Have you ever been in a place where you feel comfortable and everything around you is familiar, but it doesn’t feel like the right place?
It’s not the most pleasant situation and usually leaves us with more questions than answers, wondering what the next path to take may be.
Brevinn Tyler, a sophomore at Colorado Mesa University, found himself in such a predicament during the 2018 CMU football season.
“Football takes up a lot of time,” Tyler said. “I feel like I’m doing the most of my time when I’m doing ministry work so being a starter was going to take up even more time. So I think that gave me time to really decide ‘is this really what I want my life to look like?”
“And for some people that is. They really want that for their life. I just want what I perceive to be more than that… football in my past has helped me get to where I am today, and I think it’s amazing and I love every second of it. I think now it’s time for me to use what I’ve gained for a bigger purpose than just being the starter of a football team.”
Tyler is referring to the starting quarterback position in the fall of 2019. He was in line to compete with a few other Mesa recruits to become Eystin Salum’s successor, who was one of CMU’s most athletic student-athletes in recent memory.
But Tyler also mentioned something he’s dreaming of accomplishing and something he learned he wanted to become just a little over a year ago: A pastor.
“It was one of those Young Life talks that I gave,” Tyler said when asked what led him to pursue pastoral work. “It was my very first one, and I have never known what I wanted to do with my life. I knew that I enjoyed doing football and helping people, but I couldn’t decide what I wanted to do. After I gave this talk, I was like, ‘man, this is what I’m supposed to do.’ So I decided that ministry needed to be my life goal.”
It started when Tyler began public speaking at a young age. The comfortability talking in front of crowds and performing on the football field in front of filled seats in the stands was the perfect blend to begin a new journey.
“I’ve actually had it in my past where I perform very well in front of crowds,” Tyler said. “The first speech I ever gave to people I didn’t know was in the fifth grade. I entered into this Oratorical.”
“So I wrote up a speech about cyberbullying, and it was like a four or five-minute speech, and in fifth grade, I did that and won two-hundred dollars. I think that was the very first time I didn’t really mind talking in front of crowds. Group projects have never phased me, performing in front of people on the football field. I enjoy it, the bigger the crowd is. So I learned very quickly that public speaking was my thing, and then when I got to mesh my passion of Jesus and God into that, it was perfect.”
Tyler currently works with his Young Life group and helps at the local church. He began the path that he felt he was destined for so long ago, and thankfully, has received support from his parents, teammates, and coaching staff, making the whole process easier for the 20-year-old.
“To walk into coach’s office, coming back from winter break to tell him that I was going to quit, was one of the hardest things I ever had to do,” Tyler said. “[Coach Martin] made the transition way better than it could have ever been. He made an investment in a kid from Missouri to come play for him, and I played like a total of 20, 25 snaps, most of them on special teams. He’s made this transition so much easier, and I’m so thankful that he did that.”
Tyler’s relationship with God has grown into something more as time has passed. The more he’s learned about him, the stronger his faith has become.
In second or third grade, when tasked with reading projects where his teacher assigned 20 minutes of reading, Tyler didn’t just choose to read whatever was on the shelf. He decided to recite Psalms, asking his mother to let him read the Bible.
“It wasn’t until my junior year of high school when I was like, OK, Jesus is my thing now. And I really took on my faith to be my own because my family really isn’t religious. We went to church now and then, but Young Life really introduced me to who Jesus is.
I went to a Young Life camp in Georgia, and it gave me the time and the space to sit down and decide, OK, what does Jesus look like, what does he act like, if he was here what would he tell me? It gave me time to think and form my own ideas rather than having your ideas pushed on you by some religious corporation. It made it easier for me to accept that Jesus loves me for me and not for what I do.”
Being a pastor means having a passion for inspiring others and having that positive spirit of helping people in need. It involves a blend of traits that we should all have, but for Tyler, the shoes should fit.
“I enjoy helping people grow. I think that’s part of my natural leader instinct. Football helped me see that and develop that. People always said I would be a really good football coach and I was like, yeah, coaching is cool, but I didn’t know I was going to be a life coach instead.
I like investing in people and seeing them grow. Seeing people grow in their faith and just hearing about their hallelujah moments, I enjoy that.”
Football has played a pivotal part in Tyler’s life. He’s played the game since he was five and has enjoyed countless moments as a four-year starter in high school and relished an opportunity to play with a strong Division II club.
He says he’s 95% sure he is done with the game, but that won’t make it any easier to step away from the gridiron.
“I think it will be,” Tyler said when asked if it will be difficult to step away. “I think it will be harder when games start and I have to sit in the stands and watch my friends play. I enjoyed playing football, being around the guys and being a part of a community of people where it literally doesn’t matter what you look like or how big you are or what your ideas are. It’s just, can you help us win and are you willing to do that? It’s very unique to sports, and I will definitely miss that.”
Tyler plans to take online classes for the Grace College of Divinity that focuses on ministry work while staying in the Grand Junction Area. For now, he’ll have more free time to contribute with his Young Life group and at his local church.
Tyler’s excitement is through the roof, and his long-term plan is full of ideas, including opening up a church of his own.
Life can be full of surprises, but when someone takes command of their passion and ideas, great things can happen.
