yielding doesn’t mean pretending the pain isn’t real; it means trusting that he knows how to use it for our good. Maybe you’re in a season where you feel “kicked” by life or by people you love. My prayer is that you’ll encounter Jesus’ compassion too, weaving it all into his higher purpose for your good, and trust that he knows how to send you soaring right through the goalposts of His Kingdom.