Paul Irons

People are praying for us, even people we don’t know yet.  

Former NFL linebacker Paul Irons was heading to college to play football, but little did he know that his future best friend was praying for someone just like him, and ended up steering Paul to a closer relationship with Jesus.  

This relationship with Jesus proved to be the most important thing in Paul’s life, and set him up for peace and joy, even when things didn’t work out quite the way Paul planned. 

Here is Paul’s story of Change.

Paul Irons

Read Paul's Story

I grew up in a house knowing right from wrong, knowing what I should do and doing those things. I began to get around a group of people who weren’t raised the same as I was raised. I went from living a Christian life to saying I was living a Christian life, but not really living it. 

I got recruited to the number one football school in the nation at that time, Florida State University. And when we got to campus people knew who we were before we even got there. My thought process was that this is going to be the time of my life. I’m going to be able to live my life how I want to. And I did that for my freshman summer, you know, partied, messed around with girls, and just did what I wanted to do. 

And there came a moment when I was actually working out in the weight room and a teammate of mine, who I hadn’t yet met, walked up to some guys who were talking about what they had done last night and who they’d done it with. And he said, “Hey, what if your mother heard you saying those things, you know, you can use a better language than that.” And I kept doing what I was doing, working out, but I took a mental note and, some kind of way, we had a conversation about church and he offered to pick me up for church on Sunday. And I said, “Yeah, sure, I’ll go.” 

He was a guy who was not using foul language, he opened the doors for ladies and there was something totally different about his life. And when I saw it, I said, that’s what I’m supposed to be like. That’s what a real Christian looks like as a man, my age, at the age of 17. And that guy became my best friend. His name is Michael Boulware, strong man of God to this day.

I had another teammate in the NFL, so I got to Cleveland, a guy named Jason Wright. He was a Godly man, strong man and we became very good friends. And again, God put that man there for me, to help encourage me, and to help me walk out my faith. I only played for almost two years where I thought I would play for maybe 15, or you know, more. And I thought I would be a Hall of Famer or a pro bowler. Those were all my goals, but God had a different plan for me. 

Does knowing Christ or being in Christ equal success? It does. Does it equal my meaning of success, or what I think should happen? No, it does not, always. But I know that ultimately, if I have Christ, then I have salvation. I have eternal life, so everything else, therefore, is extra. I have peace. I have joy. God gives me those things in the midst of everything I go through. If I turn to him, he provides that for me. 

My name is Paul Irons and He Changed My Life.