A Life-Long Servant
A Life-Long Servant
ABOUT Maurie Daigneau
Maurie’s original exposure to God was largely a result of his mom’s wonderful voice. She was the lead soloist in the church choir and every Sunday morning Maurie and his sister would find themselves in a pew with instructions to behave or else. They very much enjoyed those Sunday mornings listening to their mom sing. In addition, from his earliest memory, Maurie was always under the impression that this was the place where people met with God. As a result, he can’t remember a time during the days of his youth when he considered anything contrary to the existence of God. “How else could this incredible world have gotten here?” he thought. There didn’t seem to be any reason to doubt.
Maurie was eventually baptized at the age of twelve and summarily congratulated for becoming a Christian. The task going forward, or so he was told, was to try, in each and every day, to be a good a person. How good? At least as good as the next person. Thus, for him, by definition, being a Christian meant just that: be a good person.
Maurie would like to think that being good was always his top priority. But from his earliest days, the great desire of his life was to become a good athlete. His parents were divorced when he was two and his dad took off, leaving his mom to raise him and his sister by herself. She was a great encourager of his athletic talents from the moment he began to display them. Football, basketball, and baseball became his passions, and she was always his biggest fan.
By the time he reached high school he was good enough to become all-conference in all three sports and eventually received a full scholarship to play football as a quarterback at Northwestern University (NU). As a graduating high school senior, he literally felt like he had the world by the tail. Good person, you kidding? Great athlete! How else could he have gotten where he was.
ABOUT Maurie Daigneau
Maurie’s original exposure to God was largely a result of his mom’s wonderful voice. She was the lead soloist in the church choir and every Sunday morning Maurie and his sister would find themselves in a pew with instructions to behave or else. They very much enjoyed those Sunday mornings listening to their mom sing. In addition, from his earliest memory, Maurie was always under the impression that this was the place where people met with God. As a result, he can’t remember a time during the days of his youth when he considered anything contrary to the existence of God. “How else could this incredible world have gotten here?” he thought. There didn’t seem to be any reason to doubt.
Maurie was eventually baptized at the age of twelve and summarily congratulated for becoming a Christian. The task going forward, or so he was told, was to try, in each and every day, to be a good a person. How good? At least as good as the next person. Thus, for him, by definition, being a Christian meant just that: be a good person.
Maurie would like to think that being good was always his top priority. But from his earliest days, the great desire of his life was to become a good athlete. His parents were divorced when he was two and his dad took off, leaving his mom to raise him and his sister by herself. She was a great encourager of his athletic talents from the moment he began to display them. Football, basketball, and baseball became his passions, and she was always his biggest fan.
By the time he reached high school he was good enough to become all-conference in all three sports and eventually received a full scholarship to play football as a quarterback at Northwestern University (NU). As a graduating high school senior, he literally felt like he had the world by the tail. Good person, you kidding? Great athlete! How else could he have gotten where he was.
“It was 1971, and a most memorable Fall Saturday afternoon at Northwestern University’s Ryan Field. I was watching my friend and quarterback Maurie Daigneau repeatedly pinpointing his receivers, completing pass after pass. Precise was the only word that could describe Maurie’s performance that afternoon, beating our Minnesota Gophers by a wide margin. Now, nearly 50-years later, Maurie has once again applied his precision skills to gain a more accurate understanding of the “Good News” to help all of us live by faith and understand how we can accede to “take on” the mind of Christ.”
—Doug Kingsriter, former NFL player and also a publisher and author of books and musicals for children
He’s Going Camping
Fast forward a bit. The summer of 1971 was approaching. Maurie had just finished his junior year at NU. That fall (1970) had been his first full season as the starting QB and they’d gone 6-1 in conference play, finishing in 2nd place in the Big Ten. The team had just finished their spring practice season and Maurie was cleaning out his locker, thinking about heading home for the summer. An assistant coach got his attention and motioned for him to come to his office. In a matter of minutes Maurie was talking on the phone with some guy from some organization called the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA). He hung up the phone and looked at Coach Lile. He was sitting across from Maurie with a big grin on his face. “Have a great time,” he said.
Three weeks later Maurie was getting out of a car in the middle of the mountains in Estes Park, Colorado. He’d arrived at a place called the YMCA of the Rockies. He was going to be spending a week at his first-ever FCA camp. He was nervous to say the least but comforted by the fact that there were other college athletes in attendance, as well as a handful of NFL players. The NFL players were going to be the speakers for the week and the college guys were going to be individually responsible for leading small groups of high school athletes. It was going to be a week of what they called “perspiration and inspiration.”
