Letting go of football

Hampden,12th May 1990.  Aberdeen and Celtic contest the Scottish Cup Final. After full and extra the teams are still drawing. On to a sudden-death play-off.  Four times players from either side score successfully, and then for Celtic Anton Rogan misses. The final Aberdeen player steps forward to the penalty spot, shoots, and scores. And so Aberdeen wins the Cup for the seventh time.

Brian Irvine who scored the winning goal relived that moment of glory last Thursday evening at the Craigmonie Hotel in Inverness when he spoke to the ’41 club’, a group of former Round Table members. He gave one more significant detail. As he prepared to take that penalty, he prayed. ‘I didn’t pray that God would help me score. I simply asked God to be with me and give me peace and calm.’

Brian made a number of references in his talk to his Christian faith. He described coming to faith as a teenager as ‘the best thing that ever happened to me.’ You got the impression as this very likable and self-aware man told his story with gentleness and a quiet humour that faith is central to who he is, affecting all his thinking and living.

He described the high and low points in his life. The ‘highs’ included that famous goal in 1990 and the ‘unbelievable thrill’ of playing for Scotland (he was capped 9 times). 

And the ‘lows’? There was a shattering diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis in 1995, which produced the cruel press headline ‘Who’d want to sign a player with MS?’ (in fact he played more professional games after the diagnosis than before).

There was challenge of leaving professional football, where everything was taken care of for you, and having to learn to take responsibility for your own life, to ‘stand on your own two feet.’  And there is the place he has now reached, where he is unsure of the future. ‘It is not a good story for me just now,’ he admits candidly.

Yet no matter what his circumstances, Brian tells us he practises ‘thankfulness.’ Each day he lists five things for which he can be thankful – big things, such as his health, or simple things like sunset and beauty and friendship. And you know as you listen that this man’s thankfulness is directed to God.

The 41 club heard two other specific references to Brian’s faith. One was in connection with the diagnosis of MS at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary in Aberdeen. ‘At times like that you realise just how fragile you are,’ he told us. ‘In that situation my Christian faith was a big help. Prayer made a difference.’

And the second reference came as he described the events of last year, when he spent several months in South Korea working with Seoul E-land, a corporately-sponsored team seeking to win entry to the South Korean equivalent of the Premier League. His travelling expenses and accommodation were taken care of, and there was a modest gratuity, but no salary.

Brian went to South Korea at the invitation of E-Land’s manager, Martin Rennie who had previously employed him when he managed sides in the USA. It made no sense for Brian to leave his work in Inverness with the charity Action for Children. Perhaps in part he was prompted by a desire to keep his football dream alive, but he also had a strong impression ‘that this was something God wanted me to do.’

It was, he tells us ‘A good experience, but not a good career move.’ As well as working with the team, Brian coached disadvantaged children in Seoul, took part in Bible studies with team members and spoke (with the help of a translator) at the team chaplain’s church. Throughout that time, far away from wife Donna and family, he was sustained by a sense of God’s presence, and by the knowledge that friends in Hilton Church were supporting him and praying for him.

Since leaving the professional game in 2003 (latterly he played for Ross County), football has had a key part in  his life, but recently he has realised (and the months in Korea helped him focus on this) that the time has come for him to ‘let go of football.’

It’s possible to tell old stories of the glory days over and over while not moving on. These days, Brian tells the stories, but he does not cling to them. Instead he in looking forward to discover what the next chapter holds.

When discussing his MS diagnosis Brian mentioned a thought from the Bible which encouraged him.  But its wisdom is perennially relevant as he looks ahead to life after football: it’s not that all circumstances are inherently good but that ‘In all things God works for good.’

(Christian Viewpoint column from the Highland News dated 4th February 2016)

In the river; on the ball

Now I follow the results of another team besides Inverness Caley Thistle. Seoul E-land, based in the South Korean capital is near the top of the K League (2^nd division) and hopes to win promotion by the end of the season in November.

My friend Brian Irvine, the former Aberdeen and Scotland football star has given up his Inverness-based job, and gone to Seoul to work with E-land until the end of the season.  He’s supporting the coach, fellow-Scot Martin Rennie, and acting as informal chaplain to a squad which includes several Christians.

Brian is not receiving a salary for this work, though his expenses are met, and there is no guarantee of a job next season. But after two shorter visits to Seoul earlier in the year, he became convinced that God was calling him to work with the team there and, as he puts it, ‘when God calls I must obey.’

‘How can you be sure?’ we might react. ‘Is this some kind of mid-life crisis?’ To which Brian points to his growing sense of the ‘rightness’ of going to South Korea. He speaks of ‘green lights lining up’ as circumstances beckoned him forwards. And this was confirmed on his arrival:  the club director told him he’d been invited back because of the ‘strong sense of the Lord’s presence’ when he was last with the team back in May.

What was a challenge to Brian was also a challenge to his family, who have let him go with their blessing to the other side of the world.

But can we be sure that an idea has come from God? For me, some possibilities present themselves with a heady clamour and excitement, but ultimately seem hollow and unrooted. Others open up gently, but with a sense of inevitability, accompanied by energy and life. These are the possibilities I suspect are God-given.

Brian is part of Hilton Church in Inverness, and he’s been keeping us up to date with his schedule on the church blog. He’s talked about coaching and scouting; time spent chilling with the team talking about football, and life and God; visits to crowded Korean churches.

Seoul E-land reserve team match

He has shared some of the lessons he’s learned. He’s come to recognise that ‘each day brings new challenge in the Lord.’ I like it! How do I view a new day? As a wearisome repeat of yesterday? Or as a God-given gift, 24 hours of possibility. Each day invites us to embrace it with joy, to live it with courage, giving and receiving love. Again, it’s about living out of the river of life within us, rather than the stagnant waters of routine.

Secondly, Brian has spoken of his need, away beyond his comfort-zone of being sustained by God, and this inspires those of us who feel it so hard to embrace each day with joy. Brian quotes St Paul – ‘I can do all things through him who strengthens me.’ It’s alright to feel vulnerable and fragile, even in the macho world of soccer, for in acknowledging our sense of vulnerability we are opening our hearts to the God who comes to us in that life-giving river.

Brian’s also been encouraged by another visitor working with Seoul E-land – Dr Aaron Treadway who heads up Ambassadors Football, a US-based organisation which aims ‘to communicate the good news of Jesus to all people through football.’

I used to be suspicious of what was known as ‘sports evangelism.’ (Evangelism simply means sharing the good news of a God who loves us boundlessly.) I was suspicious because I’d got the impression that people regarded evangelism as a project, and saw football (or any other shared interest) as a pretext to draw near to people and so convert them.

I was wrong. The truth, in most cases, is thankfully different. We are all passionate about the things we’ve been given to do – in Brian’s case, football; in mine writing – which flow from that river within. God is in the writing! God is in the football. God shares our passions.

Others who share your passion should see an attractiveness in your life as a Christian, and when you talk about the deep things within you, your focus will be on God. And so they will come to realise that the river of life within them too has God as its source, and is wider and deeper than they had ever imagined.

It must be a temptation for a former international player like Brian to feel that the glory days have departed. As Christians, we believe that the glory days lie ahead, when God makes all things new.  But not just that: for these are the glory days, days when, secure in God’s love we entrust ourselves to the living waters.

(Christian Viewpoint column from the Highland News dated 24th September 2015)