Ernie Conwell: Finally Enough

After being drafted in 1996, Ernie was a solid starter who had a career with great promise. But in the 8th game of the 98 season, that promise all but evaporated. Ernie severely damaged his left knee. After major reconstructive surgery, it was anybody's guess if he would ever return to football.

"But we knew that God was faithful and we were never going to doubt him," said Ernie.

Among Ernie's support group during the one-year layoff was the sports ministry Champions for Christ.

"Immediately they come to you," said Ernie. "They pray for you, lay hands on you. I even had a prophetic word spoken over my wife, and I and could stand on that, knowing we're going to be strong in the Lord and God's got great things for our life. I've got a future and a hope."

Hope began for Ernie Conwell the day he was born 30 years ago in Washington State. He grew up in a very large family that was also a solid Christian home. As a teenager, well , how many have heard this one or even said something like it?

"I decided that I was young and I wanted to experience life and that when I was a grown up or I was older, that's when I would settle down and truly be a Christian. I would live for God," said Ernie.

Well, that thinking caught up to him midway in his senior year of high schooland the breakup with a girlfriend was the wake up call.

"I had a full-ride scholarship to college," said Ernie, "doing well in school, in sports, popular, but on the inside I was breaking apart. And I couldn't get away from the Holy Spirit. God's presence was around me all the time. I just really came to the point where I said God I need to completely surrender my life to you. I've been calling myself a Christian, but I've been running the show and so I decided I was going to be real with my Christianity."

Ernie went to see a couple in the church for help.

"They helped restore the relationship that I had with my girlfriend who became my wife," said Ernie. "They did our marriage counseling and discipled us all the way through the five years I had in college and ever since that time when I truly committed my life to Christ. I gave Him every area, I gave Him everything I listened to, the things I watch. I just said, God, you're in total control of my life Lord. Wherever you want to take me I'll go there. And since then I have had more peace and more success, more blessings in my life than I could ever imagine.

Ernie's knee is almost as good as new, and he made it back to the Super Bowl again last year. In the frenzy of media day he wasn't just talking football. Ernie told us the most important thing he's learned.

"It doesn't matter what you accomplish in your life," he said. "If you're waiting for that next pay raise, for the bigger house, for a different wife, for more recognition, your flesh is never satisfied. You can't sleep with enough women, you can't take enough drugs, you can't get enough fame and fortune, you can't win enough Super Bowls to satisfy the longing that's inside of your spirit. The only one that can fill that is Jesus Christ. So if you're searching out there and you're hungry for something, I'm here to tell you that the truth and that the answer, that fulfillment in your life is only going to come through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and if you accept him today, your life will never be the same."