When I was 10, I would play pickup tackle football for hours. Since we didn’t have linemen and I was a boy of ample proportions, I was always assigned short routes on offense. On defense, five seconds was the standard allotted time before you could tackle the quarterback—and I could count to “five-Mississippi” like nobody’s business. I shone as a blitzing linebacker. These pickup games were one of the highlights of my week.

In sixth grade, my parents signed me up for pee-wee football. This was the real deal: we got to hit and everything. I loved it more than pickup football.

Then I went into seventh grade. I was homeschooled and lived in the New York metropolitan area, where co-ops and homeschool sponsored sports teams were nonexistent. My only option to play football was through the public school. When my parents inquired about my playing for the school’s modified team, they were turned down because I was homeschooled and technically not part of the athletic program. My mother, a little indignant, contacted a homeschool organization representative for the state of New York. She told the representative what happened and the representative said one thing: “Don’t go back to Sodom.”

Despite the representative’s warning, I went into public school for a variety of reasons, including the opportunity to play football and baseball. I had a rough transition, and modified football was part of that. I really disliked it. I did not know the guys very well and the coaches had nothing good to say. I was so relieved the day modified football was over. I thought I was done, but my family convinced me to try one more year. I am very glad I did.

I stuck with it and before I knew it I was on varsity. On the varsity team, before preseason, there was a week of practice called “captain’s practice” where just the captains ran practice. In the evenings that week the team would get together for activities, most of which were illegal. I did not go to these evening activities, and I was sick to my stomach every morning for fear of being ostracized for not carousing with the team the night before. I made it through preseason, and, throughout the rest of the season, everyone on the team understood that I was not going to do certain things everyone else did. Soon everyone knew where I was last night: I was home.

Although I had a rough time my first year, the team respected me as a football player. Through God’s sovereignty I was elected to be one of the team captains in my senior year. Because I was captain, I had a larger influence over the team and I was able to help kids who did not want to do things they were pressured to do. By abstaining from certain activities, I provided a way out for kids. The mother of one of the players who had had his fair share of run-ins with the law jokingly asked if I could hang out with her son more and rub off on him.

Through my experience in homeschool and in public school, I learned that public schools are not a place to avoid at all costs, but are a place that is in need of the light of Christ. In Matthew 4:19 Jesus calls us to become fishers of men. It is our duty as Christians to be His vessels and bear the good news of Jesus Christ where He has called us to be. I would also encourage you to pray for Christian youth in public school who are in your church or whom you know. Pray that God would give them the strength to resist temptation and that they would shine as a light for Christ.

Tim Weir | Ridgefield Park, N.J., RPC