Favre and faith?

OK, I'm showing my age, but I'll nominate the un-retirement of Green Bay Packers quarterback—and future Hall of Famer —Brett Favre as the sports story of the sumer. At least until the Olympics start, and everybody in the world talks about some kid 99.9999% of us haven't even heard of yet.

When I was young, I always gravitated to the bit story about the big, hot star. Like my friend Dustin, who's in his 20s and is all about Josh Hamilton of the Texas Rangers , who just about ruined his life, to say nothing of his career, with drugs and alcohol. Then he came to faith in Jesus and has turned his life around. He's so grounded now that—even though he starred in the Home Run Derby before the All Star Game and is a bona fide superstar—he'll tell you the best thing about his life is his relationship with Christ.

Come to think of it, I'm with Dustin. That's a great story.

Whippersnappers or geezers?

As a kid, I always was like a moth drawn to an eternal flame—the eternal part being youth and the flame being the Dallas Cowboys, my team. So, in that tradition, I'd be following the exploits of Tony Romo and scouting out the prospects of the new crop of rookies.

But now I'm older—not old, but older—and I always want to know what's up with the old guys.

This year, of course, the oldest of the old is Brett Lorenzo Favre . He'll be something like 83 years old when the season starts. (OK, 39, but in "football years," that's 83.) Since last season, when he had a banner year in his 16th autumn as a starter for the Packers, his life has been a soap opera.

Nobody expected a geriatric quarterback to play so well. But play he did, and the Packers had a terrific season. I joined countless others who normall root for other teams in hoping they could win the Super Bowl. (This is a big deal for those of us to remember the "Ice Bowl ," 40 seasons earlier, when Vince Lombardi's dynastic Packers tore out Tom Landry's young Cowboys' hearts and stomped 'em flat on the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field.)

How great would it have been for Favre to lead the Pack to win—and this is not coincidental—the Lombardi Trophy and ride off into the sunset of retirement a World Champion. Just like John Elway .

I'll take the old guys

See, "old" guys like me root for "old" players like Favre, even when they play for a franchise that historically breaks our hearts. (I can't believe I'm saying this, but if Pudge Rodriguez and the Yankees make it to the World Series, and the Yanks are down 4-3 in the bottom of the ninth in the seventh game, with one man on and Pudge is up to bat, I'll root for old-man/former Ranger Pudge.)

Unfortunately, the New York Giants beat the Packers in the NFC championship game, and Favre didn't go to the Super Bowl. But he had a whale of a year, and everyone wondered if he'd be back.

Will he? Won't he?

In March, he said nope. He was quitting. But almost before the equipment manager could clean out his locker, he was saying, "Now, wait a minute." And by summer, he was adding, "On second thought … ." At least he gave the sports radio guys some football to yammer about during the early summer. And then yesterday, he showed up at the Packers' summer camp, itching to play.

Now, if you follow football, you've been in on Favre's will-he/won't-he business. You'd think the Pakers management and coaches would be thrilled to get him back. You'd be wrong. Seems they want to get on with his replacement, whose name keeps slipping my mind. (By the way, for those of you who understand church more than football but have stayed with me thus far, whoever replaces Favre in Green Bay will be like Joel Gregory replacing W.A Criswell at First Baptist Church in Dallas. Tough to follow a legend.)

A better question: Why?

While all this will-he/won't-he business has been going on, I've been intrigued by another question: Why?

Brett Favre may or may not have thought of it this way, but "Why?" is an intensely theological question. And I wonder.

Why, after retiring and "crossing the Rubicon ," as one Packer muckety-muck called it, would Favre want to come back? Why risk injury that could damage his quality of life? More frightful, why risk damaging his reputation, relegated to backup status behind some kid who was in, oh, third grade when Favre threw his first NFL touchdown pass? Even more astonishing, why risk being traded and wearing anything other than a Packers' uniform in his waning days?

Pros and cons

The more I think about him, Favre seems like a metaphor for all the folks who can't quit—at anything—when just about everyone else thinks they should. Here are some theological pros and cons of this can't-leave-well-enough-alone syndrome:

• Pro: Brett has more to offer. He just came off a fantastic year and believes he's "got more in the tank." Playing at least another year is just good stewardship of the gifts God has given him.

• Con: Brett's ego is in the way. He thinks that in the season when he turns 39 he'll still be better than QBs who were in elementary school when he came into the league.

• Pro: Playing quarterback is his calling. God made him to do this, and he should do it as long as he has the ability (or believes he has the ability).

• Con: He's in denial. He's creaky, slower and vulnerable, but he can't see it because he won't see it. An older quarterback's greatest strength is his experience and wisdom, but when it comes to his own ability, he whistles past the mirror.

• Pro: He loves Green Bay, loves football, loves the camaraderie of a season. It's part of his identity, part of who he is, and he's just fulfilling that niche in his life one more year.

• Con: For all his success, fame and wealth, he's not a fully self-actualized individual. His identity is so tied up in wearing a football uniform on fall Sunday afternoons that he can't identify the human being underneath the helmet.

• Pro: He's unselfish. He's willing to risk all kinds of bad things to help his teammates.

• Con: He's selfish. He's willing to risk jeopardizing the franchise in order to fulfill his own personal desire to hang on to this life he's known since he was a kid.

Actually, the truth probably hides among all those pros and cons. Life is complicated that way.

From Favre to us

And so it is with all of us. But I can't help but think the restlessness we find in our lives has to do with more than the "stuff" of our lives. We're forever restless until we become the person God intended us to be.

Part of that is calling or vocation. We're most productive, happy, fulfilled and useful when we tap into the gifts and abilities God has given us and put them to good purpose. For almost two full decades, Brett Favre has done that on Sunday afternoons.

But most of it is relationship. We can't be what God intended us to be until we're who God made us to be—creatures made in God's image and in love with God, expressed in our relationship with Jesus Christ.

The good news for all of us is that we don't have to retire from being a Christ follower.