Chase Your Dreams
Julie Ertz
In this excerpt from her new book Chase Your Dreams, World Cup champion soccer player Julie Ertz shares how some key friendships in her life pointed her to Jesus and helped her see her true value.
In middle school, I noticed my best friend, Sarah, had a different approach to God and church. Jesus was a real person in her life—someone who loved her and was always there for her—and I saw how that made a difference in how she approached life. Sarah and I and our teammates and hung out at Sarah’s house a lot in middle and high school.
Sarah’s mom, Delayne, was like another mom to all of us, and as we went through the usual struggles and challenges of growing up, Delayne constantly set the example of leaning on her faith and encouraging Sarah to do the same.
Another of my really good friends, Ellen, was in a similar place with her faith—she never claimed to have all the answers, but she knew she was doing life with God alongside her and was always willing to take her questions to Him.
I think what appealed to me most about these friends’ approach to faith was that they never pretended they had everything figured out, and they never acted as if having a relationship with God made them perfect. Rather, they had the hope and assurance that God was a real presence in their lives, someone who was there for them and could be trusted no matter what.
Their relationships with God were authentic and unconditional, even when they made mistakes or bad choices. They showed me that faith is a journey, a process, rather than something you find or achieve all at once. Seeing what my friends’ relationships with Jesus looked like helped me start to understand that faith journey and to take steps toward experiencing a similar relationship myself.
There are moments in life when you might find yourself questioning where your value comes from. You might even feel like your worth is tied to what you do—how good a soccer player you are, how good a student you are, how many friends you have. My parents were wonderful and very supportive whenever I was going through something hard, and my friends and teammates always tried to be encouraging and positive, but at that point in my life, I realized none of the things I used to measure my worth were lasting.
My sophomore year, I had an injury that I thought might put an end to my dreams of playing soccer in college. I didn’t realize until I was facing that possibility just how much I relied on soccer for my sense of worth. Injuries happen, friendships change, grades slip, you grow up and leave your family, and sometimes you lose the soccer game, so if I wanted lasting security—the kind that comes from having someone in your life who never leaves, never changes, and loves you unconditionally—I needed a closer relationship with Jesus.
Sarah and Ellen showed me what it looked like to have a personal relationship with Jesus, to have Him as a constant presence in my life. They helped me learn just how much He loved me—not because I was a really good soccer player or a good person or great student but because I was Julie, His creation and His daughter. It would be several years before I really learned that lesson fully, but lucky for me, Jesus is very patient!