As far as Maurie was concerned, the perspiration part, no problem. The inspiration, that was another story. He’d rather have been standing across from an Ohio State linebacker than sitting in a circle (actually called a huddle) with a bunch of high school athletes trying to teach them about what it meant to be a Christian.
But then something very real started to happen. In that very first day, he began sensing something, mostly in and through the presence of others. He heard words from guys like Willie Lanier, Jerry Mays, and Jerry Stovall, all NFL players; and also from Doug Kingsriter, a great tight end from the University of Minnesota. They were words that suggested that perhaps his definition of what it meant to be a Christian was a little lacking, a little shallow. There was a consistency in what they said. It was about a relationship. A relationship that for them was not only real, it was the most important relationship they had in their lives. He knew it was a relationship that he did not have.
The ensuing time was full of discussions and continuing personal interactions. But on the early morning of the third day, he found himself in a circle with about six or seven other guys. They were kneeling and holding hands. The tight end from Minnesota was in the circle. It had become obvious to Maurie that he had the relationship he was looking for, the presence that he had sensed almost from the moment of his arrival at the camp. He prayed from the depths of his heart for that presence to become his.
An Unshakeable Relationship
It has been 48 years since that moment in Colorado, that moment when Maurie’s faith-life journey really began. A lot has happened in the days and years that have followed: joys and sorrows; victories and defeats; right and wrong choices; trials and tribulations; certainties and doubts. But there is one thing that Maurie says he has never been able to shake, though the Lord knows there were times when he tried: “No matter how difficult the circumstances of my life, no matter what anybody said about my faith, about the book that I followed, about the Savior that I believed in, no matter what evidence they presented to deny the truth of what I believed, what could not be done, what could not be denied, what could not be taken from me, was the reality of the presence of the One who had entered my life in that moment in the mountains of Colorado.”
That is the unshakable reality that has led to the creation of this website and the writing of his book. Maurie declares that if he has learned anything over the course of the years of his relationship with the Lord, it is the measure of the incredible patience that Jesus has for any and all who are sincerely seeking to know Him and His truth. Through the many times Maurie was stumbling around, looking in all the wrong places, the Lord patiently waited for him to finally discover the only place that he and the Lord could ever truly meet. “If you abide in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:31b–32).
Maurie and his wife, Susie, have been married for over 47 years. They were blessed with five children, four of whom are married. They have the joy of thirteen grandchildren, so far. Maurie was a business owner/entrepreneur for almost 30 years, starting and eventually selling two different businesses. He has a degree from Northwestern and a master’s in Theological Studies, has spent years on church boards, and has been teaching the information on this website and in his book for decades. But he believes the one thing that qualifies him most to be credibly sharing his understanding of the gospel is his relationship with the Lord.
Susie says Maurie has always been passionate about things being “right.” “He’s a ‘fixer,’ a ‘straightener,’ a ‘truth teller,’” she states. So, throughout his life, when he wasn’t able to find answers in the church, he’d go to the source—the Bible. And, he also learned that even when the church did provide answers, it was always wise to validate them in the Bible. “From the very early stages of our now over forty-eight-year relationship, the Lord kept affirming to me the benefit of being in His word,” says Maurie. “It took me awhile to fully understand His meaning, but He never stopped representing it as an activity that evidences true discipleship and one that promises the discovery of truth.”
Maurie sincerely believes his writing reveals the essence of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. “It is the only truth that makes possible a manner of living that can be a constant reflection of the life we have been empowered to emulate,” he explains. And, as a response, it is his hope that you will give serious consideration to making its message your own.
“Maurie has been a dear friend who lives his faith in all aspects of his life. He doesn’t just knock on the door, he blows the door through and off its hinges. He doesn’t just seek, he pursues, he hunts and tramples anything in the way. All while maintaining a servant’s attitude. He is stubborn beyond measure as he dissects the TRUTH as revealed through God’s word. He’s my brother in Christ and I love him.”
—David Keddie, AGT, HealthMarkets Insurance
Speaking Opportunities
Maurie is currently available for speaking engagements (keynotes, seminars, workshops, panels) as well as media engagements. Please contact for inquiries and further information.
Opening image credit
Fellowship of Christian Athletes | #18 Influence
