Set for the Season -Gaye Lindfors
Published Sep 17, 2026
Football season has arrived, which means I’m once again entertaining the possibility that this could be my beloved Minnesota Vikings’ year.
I even have the T-shirt: “Optimistic since 1961.”
At this point, optimism may be my spiritual gift.
I. Love. Football.
Even if you’d rather have a root canal than watch grown men shove each other onto green turf, stick with me. This really isn’t about football.
In every single moment of the game, they are moving and blocking and passing and running…intentionally. During every play, each player commits to follow the coach’s plan.
Consider the alternatives:
As the punter kicks the brown pigskin into the air, one of the players decides he needs a little rest and wanders off the field to find a bench and some Gatorade. Maybe stand in front of the fan for a while.
OR…
Two of the big guys want a little more action, so they hop off the bench and into the line-up as the quarterback begins calling his huts. (Vikings fans: Anyone remember the 12-men-on-the-field penalty on January 24, 2010? Have mercy.)
OR…
The center realizes he’s tired of hiking the ball to the quarterback and decides to create some on-field shenanigans with one of the other guys in purple. He starts a game of catch with an offensive guard on the 30-yard line.
That would be ridiculous, right? Of course. (But, it would also be fascinatingly entertaining!)
The alternatives remind me of how I sometimes play my own game. How I live my life.
This morning I read one of David’s commitments on living his life. He wrote it down in Psalm 15:8. “I have set the Lord always before me.”
“Set.” That’s an active verb. He decided/chose to do something. Then he did it. He set.
He very intentionally decided, “Lord, you are always going to be with me.” Every moment. Always.
David decided that he wasn’t going to wander or show up when he wanted to, or live according to God’s plans and promises when he felt like it. No, he decided to thoroughly and completely be with God. Which meant he wanted to live as God lovingly directed. He set the Lord always before him.
Football players play their best when they keep the coach’s plan in front of them. They stay in the game—watching, listening, ready for the next play.
That’s how I want to live.
“I have set the Lord always before me.”
Not just when life is going according to plan. Not just when I know what the next play is. Not just when I feel especially spiritual.
I set Him before me.
I keep coming back to who He is, what He has promised, and the way He is leading me today.
It’s a new season for my much-loved Vikings.
And maybe it’s a good time for a new season for me, too.
I don’t know how either season will turn out. (Although I do have thoughts about the Vikings.)
But I know what I want to keep in front of me.
I will set the Lord always before me.
Come on, Friend.
Set.
