DAY 1

The Outer Limits

Read Genesis 18:1-15.

"Is anything too wonderful for the LORD?" (v. 14).

A death set in motion the chain of events that made a young man bound for Yale the father of Alabama football.

According to Clyde Bolton inThe Crimson Tide, in the late 1880s W. G. Little was prepping at Phillips-Exeter Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, on hisway to Yale. But when his oldest brother, James, died, Little returned home to Livingston, Alabama, to be with his mother. He then enrolled at the local university, from which James had graduated. While he was at Phillips-Exeter, Little had been introduced to a new game called football. When he came to Alabama, Bolton said, Little "brought his canvas football suit, his cleated shoes, and his pigskin ball with him." This unusual baggage drew a lot of interest from his classmates, who responded with great enthusiasm when Little suggested they form a team.

A roster was assembled, the University Athletic Association was born, and a coach, Eugene Beaumont, was hired. Not surprisingly, Little was named the first football captain. On November 11, 1892, the University of Alabama played its first-ever football game. Their opponent was a team from Birmingham High School.Fittingly, considering Alabama's great history, the game was a rout. Alabama won56-0.

The game W. G. Little had encountered in the Northeast had come south.

You've probably never tried a whole bunch of things you've dreamed about doing at one time or another. Like starting your own business. Going back to school. Running for elected office. Running a marathon. What holds you back? Perhaps yousee only your limitations, both those you've imposed on yourself and those others have convinced you exist. But at the University of Alabama one student started the football program.

God sees your possibilities, not your limitations. Free yourself from that whichties your hands and blights your dreams by depending not on yourself but on God.

First, I prepare. Then I have faith.

-- Joe Namath

God has a vision for your life beyond your imagining, but you have to depend on him, not on yourself.God Bless the Crimson Tide © 2007 Ed McMinn

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Excerpted from God Bless the Crimson Tide: Devotions for the Die-Hard Alabama Fan by Edward McMinn
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.