My question to Kurt Warner . . . and his (somewhat stunning) answer.
Today, at the Marketplace One Leadership Institute, our class had the interesting opportunity to do about 40 minutes of Q&A with Kurt Warner, quarterback for the Arizona Cardinals.
The story of Kurt's life is fascinating (get the real scoop here). His career highlights are well-known. His foundation, First Things First, does lots of good.
Oh, and today was his birthday (he turned 38).
Kurt seems like the real-deal. Gracious, humble, articulate--a super nice guy. I enjoyed the privilege of hearing him answer questions. The questions ranged from the generic, "How do you define Leadership?", to the specific, "As a believer, how do you deal with salary negotiation?"
Then, it was my turn to ask him a question:
"Kurt, as a professional football player, what aspect of your vocational calling gives you the most joy in life? What is it about the 'job of football' that you love the most?"
His answered came instantly and unequivocally:
"Without question, the greatest joy about my calling as a professional football player is seeing the barriers it breaks-down in giving me the opportunity to talk about Jesus."
He elaborated on this by noting how all the privilege and all the status and all the fame simply serves to give him access to people and places to talk about the Lord that he otherwise would not have had. In essence he made it clear that, to him, the job is an amazing platform from which he gets to steward his main joy in life--telling people about Jesus.
How very encouraging and refreshing to hear that that is what Kurt Warner likes best about being a professional football player.
