The Contract He Never Signed

In the spring of 2002, Pat Tillman walked away from professional football. The Arizona Cardinals safety had just been offered a three-year, $3.6 million contract — a dream payday for a young athlete who had fought his way from a late-round draft pick to a starting role in the NFL. But after September 11, Tillman quietly turned it down. He enlisted in the United States Army alongside his brother Kevin, trading a stadium roar for the silence of a barracks bunk.

Tillman didn't hold a press conference. He didn't seek sponsorship deals wrapped in patriotism. He simply believed that some things mattered more than personal comfort, more than fame, more than financial security. On April 22, 2004, Corporal Pat Tillman was killed in Afghanistan. He was twenty-seven years old.

Scripture tells us that the Son of God made a similar — and infinitely greater — exchange. Philippians 2 says that Christ Jesus, "being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage." He set aside glory. He walked away from the throne room of heaven. Not for a three-year enlistment, but for a wooden cross.

Most of us will never be asked to make the sacrifice Tillman made. But every follower of Christ is invited to ask the same question he asked himself: What am I holding onto that God is asking me to lay down?