Redemption can be defined as deliverance, rescue, salvation, and atonement from guilt (Dictionary.com). All of these definitions imply moving from one state to another. You can be delivered, rescued, or saved from something bad into something good. You can be atoned from guilt into innocence. Michael Vick is experiencing redemption in front of a national stage this football season. He paid his debt to society in prison and is now having the best football season of his career. It’s a lot of fun to watch him and the Eagles, but in an interview after the game this past Thursday I got to see another side of Vick.
Like many, I was skeptical about Vick coming back to the NFL. It’s tough sometimes to accept that people can change, even though we often expect others to believe that we have changed in some way. The fact is that God can change the heart of anyone. I don’t know what the state of Vick’s heart was when he was fighting dogs, but he seems to be a changed person now. just read part of his interview from Thursday night when he talks about being at peace:
Coming to Philadelphia has changed my entire life. Even last year when I wasn’t on the field, when I wasn’t playing as much as I am now. I found time to do all the small things [like] spend more time with my family, spend more time with my son, study more film, things that I like to do; things that I never had a chance to do or never sought out to do. I found out that if I continue to do things that I’d been doing things won’t go as well, and if I change my life and live it righteously, good things will happen. And I think it’s definitely something that God wanted me to do. He put me in that position and I’m just following His plan.
I love the way he summed it all up. He is where God put him, and he’s following his plan. That’s where his peace is coming from. It’s easier to say that peace comes from God when you are at peace and things seem to be going well. When we go through hard times, we need to remember that The same God that gives us peace when things are great is still there to give us peace in the storm.