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KURT WARNER: SUPER BOWL CONFIDENCE

Sportswriters are calling it the feel-good story of the year. Just five years ago Kurt Warner was bagging groceries for $5.50 an hour. Now he is the St. Louis Rams QB and the NFL MVP ready to face the Titans in the Super Bowl.

Even working the grocery store, Warner was confidently telling people that he would make it in the NFL. Here's the remarkable story you're bound to hear 100 more times this Super Bowl week:

Kurt Warner didn't even earn the starting QB job at I-AA school, Northern Iowa, until his fifth year. From there he went undrafted but was signed as a free agent by Green Bay in 1994. Soon after, the Packers cut him.

The Canadian Football League wasn't interested. He then succeeded on the low-credibility gridiron of Arena Football for three years. He was signed for NFL Europe and led the Amsterdam Admirals. He was a backup QB for the Rams in 1998.

Finally he replaced injured starter Trent Green this season and made everyone in the Ram organization look like geniuses with his play. But don't give the Rams too much credit. They left Kurt Warner unprotected in last season's expansion draft. Fortunately for them, the Cleveland Browns were not interested.

Through Warner's unlikely ascent to stardom, there seems to be only one person who is not surprised by his success: Kurt Warner.

In the NFL Insider report, Warner says, "There were some doubts that I would get a chance. But there was never a doubt that I could come to this level and compete and be successful. Not in my mind, anyway."

Where does Warner's confidence come from? In October Warner said, "A lot of people say all this is impossible, but as long as I have God on my side, everything is possible." Warner continues, "When you see all the steps along the way that helped me get to this point, well . it wouldn't be how I'd write my own script. But it's exactly what I needed to get me to the point where I am now, both as a person and as a player."

Kurt Warner's story reminds me of David in the Bible. In his own family, David was an afterthought. In football terms, David was not on the draft board, when it came time for Samuel the prophet to find God's man to be king. But God knew David was the man for job.

Anointed as King Saul's successor, the man who would be king had to endure many years serving his father's flock and his brothers (including being their delivery boy-no joke) before getting his shot.

The young man was confident he could whip the giant Goliath who was facing down the Israelites. Not even his family could understand David's confidence. His brother Eliab accused David of being wicked and conceited for coming to the front. When no other person would step up to face Goliath, young David was given the chance. David's confidence was placed securely in God.

Like Kurt Warner, he could see how the steps along the way had prepared him for this defining moment. David said to Saul, "Your servant has been keeping his father's sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine" (1 Samuel 17:34-37)

David was right too. With one shot, Goliath came down with a mighty thud. David had confidence in God for his victory. He had the perspective to see how his past challenges (lions and bears) had prepared him for the next level.

What problems are you facing? Are you confident that God will take care of you? How you face today's challenges will pave the way for tomorrow's great victory. So be confident that God will use your present problems to take you to the next level. God is with you.

Christ my Coach,

Steve Teel

DID YOU KNOW? WARNER FACED his Lion, Bear, & Giant!? Kurt Warner in 1999-- Vs. Lions 11/7 loses 27-31 (even defeat can prepare you) Vs. Bears 12/26 wins 34-12 Vs. Giants 12/19 wins 31-10